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Resident presses council on Fairmount Street bridge safety; city says RIDOT oversees inspections
Summary
A longtime Fairmount Street resident urged the council to prioritize work on the rusting Fairmount Street Bridge, expressing concern about emergency response; the director said bridge inspections are scheduled by RIDOT and reported no current structural red flags.
A Woonsocket resident told the City Council Sept. 15, 2025, that the Fairmount Street Bridge shows heavy rust and urged the city to prioritize repairs because closures could lengthen emergency response times.
Pauline Riolo, who lives on First Avenue, said she has raised concerns for decades and that she believes 95% of the bridge is rust. She told the council the bridge serves school buses, emergency vehicles and local businesses and asked the city to “put [the bridge] on the front burner” for safety reasons.
A city official responded that state authorities — the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) — schedule and carry out regular inspections and that two other nearby bridges are slated for deck repairs and painting next year. The director said he would contact RIDOT about the next scheduled inspection of the Fairmount Street Bridge, noted that a deck repair was completed about eight years earlier, and said the department had not received reports raising structural-outage red flags.
The council did not vote on bridge work at the meeting; the discussion indicated that oversight and capital repairs remain the responsibility of RIDOT, while the city will follow up with the state about inspection timing.
