Political Scene: The campaign contributions of Washington Bridge contractors

The "carmageddon" surrounding the beleaguered Washington Bridge has acquainted Rhode Islanders with names like AECOM, Cardi, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin and Barletta, the engineering and construction firms providing most of the ground troops fighting to keep the bridge standing.

Ocean state politicians' campaign managers have been familiar with them for years.

Like almost any industry that serves the government, the highway infrastructure sector provides steady if not spectacular donors to Rhode Island political campaigns.

Over the last two decades, the employees of companies involved in the building of Rhode Island's roads and bridges have donated at least a half-million dollars to state and local campaigns, according to a rough Political Scene estimate of Board of Elections filings.

That's modest compared to some other interest groups. Firefighters unions, for example, will make more than $100,000 in combined contributions in an individual election cycle if particularly critical legislation is at stake. It also does not include an even larger pool of contributions from parts of the construction industry not focused on highway work, such as builders like Gilbane and Dimeo.

But it's not nothing in a state that until recently had a $1,000 individual annual contribution limit. (It's now $2,000.)

The owners and top executives from construction and engineering firms spread their donations around to candidates of both parties, both chambers of the General Assembly and some mayors.

Are any of the coterie of firms working on the Washington Bridge throwing big money at elected officials?

They've spent some, but none would qualify as mega-donors.

Firm in the spotlight

The company whose employees have spent the most on recent campaigns is AECOM, the Dallas-based international engineering giant that has been involved in projects on the Washington Bridge for many years.

AECOM conducted the annual inspection of the bridge in July that found the structure safe, though not in particularly good condition. (One of a handful of contractors the Department of Transportation uses to do regular bridge inspections, AECOM also did the annual inspection of the Washington Bridge in 2020.)

AECOM is the "owner's project manager" representing the DOT on technical issues around the $78-million Washington Bridge rehab project that was halted by the bridge shutdown. In that role the company also helped write the request for proposals to select the contractor.

And AECOM provided the traffic data and modeling used in 2018 to design traffic patterns during a previous Washington Bridge construction project that was ultimately abandoned when congestion clogged I-195 for hours. The DOT did not ultimately use AECOM's recommended traffic pattern and blamed another contractor for the traffic mess.

Going back to 2002, the first year in the Board of Elections public database, AECOM employees have made around $41,000 in donations to Rhode Island politicians.

More than half that total – $25,400 – went to then-Gov. Gina Raimondo, who in 2015 hired DOT Director Peter Alviti Jr. and launched a toll-financed bridge-repair project backed by organized labor. Providence Mayor Brett Smiley, Raimondo's former chief of staff and director of administration, got $2,500 from AECOM employees.

Matt Bucci, a top Raimondo aide who left the governor's office for a job with AECOM in 2016, and then-AECOM Chief Growth Officer Vahid Ownjazayeri donated $1,750 worth of catered food and drink for a June fundraiser before Raimondo's 2018 re-election.

By contrast, AECOM employees have made only two $500 donations to Gov. Dan McKee over the years.

Before the Washington Bridge, AECOM gained notoriety at the State House because of a smaller bridge that closed just as Raimondo swept to power on a platform that included tolling tractor-trailers to fund bridge repairs.

The Park Avenue bridge over the Northeast Corridor train tracks in Cranston was abruptly shut down in June 2015 after AECOM found it was in danger of collapsing.

The bridge was a block away from then-House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello's law office. Mattiello had declined to bring a Senate-passed version of Raimondo's toll bill to a vote, raising questions about whether the bridge closing was a high-pressure negotiating tactic.

Mattiello demanded an investigation of how the bridge could deteriorate so suddenly – sound familiar? – but nothing came of it and the bridge was eventually repaired.

The other players

In total, the seven contractors working on the bridge now have given around $85,000 to Rhode Island candidates over the years.

Employees of Aetna Bridge, one of the partners in the joint venture with the $78-million current contract on the bridge, have given $23,500.

Employees of VHB, whose "young engineer" spotted the damage on the bridge that triggered its eventual closing, have contributed $10,500.

In many ways, what's notable about the list of contributions from infrastructure firms is how comparatively little some of the new leaders in Rhode Island highway construction are giving compared with the companies that once dominated state transportation contracts.

The consortium of Barletta Heavy Division and Aetna Bridge won its current bridge contract – after multiple lawsuits and an intervention from the Federal Highway Administration – over Cardi Corporation, formerly the leading light in Rhode Island highway construction.

Compared with Cardi, which was based in Warwick before going out of business late last year, Massachusetts-based Barletta plays a negligible role in Rhode Island campaigns.

Timothy Barletta, a former employee of the company and brother of CEO Vincent Barletta, gave $5,000 to the Rhode Island Democratic Party in 2017, plus $1,000 to House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi's Political Action Committee. (Shekarchi was House majority leader at the time.)

But that's about it, as far as direct donations go.

In contrast, Cardi employees donated more than $140,000 since 2002 to a vast array of elected officials and candidates, including Raimondo: $18,000; Donald Carcieri: $13,000; McKee: $9,150, and Allan Fung: $4,000. Of those contributions, around $23,000 was made through the Construction Industries of Rhode Island PAC.

The leaders and employees of D'Ambra Construction of Coventry aren't that far behind the Cardis with $134,000 in campaign contributions over the same period, $13,000 of that total made through the Construction Industries of Rhode Island PAC.

For global firms like AECOM, or even big out-of-state players like Barletta or Connecticut-based Manafort Brothers ($13,600 in donations,) staying in good graces with Rhode Island politicians is not an existential part of their business plan.

The exception to the rule that local companies donate more might be JR Vinagro, the Johnston demolition specialists who took over Cardi's assets. The majority of the $1,700 in donations from Vinagro employees came from a $1,000 contribution in 2019 to North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi.

Barletta has been the big winner in recent competitions to land lucrative design-build contracts for Rhode Island projects including the Washington Bridge, Pawtucket Central Falls train station and reconstruction of the 6-10 interchange.

A joint venture by Skanska and Manafort landed the contract for the massive rebuild and expansion of the Interstate 95 North Providence Viaduct.

The DOT has moved to a design-build system under Alviti, in which a single private entity is responsible for design and construction of a project instead of construction alone. The complexity involved tends to favor larger companies with more experience on mega-projects.

A different type of donation

Direct political donations are not the only way DOT contractors show their appreciation.

In 2018, a number of road and bridge engineering and construction firms were listed as benefactors, community partners and corporate friends on the program for an event honoring Alviti as the DaVinci Center's "Humanitarian of the Year."

In addition to a New England arm of the Laborers International Union and VHB, the "sponsors and supporters" listed on the program included:

AECOM, Construction Industries of Rhode Island (whose members include, among others, the Cardi Corporation and AETNA Bridge), WSP-USA, Manafort Brothers, Beta Group, Commonwealth Engineers & Construction Inc., Setna Bridge Company, Pare Corporation, Gordon R. Archibald Inc., John Rocchio Corporation, Steere Engineering and Collins Engineers.

Most though not all were on the DOT consultant payroll at the time.

The Plainville, Connecticut-based Manafort Brothers was suing DOT at the time. About three weeks after the DaVinci Center event, a Superior Court judge ruled in Manafort's favor because lawyers for the DOT missed a critical deadline to respond to the contractor's multimillion-dollar claim for a major bridge project.

It is not clear from the DaVinci Center program how much each of the contractors gave, though The Journal independently confirmed donations ranging from the $1,000 given by former Providence Mayor Joseph Paolino and the $25,000 given by Janet and Bob Capone (neither of whom is a DOT contractor).

The only one of the donors with a DOT contract who responded to Journal inquiries was VHB.

"In 2018, VHB supported the DaVinci Center – a neighborhood, multi-purpose social service agency whose mission is to deliver needed services to residents of all ages in the North End of Providence and vicinity – through a $1,000 benefactor-level donation," company spokeswoman Michelle Zhe told The Journal.

The chairman of the DaVinci Center Board, Michael DeAngelis, and the executive director, Norma Gonzalez, declined to answer Journal questions about the manner in which the donations were solicited from state contractors, though Gonzalez said: "Our fundraising efforts are crucial in sustaining our programs and services, allowing us to continue making a positive impact."

Paolino, who is one of the DaVinci Center's regular contributors, guessed at what happened, and it all came down to the way the late John DeLuca, the founder and long-time executive director of the DaVinci Center director, went about fundraising.

"Honoring Peter was a good choice,'' Paolino said. He "is highly thought of with communities like the DaVinci Center, which was originally an Italian-American social service agency."

But talking more broadly about who gets honored. Paolino said. "It's nice to think you get honored on your merits, but sometimes you get honored if you can help raise money." His example: if a union leader gets honored, unions line up to donate.

That said, Paolino guessed it was the DaVinci Center – not anyone at DOT – who reached out to the contractors. "What does Peter Alviti care if somebody gives or doesn't give?

"He's too busy to raise money," Paolino said. "It's up to the nonprofit to raise the money."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Political Scene: The campaign contributions of Washington Bridge contractors