How did we get here? Lawmakers get their turn to question RIDOT about Washington Bridge

PROVIDENCE – Nearly two months after the abrupt closure of the westbound span of the Washington Bridge thrust the state into commuter chaos, Peter Alviti, the top man in the state's Department of Transportation, faced a legislative inquisition.

Alviti said he was "truly sorry."

"I'm truly sorry for the difficulty that people are experiencing every day in the state because of the Washington Bridge," he said. "I want to let you and the public know that ...700 [DOT] people and myself are working 24-7. We eat, drink and sleep the problems of this every day and [are] trying to find the solutions to it for everyone."

Heading into Monday's joint House-Senate oversight hearing, Rhode Island lawmakers wanted to know how the bridge's condition went undetected for so long and, now that we're here, what the state intends to do with the critically damaged Washington Bridge – fix it or replace it?

While they were at it, one lawmaker from Bristol asked how the state plans to keep traffic moving through the narrow emergency bypass created between concrete barriers on the eastbound side if Tuesday's storm dumps a lot of snow.

Alviti assured Rep. Susan Donovan: "We have the equipment. We have the personnel" and an emergency snow removal plan. "We expect to have all roads cleared by midnight and ready for the [next day's] commute," he said.

But not all questions got immediate answers.

Did pigeon droppings play a role in concealing bridge damage?

At one head-scratching moment, for example, Alviti assured the legislators that "severe pigeon debris" did not obstruct views of the severed tie-down rods that, once discovered, led to the Dec. 11 bridge shutdown.

At least two lawmakers were alarmed by emails from the inspectors who conducted the emergency examination of the bridge in December who said they hadn't been able to see the condition of the structure previously because of "pigeon debris."

The December inspection, like the most recent annual inspection in July, was conducted by AECOM, which is also serving as the state's representative overseeing an ongoing $78-million construction project at the bridge.

"Does that mean that that firm that is now the owner's representative, couldn't conduct a full inspection of the bridge that is now out of service?" Rep. June Speakman, D-Warren, asked Alviti.

"No," he said. "When we got those ... reports, for example, in the area where the pins actually broke, there was no pigeon [debris]. The mention of that was in another section of bridge."

Wherever the pigeon guano was building up, Rep. Edie Ajello said, she was concerned that people "charged with doing an inspection would note something like that, say that it was in their way, and then walk away not having really completed the inspection."

Having eliminated pigeon poop as an explanation, Alviti did not immediately address what would explain how such major damage went undetected until a "young engineer" − not there to do an inspection − spotted it in December.

Rep. Chippendale questions Alviti aggressively

Alviti did not fully answer several other questions posed by House Minority Leader Michael Chippendale about why there were no earlier load restrictions on the bridge, given what he suggested was known earlier, and photos that appeared to be misidentified.

Alviti asked Chippendale for a copy of the document he was citing on the need for load limits.

Moving on, Chippendale mentioned "inconsistencies in the photos" where it appeared "the dates are manipulated. You can [also] see that there's two different typefaces used. They're at a different level, et cetera, et cetera. That calls into question if anything in the report can be relied on."

"No it does not," said Alviti. "I think that's a reflection of maybe the poor editing capabilities of whoever made the edit to it. I don't know."

"OK," said Chippendale, "then why over these four years or this period with four different inspection companies, do we have reports that have the exact same verbiage, including errors, the exact same dates underneath photos? Why is that happening?"

Alviti said it is possible these companies go to "a central depository for their inspection reports" and use "pre formatted text that they just leave in place if the condition they find is the same as the one that pre-existed."

Others asked if the rusting seen in the photos happened between the last annual inspection in July 2023 and December. "No I don't believe so. I think the rusting took place over a long period of time," Alviti said.

Asked if the shearing of the tie-down rods down to one-inch − and severing of others − happened in that time, "No, I don't believe so," said Alviti, acknowledging "the necking showed up in previous reports but it never rose to a level of concern of being a critical finding."

$100M in work done on bridge and none of it touched this problem

Since Alviti took over, the DOT has awarded around $100 million in contracts for work on the Washington Bridge and none of it involved fixing the failing structures of the bridge that caused the closure.

"In looking at this in retrospect," Sen. Mark McKenney, chairman of the Senate oversight committee, asked why no one looked at the anchor rods or other pieces of the bridge now under scrutiny, when approving such large projects.

Alviti said the DOT looked at the areas that had already "deteriorated the most."

"In this case, the bridge deck was severely deteriorated and we had the design-build team design a bridge deck that would last 25 years," he said. "And at that time, the engineering data that we had on the rest of the structure was that it would match that timeframe so we would get another 25 years worth of [use] out of this structure.

"That didn't end up being the case, did it?" Alviti acknowledged.

McKenney: "We're spending a huge amount on that contract, which is, as you said, for the [bridge] deck primarily ... Why wouldn't they at least look at what's below the deck and look at those rods?"

Alviti said the consultants analyzing what happened to the structure will help answer that question.

"Well, we're trying to figure it out because we know now that that was wrong," he said. "But the question is why was it wrong [and] what responsibilities lie with those decisions?"

What else happened during the oversight committee hearing?

In addition to Alviti, the head of RIDOT since he was hired away from the Laborers' International Union in 2015 by then-Gov. Gina Raimondo, the legislators also heard from:

• Joseph Almond, Gov. Dan McKee's deputy chief of staff who was dispatched, by the governor, to RIDOT late last month to be his eyes and ears.

• Jeffrey Klein, the director of structural engineering for Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc (VHB), the design consultant on the bridge repair project that was underway when the severed tie-rods – undetected by an inspection team from AECOM as recently as last July – were detected in December.

When the bridge was first closed, the DOT has estimated that temporary repairs could get the westbound span open again within three months.

By January it was clear the condition of the bridge was worse than initially thought and the repairs would take longer, but the DOT provided no details of the new problems found.

Klein, described some of the "new defects" found between Jan. 6 and 16.

They included, among other things "concrete section loss," "unsound concrete," "voids" and "soft grout."

"All of these deficiencies could indicate reduced tension in [cables within concrete beams] resulting in internal loss of strength within the existing beams," Klein said.

'We shouldn't downplay it'

The hearing began with House Oversight Chairwoman Patricia Serpa acknowledging "the stress and the major life disruption that the closure of this bridge has caused."

"We shouldn't downplay it and suggest that people suck it up or just deal with it," added McKenney.

"People are dealing with it, even when it's at its worst," McKenney said of the failure of several critical tie-down rods that precipitated the bridge closing. "But to many Rhode Islanders ... it also appears that it could be a failure of other things including planning, design, engineering, maintenance, inspections or leadership.

Rep. Jon Brien, I-Woonsocket, criticized McKee for suggesting delays on I-195 around the bridge were only around 10 or 15 minutes.

"We are not going to get the solutions unless we acknowledge we have carmageddon out there every single rush hour," Brien said, "and are trying to push the ocean through a garden hose."

"It could. We don't know, but that's how many see it right now."

In his turn, Alviti acknowledged the "frustration" and "disruption," telling the legislators that he knows "it's affected small businesses. It's affected moms and dads getting their children to school ... It's affected folks just trying to get to their jobs."

"We know this. We hear it. We live it. The folks, some 700 folks that work with me at DOT, all to some degree are sharing that experience with you," he said.

"While this is tough ... we've all seen what could happen if the safeguards that we put in place and the closure that we put in place didn't take place," he said. "We've seen ... what happens to bridges that failed due to structural deficiencies ... [where] hundreds of lives were lost, and a thousand people were injured."

Alviti also defended the "culture" at DOT, which leaders of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 400 called "toxic" in an interview with the Boston Globe. Alviti attributed that view to "a few employees who have resisted" positive changes he has tried to make at the state transportation agency.

"You don't get to 100% on-time, on-budget [performance], and you don't get to constructing 270 bridges in eight years with a toxic work environment," he said.

Bridge shutdown has spawned a federal investigation

The discovery of the potentially "catastrophic'' damage has prompted the U.S. Department of Justice and the Inspector General's office within the U.S. Department of Transportation to open an investigation into an "allegation that false claims for payment for services and/or false statements in support of such payments have been submitted to the U.S. government."

"These payments relate to claims submitted involving the construction, inspection, and/or repair of the Interstate 195 Washington Bridge connecting Providence and East Providence, Rhode Island," read the letter demanding documents dating back to Jan. 1, 2015.

In other words, federal investigators are seeking documents that span the administrations of two governors: McKee and Raimondo, the current U.S. secretary of commerce.

More: Who's who in the Washington Bridge closure? Here's a breakdown of those involved.

How much has DOT already spent on the closed westbound span?

The DOT has declined to provide a summary of the work done on the bridge by either contract that so far has cost a combined $52.9 million.

The Cardi Corp. was hired in 2016 on a $21.3-million contract that was cut short in 2018 after temporary traffic patterns on the bridge caused huge traffic jams. The DOT spent $18.3 million on the Cardi contract.

After going out to bid again to finish the work, the DOT hired a consortium led by Barletta on a $78-million contract. As of the end of last year, the DOT had spent $34.6 million on the Barletta contract.

The current lineup of private contractors includes: VHB as a member of the Barletta/Aetna DB Team; VN Engineers, Inc.; AECOM; Michael Baker International; Wiss, Janney, Elstner Assoc. Inc. (WJE); Consor; Bridge Diagnostics Inc.; McNary Bergeron & Johannesen.

Asked by legislative staff the role of each company, RIDOT provided these and other answers last Friday:

"VN is performing a modeling analysis. WJE is performing a forensic investigation. Consor is performing an underwater inspection. BDI is monitoring the stability of the bridge. MBI general superstructure inspection. AECOM is RIDOT’s representative coordinating the construction efforts. VHB is the Engineer of Record for the Bridge Group 57T-10-I-195 Washington North Phase 2 contract."

It is unclear if lawmakers will question the manner in which RIDOT has historically hired a contractor for one job and then given the new work to contractors already on the payroll via a series of "change-orders" or "Master Price Agreement" maneuvers without ever going back out to bid.

RI Republicans using bridge trouble to call for state 'inspector general'

Rhode Island GOP Chairman Joe Powers on Monday again seized on the bridge shutdown as an argument for having an "inspector general" to probe contracts – and other potentially wasteful, inefficient and fraudulent state practices, he said.

As it happens, the last in depth probe of RIDOT contract awards was conducted by the state's existing Bureau of Audits nearly 30 years ago, when the late Lincoln Almond, a former U.S. Attorney, was governor.

Among the findings was that winning contractors would offer to do road and bridge repair work for far less than the state Department of Transportation's engineers estimate the job will cost. Once the work was under way, the cost jumped.

Looking at 116 state contracts over a two year period for a total of $215.4 million awarded to 17 contractors, the auditors found that after-the-fact price changes and additions drove the cost of these projects up by $42.9 million dollars, or by 23%, bringing the final tab to $258.3 million.

"And that included one curious case where DOT loaded a $67,975 bill for 'emergency repairs' to a washed-out culvert in Little Compton onto a contract the state gave the Cardi Corporation for a project in Narragansett," the report read.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RIDOT officials face inquisition over Washington Bridge closure