RIDOT wins award for logo, lowers weight limit on SRB
In yet another self-congratulatory press release, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) late last week announced that they had won a "Bell Ringer" award for their spiffy Iway logo from The Publicity Club of New England in, "the region's premier public relations and communications event."
I might be more inclined to believe in the premiere-ness of this event if this elite group of public relations and communications professionals knew the difference between "it's" and "its." Click the PDF above for a bigger image. If it's just a typo, why is it wrong twice? (Both the second graf and the fourth bullet.)
And then, yesterday, came the news that the weight limit on the Sakonnet River Bridge has been reduced from 22 to 18 tons because of "additional deterioration."
"This award is another great feather in the Department's cap," RIDOT Director Michael P. Lewis said. "It affirms the hard work the men and women of RIDOT commit each day toward completing this important highway improvement project." Obviously, Lewis was speaking about the Bell Ringer.
My prediction: by the time the new Sakonnet Bridge is built, RIDOT will have won a Nobel, an Emmy, and a Caldecott, and the weight limit on the current span will be five pounds.
Comments
Richard_Langseth
Fri, 07/25/2008 - 2:05pm
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Send Comments to Federal Highway Administration
The Rhode Island Statewide Planning Programming has opened up the Transportation Plan process to public comments until August 13th. This is where you can discuss why the governor should not divert any more highway and bridge funds to fill a $43 million gap in the funding of the Green State Airport Rental Car facility called the "Warwick Intermodal". Although it is said that the 2009 bond underwriting to replace the Sakonnet River Bridge is "in place", it would be prudent for residents to send letters to the Statewide Planning Program protesting the governor's intentions to divert any critical major project funds to this train station without trains that RIDOT and RIAC are building. The web site is http://www.planning.ri.gov/transportation/default.htm Navigate your way to TIP Narrative Section. See that the Sakonnet River Bridge is a critical project but the Intermodal is not on the critical list. Further down in the document you will see that the Intermodal is listed as a $265 million project. But $43 million is missing because the current financing is $222 million. The governor has told the press that he will take the $43 million from somewhere, and that somewhere could include the Sakonnet River Bridge. Your comments will be sent on to the Federal Highway Administration by the Statewide Planning agency.