Lawmakers from the Rhode Island House and Senate’s respective oversight committees whittled away the daylight as they played 20 questions Thursday with Peter Alviti, Jr., the director of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT).
Well, there were a lot more than 20 questions at the nearly three-hour joint oversight hearing in windowless, subterranean Room 35 of the Rhode Island State House.
It’s been a little over 13 months since the Washington Bridge’s westbound lane shuttered due to structural deficiencies, but curiosity remains. Legislators wanted to know when demolition will end on the old bridge, when the new structure will go up, as well as an assortment of other concerns and clarifications.
“Our mission is to build this bridge, and we’re gonna build it,” Alviti said.
But not all questions were permitted: Lawmakers couldn’t ask about the pending litigation against 13 vendors who worked on, inspected or designed the bridge’s original westbound span, which has been closed since December 2023.
“We’ll avoid questions that will impact the lawsuit,” said Sen. Mark McKenney, the Warwick Democrat who chairs the Senate Committee on Rules, Government Ethics and Oversight, in his opening remarks. “As much as we’d like to discuss some of those issues pertaining to causation.”
While the hearing couldn’t untangle the failure’s root causes, Rep. Patricia Serpa, the West Warwick Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Oversight, cast the joint event as a means of sharing information and hopefully restoring public confidence in RIDOT — especially for people who, like her, don’t like driving over bridges.
“I personally have gone out of my way to avoid them, even if it meets a few extra miles. I just won’t use them,” Serpa said. “So I hope that your department can ultimately restore the trust of all of us and for all of the folks out there.”
Here are a few key points and highlights from the meeting.
1. How far along is the demolition?
The demolition of the closed bridge’s superstructure is now 80% complete, Alviti said, and will be finished this month. The final stage involves demolition of the bridge’s substructure, which Alviti said will begin next month.
2. Who will build the new bridge, and how much will it cost?
You’ll have to wait until June for those answers. That’s when one of two vendors — Walsh Construction, or the combined team of American Bridge Company and MLJ Contracting Corporation — will be awarded the contract to build the new bridge.
Alviti said the vendors’ price proposals will arrive on May 30. The bids are fixed once submitted, so that’s the price the state is going to have to pay, Alviti said. But Alviti didn’t want to commit to an earlier price estimate from last April of $368 million.
Whatever the price, Alviti said, “We have enough funding in play. We’re confident we have enough funding in place to cover those costs,” noting later that there is currently $713 million in funding available for the new bridge between federal and state sources.
3. Who will oversee the bridge contracts?
While the Rhode Island Department of Administration draws up purchasing contracts to comply with state procurement laws, it’s RIDOT that submits the necessary technical specs that go into requests for proposal (RFP) from vendors.
Rep. Julie Casimiro, a North Kingstown Democrat, asked who at RIDOT would be managing the RFP for the new bridge. Alviti said he would.
“I submitted to you my CV for your review,” he said. “I’ve taken a personal interest in this one, as you can understand.”
Anthony Pompei, a registered professional engineer and project manager at RIDOT since 2016, is overseeing the demolition project. Both men’s résumés can be found in the packet of documents given to committee members Thursday.
4. How long will it take to build the new bridge?
Alviti couldn’t answer that question, even though Serpa pressed the director to answer in “25 words or less.”
Alviti began speaking, “There are so many ways they can build this bridge —”
Serpa interjected politely: “OK, but I don’t need to know all the ways.”
“Once they pick the way they’re going to build it, they’ll know how long it’s going to take,” Alviti said, reiterating that that information would be most likely available in June with the contract’s finalization.
5. Will the federal funding mandates affect any of the bridge funding?
Alviti didn’t think so. Based on communications RIDOT had with the Federal Highway Administration, Alviti interpreted President Donald Trump’s executive order — which seeks to constrain federal transportation funds for certain projects — as having a more narrow focus on initiatives that wouldn’t apply to the Washington Bridge, like the Green New Deal or DEI.
“We have a total of $550 million worth of grants awarded to us that should be made available to us as they were originally promised,” Alviti said, adding that his department has been in touch with the Federal Highway Administration “on a daily basis to make sure that they continue…to get the funds for those two grants released.”
6. Will the new bridge cost more than expected?
The final contract price will be based on fixed bids and won’t fluctuate, Alviti said, but added that the cost of materials could change.
Any cost overruns would come from the same three categories that can make any transportation project more expensive: steel, liquid asphalt and diesel. The U.S. Department of Transportation stipulates that transportation projects use domestic steel, so tariffs wouldn’t affect that resource, but Alviti said it’s uncertain if a trade war could ultimately affect the domestic supply chain.
Still, Alviti was confident the finalist vendors have strong relationships with domestic steel suppliers. He also testified that, in the 290 bridges Rhode Island built in the past decade, 95% of the projects were on budget.
7. Should that truck really be in the left lane?
Rep. Jennifer Boylan, a Barrington Democrat, drives over the bridge often. In the bridge’s current three-lane configuration, used in both directions, the right lane is a bit wider and meant to accommodate trucks and larger vehicles. But Boylan worries that the trucks she often sees driving in the left lane could be compromising the bridge’s safety.
Said Boylan: “My husband’s like, ‘Would you just stop about the right lane already?’ Because I’m always, saying, ‘Oh my god, Do I need to worry when trucks are not in the right lane?’”
Alviti said the structural integrity of the bridge is intact even with the reconfigured lanes, and the right lane rules derive from a driving safety standpoint, not an engineering concern.
“It makes me nervous as much as it makes you nervous,” Alviti said of trucks driving in the left lane. “So tell your husband to bug off.”
8.Does the losing vendor get a consolation prize?
Yes: The finalist who does not win the construction contract gets $1.75 million, as a stipend for procurement is standard practice, Alviti said. He added that the two bidders will pay millions over the next few months, each employing around 10 to 12 separate firms to help perform scores of engineering, financial and cost analyses before they submit their final bids.
Sen. Gordon Rogers, a Foster Republican who asked Alviti this question, said it wasn’t meant as a “gotcha.” Rogers recalled working construction, spending hours around his kitchen table, crafting project bids that might go nowhere.
“This ain’t that,” Alviti said.
This story was reported and published by the Rhode Island Current.
