U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg visited the Washington Bridge in Providence on Tuesday, days after the news that the westbound side of the bridge must be demolished and rebuilt due to structural deficiencies. The state estimates the process could take up to two years.
At a press conference on the Gano street off-ramp, Buttigieg said he thinks two years is not an overly optimistic time frame for rebuilding the bridge.
“I think it’s an aggressive estimate that needs to be met and we’re gonna do everything we can to help make that a reality,” he said.
Buttigieg said in the meantime, he applauds the state’s plan to open another westbound lane at the end of April to help ease traffic in the area.
Buttigieg did not say if federal funds could be made available to help Rhode Island finance or expedite the bridge repairs.
The Department of Justice is currently investigating the state’s prior use of federal funds connected to the bridge. The DOJ has requested hundreds of pages of documents from the governor’s office and the Rhode Island Department of Transportation as it looks into whether officials misspent federal dollars on repairs to the bridge dating back to 2016.
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