PROVIDENCE – The Massachusetts-based lead contractor on the $410 million reconstruction of the Route 6-10 connector will pay $1.5 million to settle charges it improperly imported fill for the project and then tried to conceal the origin of the material, U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island Zachary A. Cunha announced on Wednesday.
Dennis Ferreira, Barletta Heavy Division Inc.’s former project superintendent, will also plead guilty in federal court to charges of making false statements.
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Barletta, based in Canton, Mass., will admit to the charges and undertake a series of monitoring, reporting and compliance measures in exchange for avoiding prosecution, according to Cunha.
“When federal tax dollars fund work in our communities, we expect that the government will get what it bargains for,” Cunha said in a statement. “In this case, that didn’t happen. Today’s resolution should serve as a reminder to any company or corporate official that, when the government is footing the bill, false statements have consequences.”
Barletta will pay a criminal fine of $500,000 and separately $1 million to the government, the latter representing more than twice the amount of government funds spent related to the now-settled criminal and civil complaints.
Also on Wednesday, R.I. Attorney General Peter F. Neronha said his office’s investigation of potential violations continues, calling it “separate and independent” of the actions at the federal level. An update on that investigation is expected in the “very near future,” the attorney general’s office said.
Barletta in 2020 was told to remove 1,600 cubic yards of material it had transported to the 6-10 connector site after the state determined the fill soil had contaminants.
Prosecutors say the company improperly imported loose stone from a Barletta project site in Massachusetts and soil from the Pawtucket/Central Falls Rail Station and Bus Hub Project.
In an emailed statement to PBN from Boston public relations firm Denterlein on behalf of Barletta, the company said it “has an excellent record of safely completing projects to specification in Rhode Island and beyond” and “regrets the isolated actions of its employee in this matter, who is no longer with the company. Barletta fully cooperated with the government during the course of its investigation and is satisfied with the resolution of this case.”
(Update adds the last paragraph with a statement from Barletta.)
