I-95 RI Welcome Center closed

[Beeper1]

RIDOT announced today that is is permanently closing the rest area and welcome center on I-95 NB near the Conn border.  Veryl last minute announcement too, as the closure takes effect today. 

Here's the official press release.
http://www.ri.gov/DOT/press/view.php?id=14858

[Brandon]

I smell bullshit about the way travelers use the welcome center.  Based on my experiences with the New Buffalo one in Michigan, RI is just trying get out of its duty to the public.  Closing off a rest area is the dumbest thing ever, IMHO.

[shadyjay]

Wow!  Stopped at this area about a month or so ago.  Always sad to see a welcome center/rest area go... but there is no reason why the parking area can't remain open.  But I guess its not THAT big of a deal as there is another, much larger parking area a few miles up the road after Exit 4 which doubles as a weigh station.

[Michael in Philly]

Not cool.  Not cool at all.  I stopped there in June, and the welcome center was a nice one, with information from most if not all New England states, not just Rhode Island.

When are state governments going to stop being penny-wise/pound-foolish about the cost of promoting tourism?  And what does this country have against public bathrooms?  Besides, of course, the fact that a certain segment of the population thinks "public" is synonymous with "Communist," but I didn't think that segment of the population was running rampant in southern New England....

[billpa]

Does Rhode Island operate any rest stops on any of its Interstates?  I'm not sure why this couldn't be converted to a restroom/picnic area.
When I stopped at the Maine welcome center on I-95 in York this summer I could barely find a place to park, despite the fact that we all have Internet/GPS these days.

[wytout]

CT tried this bullshit "cost saving" measure on July 1st, barricading ALL the rest areas in the state except the old CT TPKE service centers, but thanks to a lot of push-back through a local radio show hosted by a former CT governor and it's listeners combined with a few other groups in the state, that decision was rescinded by ol' Danno.  I'm not a fan of big government or waste, but the government has two primary jobs above all the other crap they blow money on, Transportation Infrastructure and Security/Public Safety.  To me, rest areas fit BOTH of those categories.

[Brandon]

Does Rhode Island operate any rest stops on any of its Interstates?  I'm not sure why this couldn't be converted to a restroom/picnic area.
When I stopped at the Maine welcome center on I-95 in York this summer I could barely find a place to park, despite the fact that we all have Internet/GPS these days.

Exactly.  I usually find welcome centers full of people even in the age of internet/GPS.  Even the brochures counters in the Ohio Turnpike service plazas have takers in the later evening.  I'd say people rely on GPS to get there, and the internet to see what's there, and pick up other ideas along the way at the welcome center (as well as the new map).

[deathtopumpkins]

I would much rather see RIDOT leave this open (I've stopped at it before) and close the absurd excuse for a "rest area" a few exits up the road. I presume it is the parking area already mentioned, but the signs say rest area, only when you exit it's just a large square of pavement.

[Alps]

Does Rhode Island operate any rest stops on any of its Interstates?

There's one on I-295 past the MA border that is sparsely attended.

[Beeper1]

The one in I-295 NB near the Mass line is more of a service area, with food and a state parks info center.  since that one gets funded through the private concession and the state parks department (and the state police for the little substation there) I dont think its at rsk of closing.

This probably does kill plans to build another one across the road on 295 SB.

[Michael in Philly]

^^Wait, what?  There's a service area - with food* - on an always-toll-free Interstate?  Why did I not know this?

*I assume you're talking more than just vending machines.

[Beeper1]

No, it has actual food.  Specifically a Dunkin Donuts and a Baskin Robbins Ice Cream.     

[Alps]

I never noticed the food. But yeah, this opens a gapingly huge question. How is RI allowed to operate something that's disallowed everywhere else on the Interstate system, on a road that was clearly never a turnpike?

[Brandon]

^^ I think the key part of this is that the state parks department operates it, not the DOT, if I'm reading Beeper1's comment correctly.

[Alps]

I don't see how that makes it better, though I don't know what the particular FHWA rule is.

[NE2]

I guess you could think of it as an exit that serves only one place, like the ranch exits in the West or (more closely) an exit to a state park.

[Beeper1]

IIRC, they got a special waiver from the feds.

[D-Dey65]

Sounds to me like yet another plot by the governments of the Northeast to be unfriendly to motorists.

[MrDisco99]

There's a Mobil and Dunkin Donuts on both sides of the Deegan Expressway (I-87) in Van Cortland Park in NYC.  That was never a turnpike, either, despite being just a half mile or so south of where it becomes the Thruway.  Some stuff just gets grandfathered in.

[cpzilliacus]

No, it has actual food.  Specifically a Dunkin Donuts and a Baskin Robbins Ice Cream.     

Maybe it was built originally as a non-Interstate highway (which means that the federal restrictions against food and vehicle services on the highway) do not apply. 

Just a guess on my part. 

Maryland's Chesapeake House and Maryland House service plazas on I-95 (JFK Highway, technically a toll road, even though the only toll charged is northbound crossing the Susquehanna River) were built without any federal dollars, and the Maryland Transportation Authority has been careful to never take any federal money to maintain or upgrade the segment of the road between Md. 43 and the Delaware border, hence those service plazas are still there.

[Duke87]

There's a Mobil and Dunkin Donuts on both sides of the Deegan Expressway (I-87) in Van Cortland Park in NYC.  That was never a turnpike, either, despite being just a half mile or so south of where it becomes the Thruway.  Some stuff just gets grandfathered in.

Toll road or not, the Major Deegan was built prior to the interstate system being created. But even if it were built after, the fact that was not built using federal interstate funding exempts it from the operating restrictions normally associated with interstates. So, it can have concessions. And NYSDOT could chose to toll it without federal approval if they wanted to.

[Alps]

There's a Mobil and Dunkin Donuts on both sides of the Deegan Expressway (I-87) in Van Cortland Park in NYC.  That was never a turnpike, either, despite being just a half mile or so south of where it becomes the Thruway.  Some stuff just gets grandfathered in.

Toll road or not, the Major Deegan was built prior to the interstate system being created.

False. The old maps I've looked at have the Deegan being built in 1960.

But even if it were built after, the fact that was not built using federal interstate funding exempts it from the operating restrictions normally associated with interstates. So, it can have concessions. And NYSDOT could chose to toll it without federal approval if they wanted to.

That explains it - no Federal funding. Thanks.

[shadyjay]

Courtesy of NYCRoads by Steve Anderson:


The Deegan was built between 1935-1956. 

GAS STATIONS ON THE EXPRESSWAY: Just south of the Bronx-Westchester border in Van Cortlandt Park, there is a pair of gas stations along the northbound and southbound lanes of the expressway. The gas stations, which were constructed in the early 1950's (prior to the prohibitions against roadside service stations established by the creation of the Interstate highway system), remain in operation under contract from the New York City Parks Department.

See more details here:  http://www.nycroads.com/roads/major-deegan/

[SidS1045]

^^Wait, what?  There's a service area - with food* - on an always-toll-free Interstate?  Why did I not know this?

*I assume you're talking more than just vending machines.

There are two on I-95/MA-128:  northbound in Lexington and southbound in Newton.

[Beeper1]

Yes, since MA-128 pre-dates the interstate system (also has a service area up in Beverly on the non I-95 section.  Mass had alot of service areas on its pre-interstate freeways.  MA-24 has a set in Bridgewater, and the big gas station/truck stop on the Cape at the US-6/MA-132 interchange is technically a state-owned service plaza.

There used to be more:
* On I-95 north of Boston there used to be a set, one each direction, near Rowley, where the weigh stations are now.  They dated to when that freeway was just US-1, and I think were torn down when the highway was widened to 8 lanes in the 70s.
* On the old I-84, now a frontage road alongside modern I-84, there was a servie area on the westbound side just before the CT state line.  This dated to when that was just MA-15, and closed in the early 70s when the new I-84 was built and the old route became a local road.  There is just a vacant lot there now.
* On the Southeast Expressway, now I-93 but then just MA-3, on the southbound side in quincy just before the Furnace Brook Parkway exit.  Probably torn down in the 80s when that section of highway was widened. 

You can see them all on historic areal photo wesites. 

Recenlty the state had plans to add some more, on MA-146 in Uxbridge where the current rest areas are, and on MA-2 someplace near Gardner.

I-295 in RI was built as an interstate with fed funds, but somehow got around the no services rule.