PROVIDENCE -- Warwick's plan to build a new two-way road around the Apponaug Business District has edged out streetcars in Providence in the latest quest for federal economic stimulus dollars.
Both cities got the news about their applications this week when the U.S. Department of Transportation announced its list of awards from 2013 discretionary TIGER grant program.
David Ortiz, a spokesman for Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, confirmed Friday the city did not get any of the $39 million it had been hoping for to build and create a streetcar system in and around the city's downtown.
As envisioned by Taveras two years ago, the 2-mile-long system would have had 11 stops and would have run from the Brown University campus on College Hill to a stop near Rhode Island Hospital. Pegged as a $100-million project, city officials said they would cover whatever wasn't paid for from federal grants through city and state bonds.
Ortiz said city officials are "disappointed at not having received funding this year but we're in no way discouraged."
"We'll continue to aggressively pursue a sustainable funding strategy to make streetcars a reality in Providence," the spokesman said. "The federal procurement process can sometimes take more than a year."
But at least this year, Providence's loss is Warwick's gain.
The Apponaug project had the backing of the state Department of Transportation as well as Governor Chafee.
The $10-million federal grant would go toward creating a two-way road around the Apponaug center, replacing the one-way circular roadway that was built as a temporary measure in the 1970s. It's expected to cost $33.6 million.
In urging approval for the Apponaug Circulator, the state Department of Transportation said that once complete, the project would reduce the traffic through the oft-clogged business district from an estimated 29,500 vehicles per day to roughly 5,000 a day, and would add such improvements as widened intersections, new sidewalks and a bike lane.