Sec. Buttigieg is coming to RI next week. Here are some questions he may face.

When U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg visits Rhode Island Tuesday, he'll likely be asked some questions about the now-condemned westbound Washington Bridge.

Among them is likely to be how much of the cost, now estimated at up to $300 million, the federal government will pay to tear the old bridge down and replace it with a new one.

Another question is whether the Biden administration will try to recoup any of the money, at least $55.4 million so far, that was spent on Washington Bridge repair projects since 2015. The federal government has covered most of that money, some of which we now know was wasted.

In addition to traditional federal highway formula money, the most recent aborted bridge repair project – which had been expected to cost $78 million – was being funded with a $25-million federal grant.

Rhode Island Department of Transportation spokesman Charles St. Martin Friday said $10 million of the $25-million grant has been spent fixing up the bridge that is about to be demolished.

"For the remaining $15 million, RIDOT is working with FHWA in order to use the funding on the new bridge contract," St. Martin wrote in an email.

A U.S. Department of Transportation media advisory issued Friday morning doesn't mention the Washington Bridge by name. It said Buttigieg "will travel to Rhode Island to visit transportation and infrastructure projects and hear about how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is increasing job opportunities for workers and apprentices across the state."

More: 'You don't see this every day': Why is the Washington Bridge so strange?

McKee also facing unanswered questions

Gov. Dan McKee's office was maintaining radio silence on the Buttigieg visit Friday.

After announcing Thursday that the ailing bridge will need to be torn down, McKee is also facing unanswered questions about it.

One of them is whether there was any way to rebuild the bridge in less than the 18-to-24-month timeframe now under consideration.

On Thursday, McKee said going through the traditional request for proposals process for a new bridge would get "the best pricing" and "the best quality of the individuals that do that work."

The reference to "quality of the individuals" may be aimed at the construction consortium of Barletta Heavy Division and Aetna Bridge that had been working on the bridge when its structural problems were identified in December and it was abruptly closed to traffic.

More: Westbound Washington Bridge needs to be demolished. What it means for the state.

Barletta excluded from federal highway jobs

The Barletta team is under a "voluntary exclusion" from bidding on new federally funded highway projects according to correspondence between the Rhode Island DOT and Federal Highway Administration provided Thursday in response to an Access to Public Records request.

On Dec. 22, two weeks after the westbound bridge was closed, RIDOT asked the FHWA for permission to have Barletta perform emergency work on the bridge, including fixing the broken tie-down rods and routing westbound traffic onto the eastbound span. Barletta had already begun that work when RIDOT made its request.

FHWA Division Administrator Derek Torrey responded the next day, granting a "retroactive exception" to Barletta's "suspension and debarment exclusion."

"As a routine matter, an exception would not be approved unless obtained prior to award of a new contract," Torrey wrote. However, "because safety and access goals in the Interstate System are critical to FHWA’s funding decisions, for this limited purpose, FHWA can ratify RIDOT’s use of Barletta as an excluded contractor on this Purchase Order, to allow the emergency funds to continue to flow to this critical safety process."

He went on to say that the information the state provided "does not explain key details about how this Purchase Order award process occurred. The FHWA’s decision today does not constitute a finding that Barletta took the required actions to meet the Company’s obligations."

The letters do not say why Barletta was banned from bidding on federally funded jobs in Rhode Island and rail projects in Massachusetts, but company spokeswoman Patti Doyle confirmed it was related to the company's 2022 settlement with the Department of Justice over contaminated fill at the reconstruction of the Routes 6-10 interchange.

Barletta paid $1.5 million to settle the case, in which the U.S. Attorney's Office argued the firm used contaminated fill trucked to the 6-10 site from its jobs on the Pawtucket commuter rail station and another station in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood.

McKee has hinted at legal action against contractors who may not have done their jobs on the bridge, although he hasn't named names.

It is also possible that Barletta may try to get more than the $37.1 million it has been paid so far of the $78 million westbound repair project. It has also received at least $1 million from the emergency contract.

What about the eastbound bridge?

The revelation that the westbound Washington Bridge had been in much worse condition than anyone realized has raised questions among motorists about the parallel eastbound structure that is now carrying traffic from both directions instead of one.

Unlike the westbound bridge, which opened in 1968, the eastbound bridge was completed in 2006. It replaced a 1930-era bridge, part of which was restored to become the George Redman Linear Park and bike path.

In a briefing for reporters Thursday, Alviti said the eastbound bridge does not share the structural problems of the westbound bridge and two separate consultants said it can safely carry six lanes of traffic in the new alignment being worked on now.

"We had a second independent structural engineering company review the calculations and analysis of the first, and they concurred that it is a safe structure for us to use for six lanes of traffic as long as we need to," Alviti said.

The westbound bridge employed a novel midcentury design involving pre-cast concrete girders reinforced with a steel tensioning system.

The newer eastbound bridge is made up of steel girders.

With reports from Katherine Gregg.

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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Pete Buttigieg will be in RI Tuesday. Will he talk about the bridge?