Pare was contracted by the RI Department of Transportation to design improvements to 0.42 miles of the badly deteriorated Old Tower Hill Road from the Route 1 interchange to the intersection with Route 108 (Kingstown Road). In addition to resurfacing, the project made several pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements using Complete Streets design standards. These included reducing the width of the travel lanes, adding decorative stamped crosswalks, striping buffered bike lanes for both directions, and making improvements to the Wakefield Mall traffic signal. Median islands with landscaping enhancements were added to break up the center turn lane in order to better control traffic flow in and out of businesses.

Stormwater treatment improvements included eighteen new curb inlet bioretention planters designed in accordance with the RIDOT Linear Stormwater Manual. These landscaped planters—with a pedestrian scale railing system—were designed to treat the water quality volume from the ‘first flush’ of roadway runoff, which will reduce pollution discharge to downstream waterways and resources.

This $3.9 million project—finished on budget and one month ahead of schedule—was completed in September 2020.