House and Senate Democratic leaders say they want to hold January oversight hearings on the Washington Bridge failure.
House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi told PBN he wants a clear timeline for the westbound bridge’s replacement and its cost.
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“Don’t think we are going to get away with taxpayers not putting money into this bridge,” he said. “We are going to have to.”
A joint meeting of House and Senate oversight committees last February heard testimony from state transportation officials on what led to the bridge’s temporary closure in December 2023. Engineers found “a critical failure” of some of the bridge’s original components dating back to the 1960s.
Last May, the R.I. Department of Transportation estimated the cost for replacing the bridge would include $58.2 million for demolition, as well as $368.3 million for the design-build process.
