SMITHFIELD, R.I. (WPRI) — Gov. Dan McKee is urging those examining the Washington Bridge fiasco to take a longer look at what went wrong, pointing out the structure has been a problem since well before he took office.
The governor’s new comments come a day after Target 12 obtained emails through a public-records request that showed engineers believed the critical issues discovered on the now-closed bridge may have existed for an extended period of time.
McKee said Wednesday he isn’t jumping to any conclusions until he sees engineering reports on the bridge, at least one of which is expected to be ready by late February or early March. But he said only looking at what happened since Dec. 8 would be taking too narrow a view.
“I hope we track back to when this whole issue started,” McKee told 12 News. “It started way back in 2018 when they started doing work on that bridge and there was a disruption that delayed the thing. There were lawsuits that were put in.”
As Target 12 previously reported, the R.I. Department of Transportation won a $25 million federal grant to help fix the Washington Bridge in November 2019, four years into Peter Alviti’s tenure as director under then-Gov. Gina Raimondo. RIDOT initially awarded the contract for the work to Cardi Corp., one of the state’s largest construction companies at the time.