PROVIDENCE – A busy roadway that runs along the border between North Smithfield and Woonsocket will soon get a lot busier, and three northern Rhode Island legislators are asking the Rhode Island Department of Transportation to pay careful attention to the issue.
State Reps. Brian Newberry, Jon Brien and Stephen Casey issued a joint statement of concern this week regarding traffic on Smithfield Road with the planned opening of Nasuti Elementary School.
The space at 44 Smithfield Road has long held Barry Field, which served as home to the Woonsocket High School football team. The district’s field was recently moved to Cass Park, with plans to consolidate students from Bernon Heights, Kevin K. Coleman, and Globe Park Elementary into a new building on the 22-acre lot, situated by Park Square.
Now under construction, the new 131,000-square-foot school will occupy roughly half of the former Barry Field site. Ground work on the property began last October, with footings and initial steel work the focus in recent months, and the facility reportedly on track to open at the start of the 2027-2028 school year.
The property sits just across from residential neighborhoods in North Smithfield, as well as North Smithfield police headquarters, and takes up a dominant space in what is already of one of the busiest corridors in the region. Site plans for the building show two entrances on Smithfield Road in the often congested stretch of roadway between Providence Street and Park Square.
In February, Woonsocket Public Works Director Stephen D’Agostino warned that if measures are not taken, increased traffic from the school would bring the nearby intersection to the brink of failure during morning drop off and afternoon pickup times, according to reports. The DPW director said in February that forwarded his recommendations for upgrades to the roadway to RIDOT…