WARWICK, RI — The RI Department of Transportation’s State Traffic Commission has approved the traffic light at 2574 West Shore Road, the site of a new Dave’s Marketplace, conditional on the property’s back access to Spring Grove Avenue not being used.
“The State Traffic Commission approved the new signal yesterday,” said Charles St. Martin, spokesman for the RIDOT.
Also, St. Martin said, the new signal, which would be located approximately across from nearby Rite Aid, will be synchronized with the light at Sandy Lane to keep traffic moving on West Shore Road.
The Spring Grove access for Dave’s was approved by the Warwick City Council over the protests of Spring Grove Avenue residents in November. That access was in turn approved on the condition that RIDOT failed to approve the light.
At the time, City Council President Steve Merolla said the assurances of Kelly Coates, president of the Carpionato Group, which owns the property, that the light was all but assured, and the access therefore unlikely, guided his vote allowing the zoning change contingent on the state’s refusal to allow the traffic light.
“I believe that that’s what’s going to happen and I have yet to be proven wrong when it comes to their representations to the council,” Merolla said at the Council’s November meeting.
Author: Rob Borkowski
Rob has worked as reporter and editor for several publications, including The Kent County Daily Times and Coventry Courier, before working for Gatehouse in MA then moving home with Patch Media. Now he's publisher and editor of WarwickPost.com. Contact him at [email protected] with tips, press releases, advertising inquiries, and concerns.
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