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Nesi’s Notes
1. As the Washington Bridge crisis enters its eighth week, RIDOT Director Peter Alviti still holds the job he’s had for the past nine years. But Governor McKee appears increasingly dissatisfied with the way the situation has been handled. After initially defending RIDOT and Alviti against critics, McKee has now become a critic himself; this week he expressed exasperation at RIDOT for failing to loop him in until barely two hours before the bridge closed, and he also told WPRO’s Matt Allen he wasn’t informed about the 5 p.m. news conference where Alviti made the announcement. More telling than the governor’s words, though, were his actions — notably the installation of trusted aide Joe Almond at RIDOT, with McKee’s office telling reporters that Alviti from now on would be “running everything related to the Washington Bridge through Joe Almond.” The governor’s team is dealing with two interrelated challenges. First there is the bridge itself — the uncertainty about its fate, the traffic issues, and the need for a long-term solution. Then there is the outside scrutiny — from lawmakers at an upcoming oversight hearing, from reporters digging through documents, and now from federal investigators, too. McKee has begun to point out that the bridge was a problem long before he became governor: back in 2018 Allan Fung mocked Gina Raimondo over huge traffic backups caused by work on the bridge’s ramps (“the #GinaJam”), and RIDOT later botched the initial bidding for its reconstruction. Regardless of the past, though, the bridge is now McKee’s problem to solve. And it could wind up being a key part of his legacy.