To stimulate growth that includes everyone, we need to attract businesses, build skills, and modernize our infrastructure. Rebuilding our roads and bridges will accelerate our economic comeback both because it will put people to work now, and because it will make Rhode Island a more attractive place for businesses to invest.

The Problem

• Rhode Island ranks last in the nation, 50th out of 50 states, in overall bridge condition
  • About 22% of the 1,162 bridges in Rhode Island are structurally deficient
• Rhode Island is one of the only states in the northeast that does not charge user fees to large commercial trucks
  • Trucks pay $182 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
  • Trucks pay $114 to cross the George Washington Bridge from New Jersey to New York
• Almost all vehicle-created road damage is from large commercial trucks

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The Solution

• Rebuild our crumbling roads and bridges by investing significant additional funding in transportation infrastructure by:
  • Charging a user fee on ONLY large commercial trucks - not cars or smaller trucks
  • Taking advantage of the additional funding in the FAST Act, which Congress passed in December 2015
• Fix more than 150 structurally deficient bridges in Rhode Island, and make repairs to another 500 bridges to prevent them from becoming deficient
• Realize significant savings over ten years by addressing the problem now instead of waiting
• Keep people safe and make Rhode Island a more attractive place for businesses to invest

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Why it Works

• RhodeWorks will add thousands of jobs and bring a much needed boost to Rhode Island's economy:
• The boost of revenue will allow us to bring our bridges to 90% sufficiency within ten years; without immediate action, only about half of our bridges will be structurally sufficient by 2025
• The legislation expressly prohibits assessing a user fee on cars or smaller trucks