Addressing the concerns of Lakeshore Drive neighbors over dust from the construction of new Winslow Park playing fields, Kelly Fredericks, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Airport Corporation (RIAC), announced yesterday a series of measures to address the problem.

“We have listened to the neighbors and want to assure Warwick residents that although the complexities of these projects will have some impact to the community, we will make every effort to minimize those impacts and strengthen our community outreach,” Fredericks said in a statement.

Wind-blown dust from the project has been bad throughout this especially dry summer, but the situation became especially bad when high winds a week ago Monday kicked up clouds that coated neighboring homes, fouled swimming pools and caked cars in yellow-brown grit.

Fredericks called the situation “unacceptable” last week and vowed to address the problem. The immediate response was for the contractor to increase the number of water trucks spraying the area from two to four.

Yesterday, Fredericks announced the following additional measures:

l RIAC has instituted a construction hotline (691-2707) and email address construction@pvdairport.com;

l RIAC has appointed an ombudsman, who will be visible in the community and who will work with the appropriate staff and contractors to address community concerns;

l RIAC is collaborating with regulatory agencies and the contractor to identify ways to further mitigate dust issues;

l Contractor J.H. Lynch will be adding more equipment to the job site to accelerate the project schedule with the goal of completing major earthmoving activities by the end of October;

l Community meetings will be held to provide updated information on the various projects;

l The airport website, e-newsletter and social media will continue to provide updates, and information will be linked to the City of Warwick website.

Fredericks said, “Early on in the process, RIAC implemented a number of program sustainability measures, including reclaiming pavement, reusing as much earth as possible for fill material and reusing loam for final grades and seeding. These efforts reduce the need to transport materials on- and offsite as we are reusing or saving valuable resources and, subsequently, there will be less truck traffic on public streets and less waste generated throughout the site. However, having one of the driest periods on record and recent high winds has resulted in unanticipated localized impacts. I can assure our neighbors, we will be responsive and we will continue to work with you through this construction period.”

Relocation of the fields that will enable RIAC to extend the main runway to the south is expected to be brought up tonight even though that is not the topic of the workshop. The intent of the meeting is to discuss the relocation of the Pembroke Air Quality Monitoring Station. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at the Buttonwoods Community Center. A spokeswoman for RIAC said questions about the fields would be addressed as best they could, but the purpose of the meeting is to talk about the station.