2 beams set for new bridge over Route 95, more to come
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November 20
By Bruce Landis
"There were no backups," said Frank Corrao III, the DOT's deputy chief engineer for construction. He said that the DOT mistakenly said in its announcements of the highway closing that it would reopen the road by 5 a.m. However, he said, its contract with the prime contractor, Cardi Corp., gives the company until 5:30 to reopen the highway. He said the northbound side opened at 5:25 and the southbound side at 5:40 and that heavy morning traffic doesn't start until about 6 a.m. Corrao said that the highway was closed beginning at 11 p.m. and traffic diverted to detours while a pair of cranes set two beams in place. Contractors have to install at least two beams because, after bracing is put in place, they support each other. A single beam could fall over. The DOT says it will close Route 95 again on Sunday through Tuesday nights for more work. It will start closing lanes at 8 p.m., will all lanes closed at 11 p.m. The highway will reopen by 5:30 a.m., the agency says. Cardi Corp. is the prime contractor on the bridge, which is part of the DOT's ongoing relocation of a section of Route 195 and reconstruction a section of Route 95. The Clifford Street Bridge will replace the former Friendship Street Bridge and will connect Clifford Street, on the east side of Route 95, with Friendship Street on the west side. 
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Brown University on Friday unveiled a new supercomputer that is the most powerful machine of its kind in Rhode Island. The multimillion-dollar IBM computer will be used by scientists at Brown and other educational institutions in Rhode Island to assist research in so-called "grand challenge" problems in medicine, the environment, energy and other complex fields. "I think it will really spur things and make things go forward very, very fast in ways we never imagined," said Clyde Briant, vice president for research at Brown. The computer is 50 times more powerful than any machine Brown had before and is equivalent to about 5,000 ordinary desktop computers, said Jan Hesthaven, director of the Center for Computation and Visualization at Brown. Governor Carcieri attended the ribbon cutting as did Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts and Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline. The governor said the supercomputer will advance research in the state and boost knowledge industries such as biotechnology. "We need to reposition the economy of this state," he said."We need a different dimension to the economy. Research and innovation will be at the core of that." The new supercomputer - with a total of 1,440 microprocessors - is based on three IBM iDataPlex systems, equal to the size of six refrigerators; an IBM Cluster 1350; and multiple IBM storage systems running General Parallel File System, supported by IBM Global Services. These are some highlights of the system: -- Operates at a peak performance speed of more than 14 teraflops, nearly 50 times faster than what had been available at Brown. -- Has 390 terabytes of storage capacity and holds 4.5 terabytes of memory, about 70 times more memory than what had been available at Brown. --Allows parallel programs to be run, that, in aggregate, are 20 times faster than what had been available at Brown. Researchers can now compute a problem that is 20 times larger in the same time. -- Is six times more energy efficient than what had been available at Brown.
The Rhode Island Division of Public Utilities and Carriers on Friday yanked the license for half of Yellow Cab's fleet and fined the company $100,000 for rolling back odometers on its cabs. The rollbacks did not affect the fares paid by customers, but allowed Yellow Cab to keep the taxis on the street after their mandated retirement at 200,000 miles. The allowed the company to lower its costs while carrying passengers in vehicles considered too old for use as cabs. Yellow Cab, which acknowledged sufficient evidence of its misconduct, also was cited for charging illegal flat rates for fares, rather than mileage-based charges based on the taxi meter, and for operating outside territory of Providence, Cranston and T.F. Green Airport. Yellow Cab lost its license for six of its 12 cabs and is on five years probation. Yellow Cab in Rhode Island is actually a consortium of four companies: D&T Cab Inc., White Rock Cab Inc., Doris Cab Inc. and Bobby's Cab Inc.
By Cynthia Needham Rhode Island's unemployment rate may have dropped to 12.9 percent from 13 percent in October, but it's still the third highest in the country. Figures released Friday morning for all 50 states solidify Rhode Island's ranking behind Michigan and Nevada, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Jobless rates in both of those states also dipped in October. Michigan fell to 15.1 from 15.3 percent. Nevada reported a decrease to 13 percent from 13.3. It is a familiar trend. Closer to home, every New England state except Connecticut saw slight declines in unemployment rates. Connecticut's unemployment rate jumped to 8.8 percent, but Massachusetts reported a drop to 8.9 percent, Maine declined to 8.2 percent, with New Hampshire and Vermont even lower. But Rhode Island is not expected to see its jobless rate dip below 10 percent until 2013, according to a forecast by the New England Economic Partnership, a nonprofit regional outlook group. Overall, 29 states recorded unemployment rate increases in October, while 13 states registered declines, and 8 states had no change, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Few states reported major statistical swings. According to the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, this state's unemployment rate remains at an all-time high. 73,300 residents are still out of work. The state lost 1,100 jobs in October and saw its labor market contract slightly -- a potential sign that some frustrated workers have given up looking for work.
Providence Journal chart / C. Eugene Emery Jr. PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Average prices for heating oil, diesel and unleaded gasoline remained virtually unchanged from last week, according to Friday's survey by the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources. The typical price of unleaded stayed at $2.70 per gallon, diesel was at $2.91 and home heating oil remained at $2.72. But the home heating oil average reflects a wide range of prices among dealers. The state typically surveys nine companies to reach its average. The state found per-gallon prices ranged from a low of $2.25 to a high of $3.10, suggesting that consumers could save as much as 85 cents per gallon if they shopped around. One year ago, the difference among dealers was even larger: nearly a dollar per gallon.
November 19
NEWPORT, R.I. -- A downtown building that was constructed in 1909 as a YMCA and became a hotel in 1997 has been sold. According to city land records, Vanderbilt Hall, on Mary Street, sold for $5.7 million on Monday. The hotel, with 33 rooms and suites, was owned, under the corporate name Vanderbilt Hall LP, by Arnold B. "Buff" Chace Jr., a prominent Providence developer. The new owner, under the corporate name Vanderbilt Hall Holdings LLC, is Peter de Savary, a British businessman who developed Portsmouth's Carnegie Abbey Club. De Savary could not be reached immediately to say what plans he has for the hotel. He told the online magazine, Newport Seen, that he envisions a hotel, club, spa and English restaurant. City records show the property was valued at $9.9 million for the budget year that ended June 30, 2009. In the early 1900s, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt donated what would become the hotel property to the city of Newport in honor of his father, Cornelius Vanderbilt II. Alfred Vanderbilt inherited the largest share of his father's estate and remained a prominent businessman, although his greatest fame involved two maritime disasters. In 1912, at the last minute, he canceled plans to travel on the maiden voyage of the Titanic, which sank after hitting an iceberg. Three years later, on May 7, 1915, he was aboard the ocean liner Lusitania when a German U-boat torpedoed and sank it. Witnesses reported that Vanderbilt, who could not swim, gave up his life vest to a young woman with a baby.
The owner of the Providence Place mall said Thursday that it has reached a deal with some of its lenders, allowing a number of its shopping centers to exit bankruptcy by the end of 2009. General Growth Properties Inc. (GGP:NYSE) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April 2009, after failing to persuade a majority of its debt holders to give it more time to refinance billions of dollars in debt racked up during an aggressive expansion that included the $11.3-billion purchase of Rouse Co. in 2004. Just months before, Baltimore, Md.-based Rouse had purchased Providence Place for $510 million from the developers who built the shopping center in the late 1990s. General Growth had about $29.6 billion in assets and more than $27 billion in liabilities as of Dec. 31, 2008, according to documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York. Included in that was $400 million General Growth borrowed on Providence Place shortly after the Chicago company took control of the retail center. The deal with the lenders restructures about $9 billion in mortgages in about 70 loans. The lenders agreed to extend loan maturity dates about 6.4 years, on average, from Jan. 1, 2010, with none of the included loans coming due before January 2014.
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