$860,000 spent so far on Washington Bridge assessment, repairs

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Changes to the traffic pattern on I-195 West got their first real test on Monday, as a federal official checked out the Washington Bridge for himself.

In a visit to Providence, Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt said experts will be coming to Rhode Island this week to analyze the Washington Bridge situation.

According to Bhatt, they’ll be focusing on two topics: how the bridge has gotten to this point and how they can get it fixed as soon as possible.

“We’ll go through all of the forensics as to what bridge inspections may have shown,” Bhatt said. “I think that’s one of the things that bridge experts will be looking at. To take down a structure and keep things as minimally impacted, you’re looking at a year or two, but that’s something we’ll be monitoring.”

Bhatt said more investigation needs to be done to figure out if the bridge will be repaired or replaced.

With no concrete idea of how long the state will be dealing with the bridge issue, it raises concern of costs.

According to Charles St. Martin, the chief of public affairs for RIDOT, they’ve spent roughly $860,000 from the initial bridge closure to Feb. 2, 2024 on bridge inspections, examinations, material testing, various project management needs, and traffic control.

$84,600 of that has been spent specifically on police details for traffic control and that’s only over the course of 53 days.

Adding to the costs is the ferry service that was previously implemented, which has an expected total of $2.4 million.

Aside from the ferry, these are costs that have been paid thus far, meaning the total will only increase from here.

Bhatt said if they do decide on a bridge replacement, officials need to figure out how to get federal funds to help.