River Barrier Averts Flood in Rhode Island

A 30-year-old hurricane barrier, erected after two killer storms hammered Rhode Island’s largest city, passed its first major test with flying colors, an official said Monday.

When Hurricane Bob caused a maximum storm surge of 8.6 feet above normal tide in Narragansett Bay, the barrier kept the increased water level on the Providence River in downtown Providence to between 2 and 3 feet, said James Suzman, the city’s public works director.

A similar barrier, built at the same time, was credited with sheltering the harbor in New Bedford, Mass., on Monday.

Providence’s barrier consists of three curved gates hinged at the top that can be lowered into the river’s mouth at the head of the bay. Each gate is 40 feet square and weighs 56 tons, Suzman said.

Normally the gates are open so small pleasure boats can pass to the inner harbor. But with Bob approaching, the gates were lowered early Monday afternoon, he said.

Crews also turned on two of five pumps, each of which can send 630,000 gallons of water per minute flowing from the river back out into Narragansett Bay. That keeps storm runoff from backing up in the river, Suzman said.

The gates are designed to handle storm surges of up to 20 feet, he said.

“Basically, so far, so good,” Suzman said.

The barrier was built for $16 million by the Army Corps of Engineers between 1960 and 1966 in response to a hurricane in 1938 that killed more than 300 people and Hurricane Carol in 1954 that killed many others.

In each case, downtown Providence was flooded.