PROVIDENCE – A joint committee of state lawmakers is seeking answers on what led to the partial closure of the Washington Bridge last December and what is being done to rectify a crisis that is still challenging motorists, local businesses and, increasingly, the administration of Gov. Daniel J. McKee.
The R.I. House Committee on Oversight and the R.I. Senate Committee on Rules, Government Ethics and Oversight will convene Feb. 12 on the first floor of the Statehouse to hear testimony from Peter Alviti Jr., director of the R.I. Department of Transportation; McKee’s Senior Deputy Chief of Staff Joseph Almond; and Jeffrey Klein, director of structural engineering for Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc., the private engineering consultant on the ongoing bridge repairs. The administration last month sent Almond to provide additional oversight and assist in “cross-agency coordination” for all operations related to the Washington Bridge.
The agenda includes a presentation on the closure as well as “the timeline and decision-making process of the closure, the department’s response to the closure, and the next steps,” according to a release Thursday from the General Assembly's press office.
Senate Minority Leader and committee member Sen. Jessica de la Cruz, R-Burrillville, wants to know the "who, what, why, when" of the failure but sees it as a symptom of a systemic issue within RIDOT, a department she said has lost the "public trust in the safety of our infrastructure."
“I hope to fully understand how a state agency that spends hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars year over year to engineer and maintain our roads and bridges can be blindsided by an infrastructure failing of this magnitude,” she said, calling for "accountability for the short and long-term detrimental effects on our state’s people, businesses, economy, morale and reputation.”
De La Cruz will ask that testimony is taken under oath.
House Oversight chair Rep. Patricia Serpa, D-West Warwick, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi on Thursday reiterated his support for the special session.
"This critical issue deserves a full public vetting to evaluate what went wrong and what are the remedies moving forward," he said in a statement.
Sen. Mark P. McKenney, D-Warwick, chairman of the Senate Rules, Government Ethics and Oversight Committee said Thursday this initial hearing will focus on determining a fact-based timeline on what transpired, whether certain information was known to RIDOT that was not publicly disclosed, and if any warnings there were issues with the bridge were ignored.
"I'm hearing from many folks who are just perplexed,” he said. "How did this come about? What inspections were done and how thorough were they?"
McKenney did not rule out the possibility that testimony will be taken under oath, but acknowledged it is within the powers of the committee.
After indicating the bridge may be reopened by March, state officials on Jan. 22 acknowledged for the first time it may need to be torn down and rebuilt, depending on the findings of a review currently underway.
Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt toured the site earlier this week and said afterwards that a complete replacement could take up to two years to complete.
Meanwhile, RIDOT has been ordered by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Transportation to furnish documents dating back to 2015 as part of its investigation into the bridge failure, previous inspections, and payment claims submitted to the federal government.
McKeeney said the committee - made up of 10 senators and 17 House members - is still awaiting documents it requested of RIDOT that he hopes are submitted before Monday. And it is likely there will be additional hearings as more information from the various inquiries into the crisis bear fruit.
But McKenney is not seeking a public flaying of administration officials. The goal is to prevent a repeat.
"It's clear many people have already decided what happened and are looking for heads to roll,” he said. “But our job is not to look for villains. Rhode Islanders want answers and Rhode Islanders deserve answers.”
The hearing will be televised live by Capitol TV and live-streamed on the Statehouse website.
(ADDS paragraphs 8-9 with statement from House speaker.)
Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Allen@PBN.com.
