In the last decade, Rhode Island has spent big on improving its bridges — and has seen the payoff. But the state’s roads have not received the same attention, according to a September 2026 report by the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council.
When the RhodeWorks transportation infrastructure plan was first implemented in 2016, the percentage of Rhode Island’s bridges that were considered in poor condition was around 24% — about three times the national average, according to Jeffrey Hamill, a senior policy analyst at RIPEC and the primary author of the report.
“When 10% or more of a state’s bridges are rated as poor for three consecutive years, the state enters what the Federal Highway Administration terms a ‘penalty phase’ and mandates that a minimum of 50% of federal transportation funds are allocated to bridge work,” Rhode Island Department of Transportation programming services officer Heidi Gudmundson wrote in an email to The Herald…