All options, including complete rebuild, on table for Washington Bridge, Alviti says in update
The condition of the westbound span of the Washington Bridge appears to be worse than Rhode Island transportation officials thought when they closed it in December, and may require it to be replaced.
Rhode Island Department of Transportation Director Peter Alviti said Monday a final decision on how to repair the bridge carrying Interstate I-195 will not be made until engineering consultants have finished a complete report on the bridge's condition.
But the three-month repair timeline the DOT provided more than a month ago is now gone, and Alviti declined to provide any updated timeline on the project – beyond indefinite – until the full analysis is done.
He also declined to elaborate what engineers found while inspecting the bridge that caused the old timeline to be scrapped and started consideration of a much larger reconstruction project.
"I'm not going to speculate on the scope of additional deficiencies that they found until we have their complete report," Alviti told reporters at a hastily called news conference Monday afternoon as rumors swirled around the project.
"We owe it to the public to report on things that we know rather than the things we speculate," he added at the briefing also attended by Gov. Dan McKee. "And likewise with the schedule, depending upon the scope of deficiency that they find, that will determine how long it's going to take to rebuild."
What is happening with the Washington Bridge right now?
Alviti said consultants have been brought in from all over the United States to help expedite the analysis and inspection of the bridge. The report with recommendations on how to fix the bridge is separate from a forensic analysis that's also begun to determine how the bridge ended up in such bad condition it needed to be abruptly closed.
The span was closed to traffic Dec. 11 after an engineer working for a contractor noticed that multiple steel tension rods that anchor the bridge deck to support piers were broken.
The closure paralyzed traffic on both sides of the Seekonk River. After a week, the DOT re-routed westbound I-195 traffic onto two lanes of the newer eastbound span.
Work unrelated to the support structures that failed had been happening on the westbound Washington Bridge span before the shutdown and that work continues now. They include building a new ramp to Waterfront Drive in East Providence. Alviti said the components being constructed now will be useful, no matter the course of action taken on repairs.
What might happen to the Washington Bridge?
Beyond a total teardown and rebuild, Alviti offered several other scenarios for the Washington Bridge.
"It could be a repair of the existing structure, although extensive, it could be a reconstruction of various components of the bridge structure, or it could be a complete rebuild of the entire bridge," he said.
Regardless of the scope of work, Alviti said the state will utilize the "rapid construction" techniques they have used to rebuild over 400 bridges in the state in the last several years.
At the same time, the DOT will be looking over its inventory of bridges to see if any others have problems similar to the Washington Bridge.
Emergency westbound lanes on the eastbound side of the bridge have been open for over a month, though there continues to be traffic problems in the area.
Alviti said the Federal Highway Administration is working with the state on "the inspection, the structural analysis, the funding, and in the development of the scope of work that we're doing."
There was no estimate for when the scope of work on the bridge will be determined or when the next report from the consultants working on the forensic analysis will be made public.
The lead engineering consultant on the bridge design is a subcontractor to VHB. The engineer working on the forensic analysis is a subcontractor to Michael Baker Company.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: 195 Washington Bridge closure update from Gov. McKee and Peter Alviti
