Stumpgate Update: Trees to be Replaced Near Roger Williams Park, RIDOT Says
May 30, 2025
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PROVIDENCE — The contractors who mistakenly took down trees near Roger Williams Park will plant new ones, according to the Rhode Island Department of Transportation.
“Some of the new landscaping will be planted in 2025, and the final landscaping will be installed upon completion of the bridge in 2027,” RIDOT spokesperson Charles St. Martin wrote.
Contractors hired by RIDOT had initially cleared the trees in an area near routes 1 and 10 while working on the Huntington Viaduct that runs over Elmwood Avenue and Interstate 95.
After several residents posted online about the clearing, concerned that so many trees had been chopped down, RIDOT said the clearing was purposeful. But a few weeks later the agency backtracked, saying the contractors had taken more trees than they had permission to cut down.
Residents who spoke to ecoRI News in March after the clearing took place said the number of trees cut down felt unnecessary, especially because the area is so close to Roger Williams Park, which is home to an abundance of wildlife.
“Overall, the project will reduce the total bridge deck area for the bridges by approximately 40 percent and eliminate large areas of impermeable surface,” St. Martin wrote, “which is good for the environment and will create more greenspace than exists now.”
The project will add pedestrian and bikeways and remove some of the existing pavement on Route 10, he added.
The Huntington Viaduct improvements are a part of a larger project called I-95 15, which plans to fix or remove 15 Rhode Island bridges in poor, nearing poor, or fair condition over the interstate.
The $779 million project, awarded to companies Skanska, McCourt and Aetna Bridge, is expected to finish in 2031.
you’ve gotta be kidding! doesn’t any project manager actually check what’s going on with the company’s we pay?!? We had to tell DOT? !
What the RIDOT contractor did in our neighborhood is a barbaric abomination!! When we should be planing more trees to take carbon from the atmosphere RIDOT cuts down a small forest………about 4 dozen trees fully grown. But like a lot of things in RI politics, no one will be held accountable much less punished. I guess we should be grateful we’re not living in Russia.
Same unacceptable outcome. Kill trees and say…”oops, sorry, will plant more saplings later”. This practice of cutting, cutting, cutting is the norm in RI. There is no protection against clear cutting public or private land. Now DEM wants to start cutting more trees throughout public land and hire 10 additional foresters to do so. Please speak out to your state reps and senators and house and senate leadership asap.
Also, support the RI Old Growth Forest Protection Act in the Senate. The bill number is S 1120.
http://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText25/SenateText25/S1120.pdf
The bill is going to be heard by the Senate Committee on Environment and Agriculture next week.
We are strongly confident the Hearing will take place on Wednesday, June 11th, at 4:00 p.m. However, alternative dates are Tuesday, June 10th or Thursday, June 12th.
We will meet at the State House Rotunda, 1st floor, at 3:00 pm. where we will hold our Save RI Forests Rally.
Then, around 4:00 p.m., we will head to the Hearing before the Senate Committee on Environment and Agriculture in the Senate Lounge on the second floor.
Please RSVP on whether you can attend the Rally, Hearing, or both, and if you plan to testify.
Send written testimony in support of S 1120 before next Wednesday please.
This action is a great way to slow down the rampant destruction of RI trees.
they best be replaced with native trees and landscaping. preferably some keystone species thrown in. real shame.