PROVIDENCE — A prominent downtown business group has asked the state to scrap a plan to build an underground bus tunnel on the Washington Street side of Kennedy Plaza, citing concerns about the cost to construct and maintain such a structure.
In a letter to the state Department of Transportation, the leaders of the Providence Foundation said the state should instead use millions of dollars in already-approved bond money to make public transit upgrades in and around the plaza, and develop new bus hubs near the train station and Garrahy Courthouse.
“We recommend abandoning the proposed underpass on Washington Street based on concerns over its expense, difficulty to maintain, and the challenges it would likely pose to pedestrians if, as we expect, berms are required to accommodate bus and vehicular traffic underneath,” Foundation board chair Russell Carey and executive director Cliff Wood wrote in the letter.
Carey and Wood said the foundation’s board voted unanimously on its position.
A spokesperson for the state said the transportation department is “assessing each recommendation in order to create a system that will meet the needs of each public stakeholder.”
State leaders announced last month that they planned to use the majority of a $35 million infrastructure bond that voters approved in 2014 to build the bus tunnel and make other public transit upgrades around downtown. The plan had the support of former Providence mayor Joseph Paolino, who owns real estate throughout the city.
But the proposal was met with skepticism from leaders at the Providence Foundation, who have been working with city leaders on separate plans to redesign Kennedy Plaza for several years. They questioned why they weren’t included in the state’s plan.
A group of bus riders also opposed the plan, arguing that it would cost too much and wouldn’t benefit people who actually use public transportation.
The foundation still carries plenty of clout — Carey is a top official at Brown University, and Wood is a popular former city councilman — so it would be surprising to see the state move forward with a plan the organization opposes.
But Governor Gina Raimondo and other officials have long said Kennedy Plaza should be redesigned, noting that individuals have been hit by buses coming in and out of the area in recent years. Some business leaders in the area have complained that the plaza has become a haven for drug users, deterring new companies from moving into offices downtown.
The proposal still needs multiple approvals, including the board of directors of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority and a city design panel.
Instead of a tunnel, the Providence Foundation leaders said the state should build an “aesthetically pleasing hardscape” that would slow traffic on Washington Street and create “a sense of shared space, and visually connecting through design Kennedy Plaza and Burnside Park.”
The tunnel isn’t the only concern the foundation has.
Carey and Wood said the group opposes the state’s plan to build a “west passage” for buses in place of the park that sits near the skating rink and across from the Graduate Providence hotel. They said the proposal would create a “dangerous, heavily travelled five-way intersection.”
In the letter, Carey and Wood said they support the state’s proposal to reduce bus routes in Kennedy Plaza in favor of spreading them out to other parts of downtown. If state leaders want the area to look more like Boston Public Garden or New York’s Bryant Park, bus stops should be eliminated from the interior of the plaza altogether, they wrote.
“We recognize that siting bus stops in a manner that balances public space, pedestrian and vehicular safety, and efficient public transit is a challenging undertaking,” the letter states.
Dan McGowan can be reached at dan.mcgowan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @danmcgowan.