Providence wants to pay Modaxo Traffic Management USA up to $1,500,000 to keep the Police Department's red-light and speed cameras running for five more months, to Jan. 31, 2027. The City Council's Special Committee on Ways and Means takes up the resolution at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10, in Committee "B" on the third floor of City Hall.
What the five months buy
The money is $850,000 for red-light services and $650,000 for speed services, an average of $300,000 a month. This is the contract's second extension, and it raises the contract's total ceiling to $1,890,000. Subtracting the extension from the revised total implies a ceiling of $390,000 before it, so the five-month extension is nearly four times the amount the contract allowed until now.
The Board of Contract and Supply's agenda says the time is needed to complete the transition and keep camera operations and services uninterrupted during implementation of the new contract. It does not name the vendor of the new contract. The board, which approves city contracts, approved the extension on Oct. 19, pending council approval, as one of 27 items passed together on a 7-1 vote, according to minutes in the Nov. 2 board packet. The minutes mark it as requiring council approval, along with a separate $20 million water contract. Council President Rachel M. Miller sponsors the resolution.
Neither the resolution nor the board item states how camera revenue is shared or how much the Police Department collected from the cameras, so the documents do not set the $1.5 million cost against what the cameras bring in.
What the camera fund holds
A Department of Public Works memo in the Nov. 5 City Council packet reports on the city's Speed Camera Safety Fund, a separate item. Neither it nor the resolution says whether the fund helps pay for the Modaxo contract. Natale D. Urso, managing engineer for traffic engineering, wrote in an Oct. 29 memo to the council's Finance Committee that the fund held $327,893 as of Oct. 2. A table attached to the memo puts the figure at $327,893.35.
Of that, $143,530.60 is committed to purchases not yet paid, including pavement markings, traffic sign materials, traffic signal parts and repairs, and a Road Safety Audit on Charles Street. That leaves $184,362.75 to commit in fiscal 2027.
Urso wrote that new projects still to be committed include safety improvements arising from the Charles Street audit and design and construction of pedestrian signals at four existing signalized intersections: Smithfield Avenue and Silver Spring Street, Atwells Avenue and Academy Avenue, Westminster Street and Bridgham Street, and Branch Avenue and Veazie Street. He wrote that the city reviewed citywide safety and crash data and requests to choose them.
An attached spending plan lists $752,893 for fiscal 2027, which it says includes money remaining from fiscal 2026 and additional fiscal 2027 funds, and $425,000 in each of fiscal 2028 and 2029. In fiscal 2027 it sets aside $380,000 for pedestrian signals, $100,000 for road safety audit implementation measures and $90,122 for the Charles Street audit, which together come to $570,122. Urso wrote that the plan will be updated as expenses and deposits are realized.
