Two contractors being sued by the state of Rhode Island following the sudden closure of the I-195 Washington Bridge have filed a counterclaim alleging the state department of transportation knew more tests were needed for the bridge in the early ’90s but did not perform them.
State Attorney General Peter F. Neronha filed the lawsuit in August against 13 companies involved in the design, construction and inspections of the bridge, which was discovered to have a “critical failure” in December 2023. The bridge, before it was closed over a year ago, was one of the busiest in the state and carried traffic between Providence and East Providence. It opened in 1968 and handled 96,000 vehicles a day. The RIDOT recently awarded a $427 million contract to Walsh Construction to rebuild the bridge.
The suit aims to “hold accountable those companies responsible for the near-miss catastrophic closure of the bridge and to recover the significant resources required to rebuild the bridge.”
The lawsuit claims the defendants failed to identify the issues that led to the Washington Bridge’s sudden closure and failed multiple times over multiple years to report problems to RIDOT.
The counterclaim from Barletta Heavy Division Inc. and Aetna Bridge Company alleges that RIDOT could have prevented the bridge’s closure if it had acted following a study conducted over 30 years ago.
“The Rhode Island Dept. of Transportation may have averted a costly and disastrous emergency closure of the Washington Bridge last December if it had followed recommendations in a detailed 1992 inspection report, which pointed out structural deficiencies and called for advanced radiographic testing before any rehabilitation of the bridge was undertaken,” said Sallie Hofmeister, spokesperson for Barlett.
That report was delivered in January 1992 by A.G. Lichtenstein and Associates Inc. to RIDOT and disclosed several concerns about the bridge, according to state filings.
Among those concerns were deterioration at the ends of the concrete drop-in beams, corrosion in the post-tensioning cables, suggested voids in the grout protecting the post-tensioned cables and cracks in the beam webs.
Ultimately, according to the state’s initial filing, the Lichtenstein report indicated the cracks were likely formed during initial tensioning and were “unlikely” to continue growing, though this ended up being an incorrect prediction.
Barletta and Aetna Bridge claim RIDOT breached their 2021 contract to rehabilitate the Washington Bridge and failed to act in good faith by “concealing the true condition of the bridge” and not performing the advanced radiographic test recommended in the 1992 Lichtenstein report.
“[The state’s] guidelines required bidders to neither retrofit nor remediate the bridge’s tie-down rods or strengthen its compromised post-tensioning system,” said Hofmeister. “The state instead represented that the bridge could be rehabilitated and accepted and approved the joint venture’s proposal.
“It wasn’t until after the emergency shutdown that the advanced testing recommended in 1992 was finally conducted, finding that structural deficiencies were so widespread that the Washington Bridge was beyond repair and would have to be demolished and replaced.”
The 13 companies being sued by the state are:
- AECOM Technical Services Inc.
- Aetna Bridge Company
- Aries Support Services Inc.
- Barletta Heavy Division Inc.
- Barletta/Aetna I-195 Washington Bridge North Phase 2 JV
- Collins Engineers Inc.
- Commonwealth Engineers Consultants Inc.
- Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.
- Michael Baker International Inc.
- Prime AE Group Inc.
- Steere Engineering Inc.
- Transystems Corporation
- Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc.
