By Elizabeth F. McNamara

South County Trail (aka Route 2) has gotten a little narrower just north of Middle Road, part of a three-year National Grid project called “Growth Point RI.” The goal? To augment natural gas delivery to the southern part of the state by adding a 20-inch distribution line that will run parallel to the existing 12-inch line.

National Grid is working on South County Trail just north of Middle Road this week.

Once complete, the line will extend 5.1 miles from Cowesett Avenue in Warwick to just north of South Road in EG. The first phase is this year; work will be done into November or December, with phases two and three repeating the sequence in 2020 and 2021. The job is being broken down into chunks, or patches, like the one now just north of Middle Road.

So far, the disruption has been minimal, since the work is taking place on the west side of the road and two-way traffic has been maintained. That’s the plan, according to National Grid officials. But it won’t always be this easy. 

That’s because there are intersections, including that already troublesome one at Division Street. For intersections, the work will be done at night, whereas the work on more residential stretches of Route 2 is taking place during the daytime. 

The schedule for when work will move to busy intersections is not finalized, but National Grid said the website for the project – https://growthpointri.com – will be updated regularly. Residents with questions can also reach out via email ([email protected]) or Twitter (@growthpointri). 

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