Rhode Island
Green Infrastructure Coalition

Green Infrastructure Projects in Rhode Island

Many Green Infrastructure projects already exist across Rhode Island. Those listed below will give you a sample, and you may want to find them to take a look in person.

First shown below are projects sponsored by Green Infrastructure Coalition members. These are followed by other projects with which the Green Infrastructure Coalition has been closely connected. Since the Coalition focuses on the Providence metro area and the Newport-Aquidneck area these projects are all from those two locations.

At the bottom of the page are more Green Infrastructure projects from across Rhode Island. This list represents projects installed over the past five years by various agencies and NGOs, and includes more than 75 projects described in the University of Rhode Island Low Impact Development (LID) Inventory since 2008, many built by private landowners and businesses.

More about our work in the Providence-Metro area
More about our work in Newport-Aquidneck Island

A Selection of Projects Sponsored by Green Infrastructure Coalition Members

The City of Providence Office of Sustainability has developed a story map showing green infrastructure projects in Providence.

Project: Children's Friend Rain Garden

Location: Providence

Overview: This small rain garden, just a few blocks southwest of downtown Providence, provides a place where pre-school teachers can educate their kids about nature.

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Image Credit: Debbie Cheng/Kleinfelder

Project: Common Fence Point Community Hall Rain Garden

Location: Portsmouth

Overview: This one-day project resulted in a rain garden that will collect runoff from the roof of the community hall and allow it to infiltrate rather than running off. And it also beautifies the neighborhood, replacing pavement with flowers.

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Project: Dexter St. Curb Cuts and Tree Plantings

Location: Providence

Overview: These new street trees along Dexter Street in urban Providence, allow rainwater to infiltrate and also beautify the neighborhood. In time they will also provide welcome shade in the summer.

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Image Credit: Meg Kerr

Project: J. T. Owens Park Rain Garden

Location: Providence

Overview: This vegetated infiltration basin at the corner of Niantic Avenue and Swanton Street helps prevent stormwater runoff in the neighborhood from reaching Mashapaug Pond. The runoff will flow to a rain garden and soak through permeable soils into the groundwater.

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Image Credit: Jessica Pohl

Project: Kempenaar Valley Stormwater Infiltration

Location: Middletown

Overview: The Gravel Wet Vegetated Treatment System at Kempenaar Valley filters stormwater run-off of nearby impervious surfaces and residential lawns from the Two Mile Corner area in Middletown. This constructed wetland was designed to reduce bacteria loading into the Bailey Brook, which feeds two drinking supply reservoirs (Green End Pond and Easton Pond) for residents of Aquidneck Island.

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Image Credit: Johanna Vietry

Project: King Park Rain Garden

Location: Newport

Overview: This demonstration rain garden in Newport's King Park is planted with a mix of decorative flowers and hardy plants like swamp milkweed, seaside goldenrod, mountain mist and cigar plants. Small rain gardens like this can infiltrate as much as 25,000 gallons of water in a year.

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Image Credit: Dave Gerraughty

Project: North Burial Grounds Amphibian Habitat

Location: Providence

Overview: Green infrastructure work might provide an occasional opportunity to create wetland habitats that would benefit amphibians. A drainage swale in the Providence’s North Burial Grounds provides a breeding pool for tadpoles of two species, Fowlers Toad and Gray Tree Frog. Greg Gerritt of Friends of the Moshassuck has received grants to video and compare drainage swales in urban locations that are not heavily impacted by automotive or industrial pollutants that would adversely affect amphibians through their skin.

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Project: Pleasant Valley Neighborhood Retrofits

Location: Providence

Overview: This Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council project brought rain barrels and other green infrastructure to homes and streets throughout the Pleasant Valley neighborhood.

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Image Credit: Alicia Lehrer

Project: Pleasant Valley Stormwater Improvement

Location: Providence

Overview: Pleasant Valley Stream originates on the campus of Rhode Island College, and its watershed includes parts of Providence College, La Salle Academy, Mount Pleasant High School, and the surrounding residential community. It has been appropriated as an open stormwater channel, from which fate Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council is attempting a rescue.

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Image Credit: Eastern RI Conservation District

Project: Rain Barrel Fest

Location: Newport

Overview: This project distributed 140 rain barrels to the Aquidneck Island community to help encourage people to save rainwater rather than allowing it to run off. Twenty-four of the rain barrels were painted with lively decorations by local art classes.

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Image Credit: Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council

Project: Red Shed Green Roof

Location: Providence

Overview: The Red Shed Bike Shop in Waterside Park is sporting a revamped green roof. A team of 15 workers from The Woonasquatucket Watershed Council’s River Rangers, Groundwork Rhode Island and One Neighborhood Works installed 160 vegetated shortgrass modules.

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Image Credit: RIPTA

Project: RIPTA Parking lot

Location: Providence

Overview: The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority parking lot on Elmwood Ave. in Providence is the largest permeable pavement lot in New England and is designed to allow stormwater to seep slowly into the surrounding soils.

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Image Credit: Wenley Ferguson

Project: Rogers High School

Location: Newport

Overview: The actions to reduce reduce runoff from areas on school grounds to the watershed that includes Newport’s Lily Pond include construction of rain gardens at two sites and pavement removal from two areas.

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Image Credit: Dave Gerraughty

Project: Save the Bay

Location: Providence

Overview: Save the Bay Center was designed to be energy efficient and reduce stormwater runoff. Design elements include a sloped vegetated roof, bioremediation ponds, a permeable parking area and bioswales.

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Image Credit: Groundwork Rhode Island

Project: Sprucing up Dexter

Location: Providence

Overview: Coalition member Groundwork Rhode Island planted 13 trees and 32 plants along Dexter St., including Providence's first tree pit with curb cut, which will allow storm water to be absorbed into the pit rather than running untreated into our storm drains.

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Other Green Infrastructure Projects in Rhode Island

Image Credit: Taber Caton, Principal, Searle Design Group

Project: Congdon House (RISD) Rain Gardens

Location: Providence

Overview: Two gardens between Congdon House and Dunnell House reduce runoff between the two buildings and slow and infiltrate stormwater flowing from paved areas nearby and the roofs of the houses.

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Image Credit: Providence College

Project: Providence College

Location: Providence

Overview: There are four major projects on campus that incorporate vegetated swales, bioretention bays, infiltration trenches, permeable pavement and underground storage cells. The projects are designed to reduce and treat stormwater runoff to storm drains on streets near the campus.

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Image Credit: Dave Gerraughty

Project: Roger Williams Park

Location: Providence

Overview: Five projects have been completed in the park to control stormwater flows and reduce phosphorus contamination. Techniques include bioretention gardens, pavement removal, infiltration basins and flumes to redirect stormwater.

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Image Credit: Dave Gerraughty

Project: Second Beach Depaving

Location: Middletown

Overview: The project removed pavement along the wall separating the parking lot from the beach to ease runoff in the parking areas and on Sachuest Point Road.

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Image Credit: Dave Gerraughty

Project: The Steel Yard

Location: Providence

Overview: The former brownfield site infiltrates 90% of its average yearly rainfall through a system of bioswales and permeable pavement. Lead concentration was so high that a top layer of soil was removed, and a cap of 12 inches of clean fill or pavement was added.

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