East Providence police deal with angry drivers, ask for patience amid Washington Bridge closure

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Since the Washington Bridge closure, the City of East Providence has been feeling the brunt of traffic issues and seeing a whole lot of angry drivers.

“From 6:30 in the morning until 8:30 in the morning, it’s tough,” said Police Chief Christopher Francesconi. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it. It is difficult. Say 3:30 to 6:00 in the evening, it’s a challenge.”

Compared to when the bridge first shut down, Francesconi said traffic has improved, but the process has been a learning curve.

“We’ve adjusted our traffic deployment in how we direct traffic,” Francesconi said. “What streets should be closed, what streets should be left open.”

Police officers, along with civilian traffic control personnel, are deployed in multiple areas for morning and evening rush hour, with Broadway being their main focus.

According to Francesconi, there’s still some issues filling what he calls very demanding traffic details, but they’ve seen more success with that recently, especially with the $20 an hour pay bump footed by the Rhode Island Department of Transportation.

Officers are dealing with an increase of crashes and many frustrated drivers, with some rowdy motorists even spitting on officers and throwing objects at police.

“That’s unacceptable in my eyes. I understand people are frustrated. We’re frustrated also,” Francesconi explained. “At times, there is quite literally nowhere for the officers to put the traffic even if they wanted to move it through an intersection.”

With a lot still up in the air regarding the bridge, Francesconi is asking the public one thing: an understanding.

“We understand what they’re going through, and, at the end of the day, we’re just going to do our best out of a very much less ideal situation,” Francesconi concluded.

The DOT has been helpful, according to Francesconi, with RIDOT sending some of its own personnel to help manage the traffic in East Providence.

Since RIDOT is paying officers on traffic detail, there hasn’t been any extra expenses the department has had to pay for.