Latest news with #WalshConstruction
Yahoo
3 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
McKee to reveal cost, timeline, winning bidder for Washington Bridge on Friday
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — A year and a half after the abrupt closure of the westbound Washington Bridge, Rhode Islanders are set to learn how long it will take to build a replacement and how much it will cost. Gov. Dan McKee will hold a State House news conference Friday at 10 a.m. to announce which of the two finalists has won the contract for the new bridge, his office announced. The state closed the 56-year-old bridge with almost no notice during rush hour on Dec. 11, 2023, after a structure failure was discovered, leading to major traffic problems and widespread than 96,000 vehicles traveling on I-195 Westbound drove over the bridge each day before the closure, according to RIDOT. The state has since rerouted traffic on the eastbound Washington Bridge, a newer span, to go in both directions with additional lanes. While the bridge was initially expected to reopen within a few months, further inspections revealed it couldn't be salvaged, and is currently being demolished. The state's effort to engineer a quick process for constructing the new bridge failed last July when no companies bid, leading the administration to regroup and change its approach. The two finalists chosen in December as part of the new bidding process were Walsh Construction of Chicago and a joint venture between American Bridge Co. of Pennsylvania and MLJ Contracting Corp. of New York. The governor's office describes both as 'nationally recognized bridge building groups.' The losing bidder will be paid $1.75 million as a consolation prize for participating in the process. During his monthly interview on 12 News at 4 last month, R.I. Department of Transportation Director Peter Alviti described the proposals presented by both groups to officials as 'very impressive.' The bidding process is secret so no information has been released about their plans. (Story continues below video.) The state initially estimated the new bridge would cost $368 million and be open by August 2026. Officials long ago stopped saying if they thought those goals were still achievable, though they never ruled it out, either. Rhode Island's congressional delegation has so far secured $221 million in federal grants to help offset the cost of the bridge project. In the meantime, a separate $98 million project to demolish the old westbound bridge is proceeding. Demolition of the substructure was completed on Feb. 21. The state expanded the project last year to also include demolition of the old bridge's underwater substructure, and that work is expected to supposed to be finished by mid-December. Separately, the state has filed a lawsuit against various companies that worked on the bridge over the years. McKee and Alviti have repeatedly expressed confidence in the structural integrity of the eastbound bridge, which now has considerably more weight on it due to the added westbound vehicle traffic as well as temporary concrete barriers. Alviti said last year he still expects the eastbound bridge, built in the 2000s, to hold up for its full expected lifespan of 75 years. 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. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
