Infrastructure & Transportation

Our infrastructure is the foundation of our city and is comprised of our roads and sidewalks, our water systems (water supply, storm water, and wastewater systems), our utilities, telecommunications, and our buildings. To say it’s vital to our quality of life is an understatement.

Not only does a healthy infrastructure contribute to the health and well-being of our city overall but it also supports economic growth and provides the safe and reliable movement of products, services, and the workforce. So, having a healthy city infrastructure will contribute to having a thriving economy.

As we have recently seen, there are millions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure issues that the city is now dealing with. That’s primarily due to decades of poor-planning and turning a blind eye to the problems, impacts of climate change, impacts of a thriving and growing travel and tourism industry that brings in roughly 4 million visitors to Newport a year, and the lack of leadership that has foresight and long-term strategic planning.

Take a look at Easton’s Beach, the Cliff Walk, Elm Street Pier, the flooding that happens throughout the city when we’re hit with just a normal rain storm, the sidewalks and roadways that constantly need to be fixed, water pressure issues….just to name a few of the issues that Newport is facing.

These issues contribute to the congestion of traffic and unsafe roads, especially for cyclists and pedestrians.

Investment in roads, sidewalks, gas, and water infrastructure will be vital in assisting in the preparedness that is needed to counteract the threat that sea level rises, and storm surges pose to Newport.

But why are we recreating the wheel when there are other cities out there that have experienced or are experiencing the same issues?

Perhaps taking a look at the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Disaster Preparedness Study or the Nassau County Infrastructure Investment plan would be beneficial in providing our city with ideas on how we can better our infrastructure issues and seek funding to provide further analysis and resolutions to those issues.

And a city that has a healthy infrastructure, also has healthy modes of transportation.

As Newport continues to thrive as a travel and tourist destination, and as the climate change crisis continues to grow, now more than ever biking and walking are paramount for our community.

So how can we achieve this in a safe way?

Not only is it important to provide the community with information on how to safely bike, drive, and walk around Newport but it is also important to provide them with information on how to be cognizant of each other and methods that will assist individuals to work towards keeping each other safe. 

We seem to have enough traffic and parking enforcement but could use more enforcement that is focused on unsafe bicycling (especially electric bikes) and unsafe skateboarding.

The Pell Bridge redevelopment was designed to increase connectivity to Downtown Newport and free up land for new development. Even though there are many outlets for parking in Newport, they are primarily located in the central part of the city where the most congestion appears to happen. Perhaps entertaining the idea of satellite parking in the freed-up land from the redevelopment, which can be utilized for day visitors and the tourist population.

The city could also take a look at including bike-share options and trolleys at a satellite parking facility that can transport visitors to downtown and could work towards making Newport less car-centric. This could assist in removing cars from the busiest parts of the city and creating more pedestrian and bicycle only zones.

It is wonderful that a cycling network is in the works to connect areas of Aquidneck Island, but it could also be designed to be more specific for the Newport streets. Utilizing a model or hybrid of various models, which have been successful in other cities, could help to facilitate Newport’s cycling network options.

In 2018, New Orleans developed the Connect the Crescent initiative, which was a 3-month transportation network demonstration project. The benefits that the city experienced were cycling increased 20-84% over the 3 months of the project, illegal sidewalk/wrong-way riding decreased, there was a reduction in illegal lane usage, and fewer crashes.

And we need to look at the untapped resources that are grossly ignored and that’s our residents, Salve University, CCRI, and the Naval War College. There is a wealth of knowledge and expertise right in our city that isn’t utilized…individuals with various expertise, professional qualifications and skills, and education that can help the city come up with ideas on how to tackle our infrastructure and transportation issues.

We need to do better at engaging our community.

The answers to most of the city’s problems are right here!!