A construction company’s $11 million fine for dumping illegal fill in Providence will now be used for filling cavities.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said he will redistribute $7.9 million of the settlement to pediatric dental practices that serve low-income families in the Providence area. The money will flow through a fund managed by the Rhode Island Foundation.
Neronha, whose office won the settlement last year, said his decision was inspired by an article the Providence Journal published in 2024.
“Five hundred-twenty Providence schoolchildren had serious, serious dental issues,” Neronha said, recounting the article’s findings. “Abscesses. Deep infections. And it struck me that as a government, as a people, that’s something that we should just not allow to happen.”
Merill Thomas, president and CEO of the Providence Community Health Center, said the fund will offset the cost of providing dental care to families that lack insurance or use Medicaid, a government insurance program that he said does not fully reimburse the cost of most dental care.
The funding will help the center’s dental practice hire more staff, he said, and treat more children.
The Providence Community Health Center will receive $2.7 million. Three other dental practices will receive grants, too:
- The Tri-County Community Action Agency will receive $2.5 million.
- The Samuels Sinclair Dental Center at Rhode Island Hospital will receive $2 million
- The Comprehensive Community Action Program will receive $725,000
The overall settlement stems from a prosecution against Barletta Heavy Division, Inc., a company that used contaminated fill while constructing the highway ramps connecting Route 6 and Route 10 in Providence. The project, often called the 6/10 Connector, was the largest single construction contract ever awarded in Rhode Island, according to the state Department of Transportation.
The Attorney General’s office accepted an $11 million settlement from Barletta to resolve its civil and criminal cases against the company for the illegal dumping.
As part of the settlement, Barletta admitted to lying about testing the material for contamination prior to hauling it in from other construction sites. The company remains licensed to practice in Rhode Island.
A spokesperson for RIDOT, Charles St. Martin III, said Barletta is “in the final punch-list phase” for the 6/10 Connector project, which cost $343 million. St. Martin said Barletta is also in the final stages of completing the Henderson Bridge project from Providence to East Providence at a cost of $84.4 million.
