SMITHFIELD - Aviation fuel will no longer be delivered to North Central state airport over a long stretch of Limerock Road, a route that was criticized last year by state Sen. John J. Tassoni Jr. as being potentially dangerous.
In response to the route change, Tassoni has withdrawn a bill he introduced in the current legislative session that would have banned such deliveries on the residential street.
While agreeing to a new delivery route involving mostly major highways, the corporation left intact its plan - also criticized by Tassoni and others - to move the airport's aviation fuel tanks closer to Limerock Road as part of a 20-year master plan for the airport.
The plan to relocate the two tanks from near the runways to a point about a quarter-mile from Limerock Road drew flak at a public hearing last October. Several local officials, including Tassoni, said a spill would send fuel into feeders for some of the community's major waterways, including Georgiaville Pond and Slack's Reservoir.
It was at the hearing that Tassoni said he first learned that the twice-monthly deliveries of fuel used Limerock and Jenckes Hill roads.
In April 18 letters to Tassoni and Senate Majority Leader Dominick L. Ruggerio, Airport Corporation CEO Kevin A. Dillon said the new delivery route would send fuel trucks from Route 295 to Routes 99 and 126, and then to Albion Road and to only a short portion of Limerock Road.
According to Tassoni, the trucks formerly used a Route 295 exit to Route 7 and then took a much longer stretch of Limerock Road.
Tassoni said he still opposes relocation of the 10,000-gallon tanks, one containing jet fuel and the other gas for piston-driven aircraft at North Central, which straddles the Smithfield-Lincoln town line.
At the hearing, Tassoni, who represents Smithfield and North Smithfield, said the new site is significantly closer to Limerock Road than the quarter mile estimated by the corporation, which now has officially adopted the airport master plan.
Also objecting to the tank relocation last year was Stephen A. Archambault, who is seeking the Senate seat that fellow Democrat Tassoni will vacate after the coming election, and Town Councilman Ronald Manni.
A consultant for the Airport Corporation said at the hearing the tanks are being moved so delivery trucks don't cross the paths of aircraft.
He said alternative sites would require severe and expensive grading, adding that safety precautions provided in the relocation plan include a containment area and spill alarms around the dual-walled tanks.
At the time, Manni argued that safety concerns should take precedence over the cost of using alternate sites further from Limerock Road.
Patti Goldstein, the Airport Corporation's vice president for public relations, said it is not yet known when the tanks would be moved.
The airport master plan calls for some $27million in improvements over two decades, none of which involve runway extensions to accommodate larger aircraft.
The plan anticipates that planes using North Central will continue to be those with approach speeds of up to 140 miles per hour and with wingspans of from 49 to 79 feet.
Flight patterns will remain unchanged.
North Central, where some 116 planes are based, accommodates single- and twin-engine piston aircraft and small to medium-sized jets. It has no control tower and does not service commercial passenger airlines.
The airport's master plan calls for enhancement of instrument guidance, rehabilitation of taxiways, improved sewerage, redeveloping the old airport terminal possibly to include a restaurant, and construction of new hangars with private investment money.
The master plan's consultant said at the public hearing that studies indicated the planned work would have no significant negative effects on rivers or wildlife.
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