R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-8-3
The plane coordinate values for a point on the earth's surface, to be used to express the geographic position or location of such point on the Rhode Island coordinate system, shall consist of two (2) distances, expressed in U. S. survey feet and decimals of a survey foot when using the Rhode Island coordinate system of 1927, and expressed in meters and decimals of a meter when using the Rhode Island coordinate system of 1983. One of these distances, to be known as the "x-coordinate", shall give the position in an east and west direction; the other, to be known as the "y-coordinate", shall give the position in a north and south direction. These coordinates shall be made to depend upon and conform to plane rectangular coordinate values for the monumented points of the North American horizontal geodetic control network as published by the national ocean survey/national geodetic survey or its successors, and whose plane coordinates have been computed on the systems defined in this chapter. Any such station may be used for establishing a survey connection to either Rhode Island coordinate system set forth in § 34-8-1 of this chapter.
R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-8-3