Two of the companies being sued by the state of Rhode Island over the closure of the westbound Washington Bridge say the state did not tell them about concerns engineers raised about the bridge decades before they were hired for a rehabilitation project.
The joint-venture of Barletta Heavy Division Inc. and Aetna Bridge Company – which, along with engineering consulting firm VHB, won the contract in 2021 to rehabilitate the westbound Washington Bridge – made the claims in court documents filed Thursday.
“The Rhode Island Department of Transportation may have averted a costly and disastrous emergency closure of the Washington Bridge last December if it had followed recommendations in a detailed 1992 inspection report, which pointed out structural deficiencies and called for advanced radiographic testing before any rehabilitation of the bridge was undertaken,” Sallie Hofmeister, spokesperson for Barletta, wrote in an emailed statement.
At issue is what’s known as the Lichtenstein Report. According to its own lawsuit, the state commissioned engineering firm A.G. Lichtenstein & Associates to inspect the Washington Bridge in the early 1990s. The engineers expressed concern about the bridge’s post-tensioning system, which involves steel cables called “tendons” running through ducts in concrete to strengthen the bridge. The state’s court filings acknowledge these concerns.
Much of the post-tensioning system, which is common in bridge construction, is encased in concrete and therefore not visible during the standard visual inspections of the bridge. The Lichtenstein Report, delivered to the state in 1992, worried that corrosion from moisture and salt exposure could pose problems for the bridge.
An investigation by The Public’s Radio and Rhode Island PBS found that corrosion in post-tensioning systems like those within the westbound Washington Bridge is a known problem among engineers. Engineers said it is often possible to assess the health of these components via special inspections using technology like radar. However, it does not appear that RIDOT conducted inspections using these methods in the decade prior to the bridge’s closure, according to documents obtained through multiple public records requests.
The Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) declined to answer questions posed by The Public’s Radio and Rhode Island PBS during the course of its investigation.
In August, Rhode Island sued 13 companies that worked on the westbound Washington Bridge over the years, including Barletta and Aetna. It accuses the Barletta-Aetna joint-venture of negligence and breaching its contract with the state for, among many things, “failing to conduct a detailed research and review of the bridge structure file for the Washington Bridge…” and failing to conduct an inspection of the bridge as outlined in its contract.
In its response to the state’s suit filed Thursday, the Barletta-Aetna joint venture alleges that the state never provided the Lichtenstein Report to the engineering firms bidding on the rehabilitation project, and never identified “any structural deficiencies with the post-tensioning system of the Washington Bridge.”
A spokesperson for the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office says it stands by the allegations in its lawsuit. RIDOT declined to comment.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
