Latest news with #Target12
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
RI lawmakers reviewing cost estimates for Washington Bridge rebuild
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — State lawmakers are proceeding with caution after Gov. Dan McKee announced that it will cost $427 million and take until at least November 2028 to rebuild the westbound Washington Bridge Friday. McKee said the state has hired Walsh Construction Co. of Chicago to rebuild the heavily traveled bridge that abruptly closed to traffic in December 2023 after a structural failure. SEE ALSO: Washington Bridge rebuild will cost $427 million and take until 2028 In a statement to 12 News, R.I. House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi said lawmakers will be reviewing McKee's cost estimates and will 'evaluate the impact on the budget that the House Finance Committee is preparing.' 'Rhode Islanders who rely on the Washington Bridge have had their daily lives disrupted for nearly 18 months,' Shekarchi said. 'As the bridge project moves forward, [the House] will continue its work ensuring the [McKee] administration is accountable.' R.I. Senate President Valarie Lawson's reaction to McKee's cost estimates was similar. Lawson, who represents East Providence, said the Senate Finance Committee will also be taking a closer look at the cost estimates to rebuild the bridge, 'but all Rhode Islanders deserve safe and reliable transportation infrastructure.' 'Rebuilding the Washington Bridge as expeditiously as possible remains a top priority for me and my constituents,' Lawson said in a statement. 'No one has felt the impact of the bridge's closure more than the residents and small businesses I represent in East Providence.' State officials initially estimated in early 2024 the bridge would cost between $250 million and $300 million, though they cautioned at the time those figures were highly preliminary. A later, more concrete estimate put the price tag at $368 million, making the new $427 million estimate a 16% increase. The new timeline is also considerably longer than state officials' earlier goal of having the new westbound bridge open by August 2026. Asked by a reporter if he took accountability for the inaccurate early estimates, McKee replied, 'I think that we got it right.' He said they had tried to do the project faster but changed course when experts told them it wasn't possible. The rebuild contract is only one part of the overall cost of the Washington Bridge crisis. When demolition and emergency costs are added to the overall total, taxpayers are currently expected to pay $571 million for the infrastructure failure, according to a Target 12 analysis of state documents. More than 96,000 vehicles drove over the westbound I-195 bridge each day before the closure, according to the R.I. Department of Transportation. The state has since rerouted traffic on the eastbound Washington Bridge, a newer span, to go in both directions with additional lanes. TARGET 12: How RI will spend $571M on the Washington Bridge RIDOT Director Peter Alviti said the new bridge that is slated to open in 2028 has been designed to carry 80,000 vehicles every day for 100 years. (Alviti said he expected daily traffic to be lower than pre-closure levels because of the reopening of the Henderson Bridge, another connection between Providence and East Providence.) It will have five lanes instead of four, and I-195 West in East Providence will be widened by removing a lane on the approach to the bridge. There will be a new on-ramp from Gano Street and a new off-ramp to Waterfront Drive. The new bridge will also be shorter than the old one, requiring fewer piers, and will be made to look similar to its predecessor. Walsh is eligible for up to $10 million in incentive payments if the company can get the bridge done sooner than planned. On the flip-side, the company would face $25,000 a day in penalties if it fails to meet the timeline. Advance work will begin next month. Ted Nesi and Eli Sherman contributed to this report. Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
How RI plans to spend $571 million on the Washington Bridge
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Gov. Dan McKee announced Friday that taxpayers will spend $427 million to rebuild the westbound Washington Bridge by November 2028 — but that figure doesn't reflect the full cost of the project. A Target 12 analysis of monthly status reports, along with new documents released Friday, shows the total cost of the infrastructure crisis has grown to $571 million, a roughly 21% increase compared to estimates from nearly one year ago. That figure is roughly double state leaders' earliest estimates of how much it would cost to demolish and replace the bridge, which they initially pegged at between $250 million and $300 million. They had also suggested the new bridge would be open by the fall of 2026, more than two years earlier than is now expected. State leaders say they are now confident about the $571 million and insist it can be paid for with already earmarked taxpayer funds through a mix of debt, federal grants and leftover money from COVID-19 aid. The funding sources break down as $335 million in borrowing against future federal transportation funding; $221 million in federal grants won last year; $108 million from the state's cash account for capital projects; $35 million in redirected pandemic relief money; and $15 million from a prior bridge award. MAIN STORY: Washington Bridge rebuild will cost $427 million and take until 2028, McKee announces Alexandra Leslie (aleslie@ is a Target 12 investigative reporter covering Providence and more for 12 News. Connect with her on Twitter and on Facebook. Eli Sherman (esherman@ is a Target 12 investigative reporter for 12 News. Connect with him on Twitter and on Facebook. Ted Nesi contributed to this report. Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
$427M to rebuild Washington Bridge by November 2028, McKee announces
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Rebuilding the westbound Washington Bridge is expected to cost $427 million and be completed by November 2028, Gov. Dan McKee announced Friday, delivering long-awaited news about the project. McKee said the state has hired Walsh Construction Co. of Chicago to rebuild the heavily traveled bridge that abruptly closed to traffic in December 2023 after a structural failure. Walsh Construction won the contract after a lengthy competitive bidding saga that began just months after the bridge closed. State officials initially in early 2024 estimated the bridge would cost between $250 million and $300 million, though they cautioned at the time those figures were highly preliminary. A later, more concrete estimate put the price tag at $368 million, making the new $427 million estimate a 16% increase. 'I understand that this has been a challenging time for those who rely on the Washington Bridge, especially in the early days before we were able to restore six lanes of traffic,' McKee said at a State House news conference. The rebuild contract is only one part of the overall cost of the Washington Bridge crisis. When demolition and emergency costs are added to the overall total, taxpayers are currently expected to pay $571 million for the infrastructure failure, according to a Target 12 analysis of state documents. 'The bridge is part of a major artery in Rhode Island that impacts thousands of people every day,' he added. 'We owe it to you to deliver a bridge that is safe and will ultimately make your life easier.' More than 96,000 vehicles traveling on I-195 Westbound drove over the bridge each day before the closure, according to the R.I. Department of Transportation. The state has since rerouted traffic on the eastbound Washington Bridge, a newer span, to go in both directions with additional lanes. RIDOT Director Peter Alviti said the new bridge has been designed to carry 80,000 vehicles every day for 100 years. (Alviti said he expected daily traffic to be lower than pre-closure levels because of the reopening of the Henderson Bridge, another connection between Providence and East Providence.) 'We're ready to build this bridge,' Alviti said. While the bridge was initially expected to reopen within a few months after its closure, further inspections revealed it couldn't be salvaged, and it is currently being demolished. But the effort to engineer a quick process for constructing the new bridge failed last July when no companies bid, leading the McKee administration to regroup and change its approach. The initial price tag for demolition was set at $40.5 million, but that cost quickly ballooned to nearly $100 million after the McKee administration decided to expand the project to include tearing down the bridge's substructure. Walsh Construction has built other bridges throughout New England, including the Memorial Bridge in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, also known as the Q Bridge, in New Haven, Connecticut. The losing bidder will be paid $1.75 million as a consolation prize for participating in the process. Eli Sherman (esherman@ is a Target 12 investigative reporter for 12 News. Connect with him on Twitter and on Facebook. Ted Nesi (tnesi@ is a Target 12 investigative reporter and 12 News politics/business editor. He co-hosts Newsmakers and writes Nesi's Notes on Saturdays. Connect with him on Twitter, Bluesky and Facebook. Alexandra Leslie (aleslie@ is a Target 12 investigative reporter covering Providence and more for 12 News. Connect with her on Twitter and on Facebook. Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Shuttered auction house faces million-dollar comic book lawsuit
CRANSTON, R.I. (WPRI) — A Cranston auction house has been tied up in a lawsuit for years after a Canadian comic book collector says thousands of his valuable collectibles seemingly disappeared without fair compensation. In 2020, Bernie Arsenault filed a lawsuit in federal court that names Kevin Bruneau, Travis Landry and Ashle Tortolani from Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers as defendants. Arsenault says he hired the auction house to sell 42,400 of his comic books in 2018, after Landry's multiple appearances on 'Antiques Roadshow' as an expert appraiser convinced him of Bruneau & Co.'s prominent reputation. According to Arsenault, Bruneau told him it would take three or four years to sell the entire collection. 'He said, 'You know, this would be like an annuity,'' explained Arsenault. He told Target 12 he was planning on using the money for his retirement. The lawsuit alleges Arsenault entered into a consignment contract with the company under which they would sell his comic books and keep 25% of the profit, while the remaining money after fees and costs would go back to Arsenault. For a while, he said, 'Everything seemed to be good.' Court documents show that Arsenault received more than $10,000 in checks from the auction house between 2018 and 2020. But the collector became suspicious when some of the checks didn't have any information about which specific comic books were sold and for what price. At first, he sent a letter to Bruneau & Co. asking the company to terminate their contract and send the remaining comic books back to him. When that didn't work out, he decided to file the lawsuit. 'At first it was the monetary, but at this stage of the game, it's now just about justice,' he said. Bruneau's attorney, Stephen Levesque, disputes the allegations made against his client and says Bruneau followed the terms of the agreement. Levesque says the company sold some of the books at a handful of auctions and sent the remaining books back to Arsenault. Levesque also claims that the collection was not worth $1 million as Arsenault claims, valuing it instead around $20,000. The lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial this year, but Bruneau filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in February, which put the trial on hold. Target 12 found more than 50 creditors listed on the filing, which claims Bruneau owes more than $700,000 — mainly to people who consigned with him. READ THE STORY: Local auctioneer files for bankruptcy, still owes consignors around $700K In a recent interview, Sheldon Stowe said he hired the auction company to sell 20 of his father's antique guns, but was never paid. 'It's a sad thing. I know that I didn't lose as much as other people,' Stowe said. Linda Bowers also relied on the auction house to sell her father's antique guns last summer and didn't receive the $3,200 payment that she was owed. 'It's time-consuming and it's frustrating,' she said. Target 12 reached out to Landry and Tortolani for a comment, but hasn't heard back. The bankruptcy case is still ongoing, but those typically take months. Once Bruneau & Co.'s bankruptcy is finalized, Arsenault's case will likely go to trial. Sarah Guernelli (sguernelli@ is the consumer investigative reporter for 12 News. Connect with her on Twitter and on Facebook. Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Suspected Medicaid fraud in RI sparks criminal probe, proposed changes
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Rhode Island officials are proposing abrupt changes to a Medicaid program for community health workers amid state and federal investigation into 'significant concerns about fraud and overpayment,' Target 12 has learned. Kerri White, a spokesperson for the R.I. Executive Office of Health and Human Services, confirmed Monday that federal officials are investigating allegations of fraud, waste and abuse, and they have already made referrals to the R.I. Attorney General's Fraud Unit, along with the U.S. Office of Inspector General. White alleged Medicaid has been the victim of overbilling or fraudulent claims tied to the so-called 'Community Health Worker' program, which funds frontline public health professionals who provide health services in the communities where they live. SEE ALSO: How to avoid falling victim to Medicare fraud Nearly $2 million a month in Medicaid costs are being saved each month from the recent crackdown, according to White, though it remains unclear who is being investigated or how much fraud is suspected. White said her office and the attorney general's office first identified 'suspected credible allegations of fraud, waste and abuse,' along with elevated claim volumes alongside a reduction in benefits served, beginning last October. State officials issued their first suspension in December, but White declined to provide any more specifics, citing the ongoing investigation. 'Currently law enforcement and Medicaid are investigating claims of fraud and overpayment, so I don't have anything additional I can share at this time,' White said. Meanwhile, the state's Medicaid office has proposed abrupt changes to the program, which officials said would 'ensure alignment with program goals and funding parameters.' A public hearing on the proposed changes has been scheduled for Tuesday. Officials estimate the changes — if approved — would reduce spending by about $75,000 in the state's current fiscal year, which closes at the end of June, and more than $582,000 in the fiscal year beginning July 1. But the proposal is rapidly raising concerns within the state's network of health care providers, with many seeing the changes as overly restrictive and unrealistic. 'Community Health Workers help Rhode Islanders stay healthy and help the state save money by preventing more intensive and expensive interventions,' Sam Salganik, executive director of the Rhode Island Parent Information Network, said in a statement. 'It's disappointing that a few bad actors have undermined that important work.' Salganik's nonprofit organization advocates and helps coordinate a variety of services for families in need, including some health care services. Advocates point to a provision in the proposed changes that would limit the amount of time community health care workers can bill each day to two hours. They suggest the two-hour limit is unrealistic, as community health workers sometimes spend entire days working with families, especially if they're facing emergency situations, such as an eviction. Another provision would require community health workers to get sign-offs from physicians before billing for any work that's done with beneficiaries, which providers say is unrealistic because of scheduling conflicts and other time demands for physicians, such as seeing their own patients throughout the day. 'We support EOHHS's efforts to prevent fraud, but we also have concerns that some of these changes will make it difficult even for reputable providers to participate,' Salgnik said. 'We look forward to working with EOHHS as they strengthen safeguards while ensuring that this critical service remains available to patients who need it.' The public hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Virks Building in Cranston. Eli Sherman (esherman@ is a Target 12 investigative reporter for 12 News. Connect with him on Twitter and on Facebook. Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
