4 days ago
Washington Bridge rebuild to cost up to $427M. Expect to drive on it by late 2028.
Rhode Island Department of Transportation Director Peter Alviti Jr. goes over the timeline to rebuild the westbound Washington Bridge at a State House press conference on Friday, June 6, 2025. At left is Gov. Dan McKee. At right is Walsh Construction Company Program Manager Charles Parish. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
The completion date and cost for a new westbound Washington Bridge is finally here. But it will take two more years and $59 million more than expected to resurrect a new thoroughfare connecting Providence and East Providence.
Gov. Dan McKee unveiled the November 2028 target completion date and an up-to-$427 million contract cost at a State House press conference Friday.
The long-awaited news comes nearly a year-and-a-half after state officials halted all traffic on the westbound highway after engineers discovered broken anchor rods that put the bridge spanning the Seekonk River at risk of collapse.
State officials originally sought to rebuild the bridge by August 2026 at an estimated cost of $368 million.
'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. 'We owe it to you to deliver a bridge that is safe and will ultimately make your lives easier.'
Tasked with constructing the new bridge is Walsh Construction Company. The Chicago-based firm worked on the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge on Interstate 95 over the Quinnipiac River in New Haven, Connecticut, along with the Interstate 90 Westbound Innerbelt Bridge in Cleveland, Ohio.
For this project, the firm will draw from its design of the Chain of Rocks Bridge in St. Louis, Walsh Program Manager Charles Parish told reporters.
'It's not often that you get to build the same project twice, or the same bridge twice,' Parish said. 'But our ability to do that on the new Washington Bridge gave us the confidence to commit to both the price and schedule that we're sure we can meet.'
The state's plan calls for five lanes of travel over the new bridge, along with an onramp from Gano Street in Providence and a new offramp to Waterfront Drive in East Providence. The original bridge had four lanes.
Construction is scheduled to begin next month, which overlaps with the ongoing demolition of the existing bridge. Demolition contractor Aetna Bridge Company is expected to complete its work by the end of 2025.
During that time, Walsh will secure permitting, workers, and pre-fabricate material to rebuild the bridge, Parish said.
Walsh will be paid at least $339 million to build the new bridge, with incentives and contingencies that could bring the total cost up to $427 million. The deal also has built-in daily penalties of $25,000 for exceeding the project deadline. With demolition and emergency repairs, the entire project adds up to $570 million, which is 'well within what we budget,' McKee said.
McKee's administration has identified more than $713 million in financing available for the project over the last year. That includes $35 million in remaining pandemic relief aid, $107.6 million from the state's capital plan fund, and up to $334.6 million in Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicles bonds, which allow the state to borrow against future allocations of federal transportation money.
The state was also awarded nearly a pair of federal infrastructure grants worth roughly $221 million. The grants were temporarily frozen under President Donald Trump's initial flurry of executive orders, but released to Rhode Island in late March.
However, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, in a lawsuit filed with 19 other states in May, warned that funding could still be at risk due to a federal directive tying infrastructure grants to compliance with the Trump administration's diversity and immigration policies.
McKee said he does not believe federal funds will be taken away from the project.
'We have the sign off from [Transportation] Secretary (Sean) Duffy,' the governor said Friday.
Also unclear: how the new price tag will impact the state's budget. House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi said in a statement that legislative leaders will review the governor's announcement as they shape a final fiscal 2026 budget.
'As the bridge project moves forward, the House of Representatives will continue its work ensuring the administration is accountable,' Shekarchi said.
Walsh was one of two finalists vying to rebuild the bridge after the state issued its latest bidding window last December. The other proposal came from a joint venture by American Bridge and MLJ, firms based respectively in Pennsylvania and New York.
Rhode Island Director of Transportation Peter Alviti Jr. said both companies were qualified and made similar technical proposals. Walsh's proposal projected around $340 million in hard construction costs, while American Construction and MLJ's bid estimated nearly $387 million.
Because it did not win the state's tentative contract, the losing bidder will receive a $1.75 million consolation prize for participating, as set out in the state's solicitation. It took two rounds of requests or proposals to yield any firm bids, a sore spot that McKee's critics continue to seize on, including his potential 2026 Democratic gubernatorial rival, Helena Buonanno Foulkes.
'Governor McKee's catastrophic failure to manage the Washington Bridge has impacted countless Rhode Island families and businesses, forcing them to endure longer commutes, lost wages, and economic hardship,' Foulkes said in a statement Friday.
But McKee said he has no regrets.
'As far as I'm concerned we're in a good spot,' he said. 'The people in the state of Rhode Island know that the funding is there, the time schedule is there, and we have a quality bridge-builder to actually execute the project.'
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