WALSH CONSTRUCTION CO. He has been selected to build a new west range for the Washington I-195 bridge in Providence, Ri, restoring a crossing for closing in December 2023 due to advanced structural deterioration.
WSH and WSP design partner will start working on the $ 339 million design design project next month, according to the Rhode Island transport department. The agency has also budgeted a $ 10 million bonus to finish before the expected date of November 2028, with a daily penalty of $ 25,000 for lost milestone dates. Contingency funds, inspection and representative services of the owner and other “mild costs” could contribute the total cost of the reconstruction project up to $ 427 million, according to Ridot.
“It’s an excellent offer, it’s an excellent price,” said Ridot’s director, Peter Alviti, told a June 6 press conference that he announced the team.
He said that while Walsh/WSP cost estimate for better value hiring was about $ 50 million less than the supply of the American competitor Bridge Co./mlj Contracting Corp., the technical proposals of both teams were “within a couple of points.”
According to Ridot, the five -lane replacement bridge will be more than 450 feet shorter than its 1,671 feet predecessor, which closed in short term in December 2023 when it was found that the structural deterioration discovered during a repair project was more widespread than it had been reported during previous scheduled inspections.
Last August, Ridot filed a lawsuit against 13 engineers and contractors who had inspected or done work on the bridge for the last decade. This litigation is still pending. In the meantime, the east duration of the Washington Bridge has been temporarily reconfigured to manage traffic in two roads until a replacement is built.
After finding a structural deterioration in December 2023, the to the west The bridge was closed and the bridge has managed two -way traffic since then. The west bridge was demolished after it was determined in March 2024 that the structural deterioration of the The 56 -year period was Worse than what was originally thought.
Image courtesy Rhode Island Dept. transportation
The complete demolition of the west bridge is scheduled to complete in December, with the elimination of the latest underwater foundations.
Walsh replacement design calls for a new substructure with fewer water pilasters in the Seekonk River, a capacity of 80,000 vehicles per day and features that will facilitate the easiest bridge to inspect and maintain during their 100 -year design lifetime.
Walsh’s construction program Chuck Parrish told journalists that his team shaped his approach to the He has recently completed the South Span of Rocks Bridge’s I-270 chain, a 5,400-foot concrete concrete beam structure through the Walst Mississippi River built as part of a $ 496.2 project for the departments of Illinois and Missouri. of transport.
“The rational repetitive design of the elements of the structure … combined with consistent and easily productive steel members allowed high quality quick construction,” said Parrish, who added that the rock bridge chain is almost three and a half times the duration of the planned Washington Bridge and was completed in two years.
The unique opportunity to build essentially the same bridge twice, Parrish said: “It gave us the confidence to compromise both the price and the calendar that we can surely fulfill to deliver the new bridge” to Rhode Island.
The ridiculous financing strategy for the new bridge includes up to $ 334.6 million in Garvee link capacity and two Mega-Infra federal subsidies for $ 221 million finished earlier this year. The State will also use more than $ 107 million from the budget of its capital project budget, a federal construction subsidy of $ 15 million and $ 35 million in unused pandemic federal aid.
As such, Governor Dan McKee (D) told journalists: “The new bridge will be built at no extra cost for taxpayers.”
The way to replacement
The WalSH selection for the reconstruction of the Washington Westbound bridge arrives almost a year after the initial RFP of Ridot for a quick replacement did not attract any bidder. A reworked contracting process that offers similar early end incentives with a less aggressive timeline led to the pre -selection of Walsh and the American Bridge/MLJ team last December.
In addition to the new west bridge, the project also includes several measures aimed at addressing long-term congestion updates along the I-195 runner, including reconfigurated travel lanes and widening two existing bridges in East Providence. The prefabricated arches will be built on local streets on both Providence sides and the river East of the river to imitate the gaze of the original Washington bridge, according to Ridot.
The agency has also increased the frequency and content of its inspection program for the reach of the Washington Bridge bridge, including the addition of automated control equipment. The director of Ridot, Alviti, told journalists that two separate evaluations from the structural charges commissioned by the agency determined that the structural integrity of the Eastbound bridge had not been committed to two -way traffic loads and temporary concrete barriers.
Alviti expressed confidence that the bridge in the east direction will continue to work safely during the construction of the new Westbound interval. He cited an analysis of the recently received monitoring loading capacity of the structure that “did not find any change in the original evaluation”.
