After missing its mandated deadline, the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) won’t waste any more time in getting an independent assessment of its operations and financial situation done and submitted to state leaders.
The agency’s board of directors voted 7-0 Thursday to award a $412,346 contract to Canadian engineering consulting firm WSP and subcontractor Foursquare of Washington D.C. to conduct an efficiency study that will help find cost-saving measures for the agency. WSP designed the recently renovated East Side Tunnel in Providence.
A copy of the contract was not immediately made available.
Rhode Island Department of Transportation Director Peter Alviti Jr., who chairs the board, was on a call at the time of the vote. Board member Marcy Reyes was not present.
The efficiency study was requested by Gov. Dan McKee and the General Assembly as a condition in last year’s state budget to plug the agency’s deficit. RIPTA now faces a $32.6 million shortfall heading into the fiscal year beginning July 1, which has gone unaddressed in McKee’s proposed budget.
The assessment was supposed to be submitted to state leaders at the beginning of March 2025, but RIPTA’s board suspended the procurement process until it could find a new leader — which wound up being former CFO Christopher Durand.
With the contract awarded, agency spokesperson Cristy Raposo Perry told Rhode Island Current work would start immediately. Durand told the board he intended to provide initial efficiency details before the Senate Committee on Finance when it tentatively meets on April 8 to look over RIPTA’s budget.
RIPTA’s request for proposals called for work to start April 1.
“Time is of the essence here, and we are focused,” Durand told the board.
RIPTA issued its RFP in mid-February and drew five bidders when the window closed on March 13: AECOM Technical Services of Dallas; Complex Consulting of Boston; HDR of Orange County, California; Transpro of Tampa; and WSP.
A summary form given to board members stated that WSP confirmed its ability to meet all draft deadlines outlined in the RFP before the current legislative session ends.
The scope outlined in the RFP includes delivering a memo within 30 days detailing best practices among public transit agencies, a performance assessment of transit operations within 45 days, and a review of the state’s long-term transit strategy and its implementation within 75 days.
WSP, which has an office in Providence, works on-call with RIPTA’s project management team and is the owner’s representative for the public-private partnership working on the agency’s new Providence transit center.
Though a unanimous vote, board member James Lombardi expressed reservations that such a study would even matter should the state fail to plug RIPTA’s financial woes.
“We may have an entirely different operation after this budget,” he said.
The agency projects about 300 employees losing their jobs if lawmakers don’t provide any new funding. RIPTA had 849 employees as of February, according to a House Fiscal Office presentation.
But board member Normand Benoit argued that RIPTA’s financial future hinges on submitting the study to state leaders.
“I don’t think we have a choice on this thing, we need to move right away,” he said.
What’s going on with the Providence bus hub?
Time may be of the essence for RIPTA’s efficiency study, but that did not apply to an agenda item on the agency’s plans to construct a state-of-the-art transit center to replace Kennedy Plaza.
Board members were provided a report from Next Wave Partners, the contractor handling the project, recommending the agency further study two spaces near the Amtrak Station on Gaspee Street.
The first location is a 1.48-acre vacant lot abutting the station, while the other is a 4.4-acre lot on Francis Street, across from the Providence Place Mall.
Durand told the board that because the Francis Street site was not discussed publicly before, the agency wants to hold off on any vote until it can garner public feedback on the site.
But the plan has already drawn criticism.
Randall Rose, a member of the Kennedy Plaza Resilience Coalition, said it was a worse choice than the existing bus hub, citing an uphill walk from downtown Providence.
“Elderly and disabled are clearly not going to be able to do it,” Rose said. “It’s a terrible thing for our bus riders.”
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
