It is Rhode Island’s own version of the never-ending story: the Washington Bridge saga. On a recent episode of “A Lively Experiment,” moderator Jim Hummel sat down with panelists Tim White of WPRI Target 12, The Providence Journal’s Antonia Noori Farzan, and Ian Donnis from The Public’s Radio. What follows is their revealing conversation about what was said — and what wasn’t — at recent news conferences about the bridge.
You can watch the entire July 19, 2024, episode here.
JIM HUMMEL: The Washington Bridge continues to be in the news. We had a lot of news on this last week: there were two press conferences on consecutive days. The governor had an update and then the legal time, which is pursuing — I don’t know what they are pursuing but we will find that out in August! Tim, I know you were there but Ian, you went to both press conferences. What did you take or not take out of it?
IAN DONNIS: Well, this is a little bit off to the side, but one of the surprising things was how RIDOT Director Peter Alviti was painting a fairly upbeat picture about how traffic has been impacted on the Washington Bridge. Whenever I’ve traveled it recently, the eastbound traffic backs up back to 95, trying to get to the Statehouse back to the East Bay is a real struggle because of the ripple effect from this traffic. It takes probably twice or three times as long as it did before the bridge debacle. But Max Wistow, who’s part of the outside legal team to the state gave — you know, he’s a very intellectual guy, he gives a great news conference. And you know, just as theater, his news conference was a little more interesting than the one by Gov. McKee and Alviti.
JIM HUMMEL: Shocking.
TIM WHITE: You know, I think it was a news con — and I’m referencing the McKee/Alviti news conference — it was a news conference without a lot of news. I think we heard the RIDOT director acknowledge that the RFP, the request for proposals to rebuild the bridge, was a failure because no company, not surprisingly, wanted to put in a bid when there’s so much turmoil around the bridge, such an aggressive timeline and oh, by the way, Max Wistow could be suing the very people who could rebuild the bridge.
JIM HUMMEL: Because it’s a small pool.
TIM WHITE: That’s right at the end of the day. What they wouldn’t say out loud is what I think everybody knows: the September 2026 timeline looks really in doubt to have a new bridge functioning.
JIM HUMMEL: But nobody would say that!
TIM WHITE: Nobody would say that. And also almost more important if not more important, is gonna be the cost. We already know the cost to do the demolition of the old westbound Washington Bridge has gone from $31 million to $48 million. So that $350 million estimate on rebuilding the new bridge? Huge question mark on that.
IAN DONNIS: The 800-pound gorilla in the room is whether this affects Gov. McKee’s decision to seek reelection in 2026. All indications are right now that he will but this is clearly a big political question mark and that’s something to watch going forward.
ANTONIA NOORI FARZAN: Yeah, it seems like the headline was that we know even less than we did a few months ago. We don’t know what’s going to get done, we don’t know what’s gonna get cost, we don’t know who’s going to do it. I even heard the head of Narragansett Bay Commission on WPRO suggesting that we just build a tunnel instead. So maybe that’s the way to go at this point!
TIM WHITE: I lived through the Big Dig — I don’t think that’s a good idea!
