Site work and paving for a bridge / tunnel in Providence, Rhode Island. Completed plans call for site work for a bridge / tunnel; and for paving for a bridge / tunnel.

The owner has selected a Design Builder. Selected design builder is Barletta-Aetna JV https://www.yankton.net/news/national_ap/article_2afddd4c-fb0c-5624-9fbc-a27edbe902d6.html A critical Rhode Island bridge that was partially shut down over safety concerns in December will need to be demolished and replaced, Gov. Dan McKee said Thursday. An independent review of the Washington Bridge which carries Interstate 195 over the Seekonk River from Providence to East Providence and serves as a key gateway to Providence — found additional structural deficiencies requiring that it be replaced, McKee said at an afternoon press conference. The state must replace both the bridge's superstructure and part or all of the substructure, he said. ____________________________ https://www.thewesterlysun.com/news/latest-news/mckee-washington-bridge-in-providence-needs-to-be-demolished-and-replaced/article_ec7ff62e-e31d-11ee-9c8e-9fef29f37e1e.html A critical Rhode Island bridge that was partially shut down over safety concerns in December will need to be demolished and replaced, Gov. Dan McKee said Thursday. An independent review of the Washington Bridge -- which carries Interstate 195 over the Seekonk River from Providence to East Providence and serves as a key gateway to Providence -- found additional structural deficiencies requiring that it be replaced, McKee said at an afternoon press conference. The state must replace both the bridge's superstructure and part or all of the substructure, he said. "We're going to fix the bridge, we're going to make it right, and we're going to make sure we keep people safe," he said. McKee said his administration is investigating what led up to the need to shut down and replace the bridge. "We will hold all responsible parties fully accountable," he said. "The day of reckoning is coming and coming soon." ____________________ https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/02/21/metro/ridot-lanes-traffic-rhode-island-washington-bridge-i-195/p1=BGSearch_Advanced_Results PROVIDENCE - The Rhode Island Department of Transportation will open a third lane of travel in both directions over the Washington Bridge on Interstate 195, a move aimed at easing traffic caused by the closure of the westbound side. State officials announced the plans on Wednesday, and estimated it would take about eight weeks to get the third lanes up and running. The state closed the Washington Bridge westbound in December after engineers discovered critical failures of some bridge components. Within a few days, temporary westbound lanes opened on part of the eastbound side of the bridge, which is actually a separate and much newer structure. RELATED: More news about the Washington Bridge closure in R.I. Under the plans announced Wednesday, the temporary bypass lanes will get a 50 percent boost in capacity in both directions. "We know that adding 50 percent capacity to what is there right now is going to save a considerable amount of time," RIDOT Director Peter Alviti said at a State House news conference announcing the plan. In originally announcing the closure, the state said it would take about three months to repair. That estimate went out the window weeks ago: After finding more problems in the bridge, the state now says it may have to replace the entire westbound span, and expects to get reports back on it by late February or early March. Meanwhile workers will now spend about the next eight weeks, depending on weather and other factors, reconfiguring the roadway in a way that would benefit commuters no matter what the ultimate outcome is on the westbound side. Alviti on Wednesday declined to offer more specifics when pressed by reporters about when the state would know what would be required to get the westbound side back open again, or about the likelihood that it'll have to be rebuilt. A spokesman for the Department of Transportation said putting the plan in place required studying feasibility, as well as getting federal approval, which is why it's taken until now to do it. The state is fitting the new lanes in by reducing their width by two feet, to 10 feet. Trucks will be restricted to the rightmost lane, which will be 11 feet wide. And the speed limit on the bypass lanes will be reduced to 40 miles per hour. The DOT also said that because of the new eastbound configuration, traffic from South Water Street and India Street in Providence will need to yield when entering the highway, which could cause delays for drivers on the ramp to 195 east at rush hour. Work will begin Monday with design and ordering materials, the state said. The construction will move the start of bypass lanes in East Providence about 3,000 feet west of where it is now. State officials said the new traffic pattern should reduce travel times and ease spillover congestion on local streets, although exactly how much remains to be seen. Some people who are opting for different routes right now may go back on the bridge once the third lanes are open, which would increase traffic. "It certainly will improve travel time," said Governor Dan McKee, who also remarked that wasn't going to talk about travel time as much as he had in the past, given the criticism of his previous statement that the closure was adding just 10 to 15 minutes to people's commutes. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ https://www.golocalprov.com/news/head-of-federal-highway-is-visiting-ri-he-previously-worked-for-washington Head of Federal Highway Is Visiting RI - He Previously Worked for Washington Bridge Contractor Federal Highway Administrator (FHWA) Shailen Bhatt is scheduled to tour the Washington Bridge on Monday along with Governor Dan McKee, RI Department of Transportation Director Peter Alviti, members of the Congressional delegation, and other officials. According to previous statements by the McKee administration, the FHWA is conducting an "investigation" into the Washington Bridge failure. That investigation is separate from the U.S. Department of Justice investigation unveiled ten days ago. Just 13 months ago, directly prior to his federal appointment, Bhatt served as a top executive for AECOM. GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST AECOM has been a leading contractor on the Washington Bridge rehab for about a decade, and AECOM executives have donated more than $40,000 in contributions to top Rhode Island politicians. During the time in which Bhatt worked at AECOM (2021 and 2022), the state of Rhode Island paid millions of dollars to AECOM. According to Rhode Island payment records, AECOM was paid nearly $6 million in 2021, $4.2 million in 2022, more than $2 million in 2023. Records previous to 2021 are not publicly available presently. A GoLocal review of AECOM’S work in 2018 unveiled that between 2016 and 2018, AECOM was paid more than $12.4 million by the State of Rhode Island. VIEW LARGER + AECOM report AECOM at the Center of Previous Washington Bridge Controversy In 2018, just weeks before the Democratic primary, the RIDOT construction project and lane shift caused traffic chaos. Drivers were caught in hours of delays coming into Providence on the same westbound lanes of I-195. After a few days, Raimondo ordered the work to stop and to restore the traffic pattern. Following the massive traffic delays when the 195 Gano Street closure was rolled out, GoLocal in 2018 requested the project's impact study and it took days for RIDOT officials to provide the AECOM report to GoLocal. Alviti has already admitted that AECOM's 2015 report is under fire. “That’ll all be part of what we’re looking at,” said Alviti in response to a question from WPRI about the possibility of getting a refund. “We will be revisiting to see...where the responsibility lies.” The AECOM study stated, “This report summarizes the traffic operations for the proposed Washington Bridge rehabilitation on I-195 westbound mainline and traffic detours during the peak hours. The VISSIM simulation model that was developed as part of the Washington Bridge North No. 700-Technical Evaluation Report has been utilized to further analyze the traffic operations on I-195 westbound mainline for the preferred bridge construction alternative.” On Tuesday, November 13, 2018, just one week after Raimondo was reelected — defeating Republican Allan Fung — the 195 westbound construction resumed. Alviti's office had announced the resumption of the construction of the westbound side of I-195. “This change will allow for continued rehabilitation of this important structure, which is classified as structurally deficient,” said RIDOT in their press release. AECOM's analysis was wrong. It is unclear if Rhode Island ever received a credit. But what is clear is that while AECOM work was questioned and the company was receiving tens of millions in contracts, AECOM executives were writing checks to Rhode Island politicians. ------------------------------------------------------------ UPDATE : https://turnto10.com/news/local/federal-investigation-launched-into-rhode-islands-washington-bridge-closure-southern-new-england-rhode-island-january-26-2024# The United States Department of Justice and Office of the Inspector General notified the Rhode Island Department of Transportation on Friday that they are investigating the closure of the Washington Bridge. In a statement from Governor Dan McKee's press secretary, documents and records related to the Washington Bridge will be examined. NBC 10 received the document sent to the Rhode Island Department of Transportation. Press secretary Olivia Darocha said "The Governor has instructed the Rhode Island Department of Transportation to fully cooperate." Click here to view the PDF file. The Rhode Island Department of Transportation announced the closure of the westbound side of the Washington Bridge on Dec. 11. Officials said the closure was due to a "critical failure of some original bridge components." Governor Dan McKee has been criticized as workers, residents, and businesses have been impacted by the sudden closure. The partial shutdown of the Washington Bridge raised a number of questions, including how it was able to pass recent inspections. MORE NEWS: Engineers' reports on Washington Bridge expected in a few weeks Rhode Island Department of Transportation Director Peter Alviti told NBC 10's Gabrielle Caracciolo several times Wednesday that he couldn't answer some of her questions because he is still waiting for the engineers looking at the Washington Bridge to finish their reports. Earlier Wednesday, Gov. Dan McKee told NBC 10 News that the decisions being made right now are all about safety. He said the three-month estimated reopening that's now off the table was always just an estimate. NBC 10 spoke with a woman who decided to retire due to the daily stress of her unpredictable commute. The Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training is now tracking the impact, adding a question for anyone filing for unemployment asking, "Are you unemployed due to the 195 bridge closure" In a statement, a spokesperson said, "DLT added the question about the I-195 bridge closure to the unemployment insurance online application in an effort to gather data about how many working Rhode Islanders may have been impacted. The more information we have about our claims, the better prepared we are to serve our claimants and their employers." Since it was added on Dec. 20, 2023, the department said 200 of the 10,000 unemployment claims filed indicated they were related to the bridge closure. Those claims are all currently under review. A decision on the future of the Washington Bridge isn't expected until late February or early March, according to Easy Bay lawmakers briefed by the state Department of Transportation Friday. ___________________________________________________________________________________ https://turnto10.com/news/local/construction-on-i-195-west-to-begin-early-gano-street-off-ramp-closure-announced-providence-rhode-island-lane-split-august-23-2023# Crews will rehabilitate the bridge that carries the Gano Street off-ramp, replace bridge joints, and pave it. The new I-195 West lane shift will be in place for approximately one year. The $78 million Washington Bridge project will address the structural deficiencies of the westbound portion of the bridge, which carries more than 96,000 vehicles per day. The project includes other improvements to improve safety and addresses chronic congestion issues on the Interstate. Final completion of the project is expected in 2026. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/11/05/washington-bridge-westbound-lanes-year-long-split-starting-nov-11/69620103007/ - Drivers headed west on Route 195 over the Washington Bridge can expect a new traffic pattern starting Nov. 11, when the two left lanes will split off from the right lane. The split will happen just after the Broadway interchange. The two left lanes will split off into what had been a work zone. Crews will then utilize the middle lane to continue rehab work on the bridge, state Department of Transportation spokesman Charles St. Martin said. Traffic in all three lanes will be able to access both Route 95 North and Route 95 South, but drivers headed for the Gano Street exit will need to be in the right lane. "We're rehabilitating the bridge," St. Martin said. Crews previously moved traffic to the right, so crews could work on the other side of the bridge, and now they need to work in the middle of the bridge. The lane split will last for about a year. "Coming in from East Providence to Route 95, four lanes drop to three before the bridge," St. Martin said. Signage indicates drivers should take the right lane split to exit onto South Main Street, one exit past Gano Street. Unlike the Gano Street exit, the South Main Street exit will be accessible for drivers in the far left lanes, but it will be harder to get over quickly enough to reach it. The last time work crews moved the lanes over, traffic congested, but that dissipated as people got used to the new pattern. The same break-in period is expected for the Nov. 11 lane split. "Anytime we introduce a change, there's some slowdown and delay as people become accustomed to it," St. Martin said. "It dissipates after a few days." The westbound lanes of the Washington Bridge carry 96,000 cars a day, one of the higher throughput bridges in the state, he said. "The Route 195 corridor, westbound, has been a source of chronic congestion, with backups over the state border into Massachusetts," he said. The goal of the $78-million project is to reduce the morning commute from 16 minutes to 9.5 minutes, according to the state's website for the project. Part of the larger plan for the project is an off-ramp to Waterfront Drive in East Providence, which will connect to the Henderson Bridge, which is being replaced. That exit will provide more direct access to the East Side than the Gano Street exit, St. Martin said. Other parts of the project include: Widening of the road to allow for five lanes of westbound traffic over the bridge. A new bridge for traffic from Gano Street to Route 195 West. Adding a lane on the western end of the bridge to alleviate weaving between the Taunton Avenue, Warren Avenue and Veterans Memorial Parkway on-ramps and the Gano Street off-ramp. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2021/10/12/court-ruling-paves-way-construction-route-195/6102896001/ More changes are coming to the East Bay commute into Providence. The delayed reconstruction and widening of the Route 195 West Washington Bridge is underway after a federal judge last month ruled for the state in a bidding dispute over the project. Gov. Dan McKee, Department of Transportation officials and members of the state's congressional delegation officially launched the $78-million project Tuesday on the East Providence waterfront. Work is expected to begin imminently and last until 2026, DOT Director Peter Alviti Jr. told reporters. Westbound traffic creeps toward the Washington Bridge in Providence in 2018. The state won a $25-million federal grant allowing it to expand the project to add a lane and a new off-ramp onto East Providence's Waterfront Drive. Like some of the other big bridge projects happening in Rhode Island, state officials say adding more lanes to the Washington Bridge will relieve congestion there. Traffic on 195 West often backs up to Route 114. "It will provide traffic relief to the people who travel 195 and across the Washington Bridge," McKee told reporters. By adding another right-hand lane to the bridge, state planners hope to relieve some of the weaving conflicts between drivers getting on the highway from Veterans Memorial Parkway, Taunton Avenue and Warren Avenue and drivers changing lanes to get off on the East Side of Providence. Originally, the DOT planned to tear down the Gano Street off-ramp to further reduce these conflicts, but abandoned that idea when it ran into East Side backlash. The proposed ramp to Waterfront Drive in East Providence is designed to redirect some of the traffic heading for Providence to the Henderson Bridge to the north. At the same time, East Providence Mayor Roberto DaSilva said he hopes direct highway access will make the quiet industrial area along recently built Waterfront Drive more attractive to businesses. The groundbreaking event happened in the middle of Waterfront Drive, where the elected officials, undisturbed by traffic, shoveled at a pile of gravel dumped there. Drivers may remember significant construction on Route 195 West four years ago when work crews repaired the underside of the span. Lane closures associated with that work led to a series of massive traffic jams stretching well into Massachusetts. Asked what kind of lane closures motorists should expect when the new project begins, DOT Director Peter Alviti Jr. Tuesday said the contractor is still working on final design details. "That design will determine the phasing of construction and phasing will determine lane closures," Alviti said in an email. "We will have extensive outreach well in advance of any lane closures in order to keep commuters and travelers informed about any changes in traffic flow." The contractor for the Washington Bridge project is a partnership of Barletta Heavy Division and Aetna Bridge Company, which won the contract in a procurement process that was disputed. The state requested bids for the project last year, and Cardi Corporation, which had worked on the earlier Washington Bridge project, was selected with a bid $17 million less than the next lowest bid, according to court documents. Barletta sued the state in Superior Court, arguing that Cardi's knowledge from the earlier project gave it an unfair advantage. After the Federal Highway Administration refused to sign off on the Cardi contract, calling it "unresponsive," the state canceled the process and issued a new, more detailed request for proposals, which Barletta ultimately won. Cardi then sued the state in federal court. Last month, U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith ruled for the state, saying it is within its power to reject proposals, cancel solicitations and rebid. Alviti on Tuesday said the bidding problems had delayed the start of work around a year and Smith's ruling cleared the way for the project to move forward. __________________________________________________________________________________ RIDOT - RFP - Design Build I-195 Washington Bridge Phase 2 Request for Proposals Issued March 17, 2021 Submit Declaration of Potential Conflict of Interest March 26, 2021 Conflict of Interest Determinations by the State April 2, 2021 Initial ATC Submission Deadline April 23, 2021 Initial ATC Review by the State April 30, 2021 ATC Proposal Deadline May 19, 2021 ATC Determinations by the State May 28, 2021 Last Date to Submit Questions June 23, 2021 Technical & Price Proposal Deadline July 2, 2021 Apparent Best Value Determination July 16, 2021 Tentative Award July 23, 2021 Notice to Proceed August 20, 2021 The current schedule for the PROJECT is for Substantial Completion by November 15, 2025. Substantial Completion includes but is not limited to, all bridge and roadway ramp work complete, inspected, and open to traffic as required by the Contract.