The work to physically rebuild the westbound Washington Bridge is supposed to start as early as April under the timeline established on the Rhode Island Department of Transportation’s (RIDOT) website. That is, if the contractor overseeing the multi-year project can secure federal permitting in time.
Interim RIDOT Director Robert Rocchio told reporters gathered at the State House Tuesday afternoon that the state is still awaiting approval from the U.S. Coast Guard and Army Corp of Engineers on permit applications filed last November. The Coast Guard is responsible for approval of the location and plans of bridges and causeways constructed across navigable waters of the United States. Permits generally take 90 days to get approved.
The Coast Guard is under the Department of Homeland Security, which has been shut down since Feb. 14 after Congressional Democrats withheld support for the GOP’s funding bill in a push for restrictions and guardrails on the activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers.
General permits from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Defense, could take between 60 to 120 days to approve. A spokesperson for the Army Corp of Engineers did not immediately respond to comment.
“I know everyone wants this project up as soon as possible,” Rocchio said, standing alongside Gov. Dan McKee at the 24-minute press conference. “This is not just a bridge project, it’s a traffic improvement project. When this project is done, it’s going to be a much better bridge than the original bridge.”
Charles St. Martin, a RIDOT spokesperson, could not say when the state anticipated federal approval.
“We are not informed by the agencies of a timeline but we hope to have the last two soon,” St. Martin said in an email after the press conference.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Demolition work on the Washington Bridge concluded last December.
The press conference was Rocchio’s first official media briefing since Peter Alviti Jr. retired Feb. 27 after more than 15 years leading the transportation department. Rocchio spoke on Feb. 23 at the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency’s Cranston headquarters as the state was hit by its largest blizzard on record.
McKee then said that Rocchio’s presence at the EMA press conference was intended to ensure a smooth leadership transition. Rocchio was picked by McKee as RIDOT’s interim director on Feb. 4, the same day Alviti submitted his letter of resignation.
Tuesday’s introductory conference was scheduled before the historic snowfall, McKee said Tuesday.
“He really had a baptism by blizzard,” McKee said.
McKee credited Rocchio for directing the 500 state and vendor plow trucks that cleared local roads during the post-blizzard cleanup.
“Bob was integral in terms of the success that we delivered as a state,” McKee said.
So too was the out-of-state help from Connecticut, Maine, Pennsylvania and Vermont — which all sent plows and personnel to dig Rhode Island out. Crews from Vermont and Connecticut returned home Tuesday afternoon, while Pennsylvania’s eight front loaders and 10 and Maine’s 24 National Guardsmen were finishing up their last day.
State officials are still calculating how much it will cost to reimburse for the out-of-state help, which McKee hopes can be covered by the federal government. But McKee said the state could end up waiting for up to a year for the federal aid if it comes through, citing experience from the 2022 blizzard.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is also overseen by the Department of Homeland Security.
McKee has promised to conduct a national search for a permanent transportation director. As of Tuesday, the search had not begun and McKee did not commit to a timeline.
“We want to have a continuation of the work we have in place right now,” McKee said. “We’ll take one step at a time on that.”
So does Rocchio want the permanent job?
“I’m just focused on doing the job right now,” he responded.
Instilling public confidence
An engineer by trade, Rocchio has worked at RIDOT since 1991, when he started as an intern while finishing his bachelor of science in civil engineering at the University of Rhode Island.
He later became a full-time civil engineer in the department’s planning division and design section. In 2007, he was promoted to state traffic and safety engineer.
Since 2017, Rocchio has served as the department’s chief engineer for infrastructure, overseeing roughly 400 of the department’s 755 employees. The department’s website credits Rocchio with implementing a comprehensive highway safety program that reduced traffic fatalities, overhauling RIDOT’s maintenance division and upgrading its equipment, and strengthening bridge inspection and maintenance.
“I’m going to use those skills to make sure that we have high-quality bridge and road projects,” Rocchio said. “I’m also going to try my best to instill public confidence in RIDOT, which has a lot of highly-capable and skilled professionals.”
Nothing has done more to shake Rhode Islanders’ confidence in the department than the ongoing closure of the westbound Washington Bridge.
Rocchio’s predecessor sat in the hot seat before lawmakers three times to answer questions about what his department and officials knew about the bridge’s condition leading up to its emergency closure on Dec. 11, 2023.
Under tough questioning last November by former U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha, who was hired by the joint Senate and House committees on oversight, Alviti said the blame fell almost squarely on the contractors hired to maintain the bridge, but he also defended the state’s reliance on outsourcing.
Rocchio did not commit to changing the state’s reliance on contractors, instead highlighting the potential to have some work done in-house under a provision in McKee’s recommended fiscal 2027 budget. The governor proposed the hiring of two new civil engineers — at a total annual cost of $356,492 — to provide “inspection oversight” of Rhode Island’s inventory of 1,206 bridges.
“It’s another layer of security to make sure these bridges are being adequately inspected,” Rocchio said.
But in the meantime, a new bridge still needs to be built. Once the Coast Guard and Army Corp of Engineers approve permits, Rocchio said crews can start to work on setting up the foundation for the new five-lane highway over the Seekonk River — work that is expected to last for the remainder of 2026.
“That’s all you’ll see,” he said.
The replacement bridge is tentatively scheduled to open in November 2028 under the timeline set in the $427 million contract awarded to Chicago-based Walsh Construction last June.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
