Warren braces for Water Street clear-cut

Water Street is about to look vastly different, as the town prepares to cut down more than 40 trees — nearly every one from Wheaton to Main — as part of a massive north end streetscape and infrastructure project.

Forty-one fluorescent orange X’s appeared on trees over the weekend, each marking a tree for removal and eventual replacement under a plan approved by the Town of Warren two years ago.

The “North Water Street Streetscape Project” includes the construction of sewer, water and gas lines on northern Water Street and will also include new sidewalks and curbs, the re-planting of trees, and other improvements. The work is expected to begin over the next few weeks, when National Grid removes trees’ canopies from near power lines. Then, DPW workers will come in and remove the trunks. Construction work on the infrastructural aspects of the project are set to begin in the Spring.

Though the work has been approved and in the planning stages for several years, Warren Town Manager Jan Reitsma said he was surprised to see the X’s go up this past weekend without any current public notice.

“This was all pretty much a surprise to me,” he said. The marking of trees” really should not have been done without some prior public announcement,” saying residents have a right to request a public hearing on the matter.

Assuming one will be requested, he said, Warren has scheduled a hearing for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 15, at Warren Town Hall.

He said that while the trees’ removal is regrettable, it has been determined that they have to come down for various reasons, including, health, the size of their canopies, and their impact on the sidewalks along Water Street.

During final approval of the project two years ago, Warren held several public hearings and enlisted the Warren Tree Commission to review the work, which “accepted it as necessary.”

There are two reasons, he said:

“First, most of these trees are either pretty old or in bad health. They’re going to come down one way or another eventually. Better to take them down than let storms do it.”

Also, Mr. Reitsma said, “they affect the safety of utility lines (and) National Grid is pretty intent on taking trees out of the wires. And a lot of them affect the sidewalks to the point that they are … unsafe in many places.”

John Massed, the director of the DPW and the town’s tree warden spent much of Monday hanging public notice signs on all the trees that had previously been marked, and said he’d heard from residents about the coming work.

As could be predicted, most are unhappy.

“I don't know the schedule for removal, nor do I know the final improvement plans,” School Street resident Tom Fairchild wrote in a letter to the Warren Times.

“I hope there is time for some discussion, explanation and hopefully, a compromise. Maybe all the trees can't be saved, but let's at least try to save some.”

Broad Street resident Bill Estrella wrote his own letter to the paper, lamenting the impact it will have on the annual holiday festival and the lining of Water Street with Christmas lights.

“Can you tell I’m tense?”

Mr. Massed said Monday that while lights won’t go up along Water Street trees as they have in years past, he and his crews are working on alternative plans. They plan to light the park at the base of Broad Street adjacent to the Wharf Tavern, and lights will probably go up on side streets perpendicular to Water, for the holiday festival.

Still, residents continue to bemoan the work, both on Social Media and on the street. Appearing early this week alongside the bright orange X’s were other decorations hung by residents unknown — yellow ribbons.

About the project

The work dates back at least six years. Funded by the Rhode Island Department of Transportation and Transportation Improvement Project (TIP) program, $810,000 in grant funding was awarded to design streetscape improvements for Water Street, from Main Street to Long Wharf Drive. Warren held public meetings and workshops, inventoried trees and examined "deficiencies" in the streetscape, coming up with a plan to remove problematic trees and design improvements. 

Officials went over the changes and impact at several sparsely attended public meetings, and officials also hired a firm to take a comprehensive inventory of Water Street trees. Earlier this year, town officials were able to coordinate a construction schedule with the state, BCWA, Tourister developers, National Grid and other parties. The work includes:

n The developers of the Tourister mill apartment complex plan to install a new sewer line from the mill all the way to the wastewater treatment plant. Also, a new sewer station will be built on Main.

n The Bristol County Water Authority has plans to install a new water line along Water Street.

n The DOT will oversee aesthetic improvements and handicapped accessible curbs and other features installed along parts of Water Street.

n And finally, National Grid has plans to remove an old unused gas line buried under Water Street.

Mr. Reitsma called a meeting about six months ago to try to bring all the parties together. Doing the projects simultaneously could help ease their impact on Water Street residents and overall traffic, and could save money in the long run, he said.

“We want to shorten the overall construction period as much as possible,” Mr. Reitsma said. “And we should coordinate so we don’t tear up the road multiple times. It’s just a waste of money.”

While trees are scheduled to be removed before the winter sets in, the bulk of the construction work is scheduled to begin in early Spring 2017.