After some early missteps, the McKee administration’s response to the Dec. 11 Washington Bridge closing has improved.
The administration was clearly caught off-guard by the massive traffic backups after the sudden closure of the westbound lanes of the Interstate 195 bridge between East Providence and Providence. Waiting until late in the day to announce the shutdown despite transportation officials learning a few days earlier of safety concerns left too many motorists unaware of what they were driving into.
Gov. Daniel J. McKee’s brusque dismissal of a reporter’s questions about whether Department of Transportation Director Peter Alviti Jr. or his department should be held accountable for the bridge failure and sudden shutdown was also disappointing. It showed a disconnect with what the public was thinking.
But Mr. Alviti at least temporarily eased public frustration by getting westbound bypass lanes opened quicker than initially promised.
And the governor wisely committed to an outside review of the bridge crisis. Hopefully it will include an examination of the last full inspection of the bridge about six months ago and the state’s response.
Mr. Alviti has said that inspection found the bridge safe and that there’s no good way to tell when steel anchor pins in place since the 1960s might fail. But that very uncertainty, along with the bridge’s unique design in the state, suggests it should have been on a more frequent inspection schedule.
It’s a question the public and the McKee administration should be equally invested in getting answered.