The U.S. Department of Transportation will offer a $125 million grant to Rhode Island to rebuild the Washington Bridge, half of which had to be closed due to structural problems. The state is rushing to replace the structure, which carries I-195 in the Providence area.
The state Department of Transportation had applied for $221 million in Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant support for the estimated $368 million replacement project.
“It’s a big win for us,” Gov. Dan McKee (D) told a television reporter.
Traffic and diverted costs have been major issues since the partial shutdown, elevating the project to major story status in New England.
In March, structural deterioration that forced the partial closure of December 2023 that was determined to be more serious than originally thought, according to state transportation officials, requiring the demolition and replacement of the 56-year-old westbound span.
To recover funds needed to rebuild the bridge, the state DOT filed a lawsuit Aug. 16 against 13 engineers and contractors who had inspected or performed work on the bridge over the past decade.
The DOT lawsuit claims all defendants knew or should have known about the 56-year-old engineering and inspection history of the bridge on I-195 and considered it “as part of their obligations collectives with the State”.
In the days before the grant announcement, the state DOT had temporarily shut down the ongoing demolition of the closed western half of the bridge to gather evidence for its lawsuit against the engineers and contractors.
“The goal is to be able to proceed with the demolition as quickly as possible while ensuring that important evidence is preserved,” McKee and the attorney general said. Peter F. Nero in a joint statement.
“We enabled our legal team to make sure no stone was left unturned,” McKee said in response to questions from a TV reporter.
The anticipation of the lawsuits after McKee’s earlier plea of liability may have cooled the atmosphere surrounding the state’s request for proposals to replace the westbound span of the bridge.
Proposals were due in July, but no companies made submissions.
