Peter Alviti, who led the Rhode Island Department of Transportation through the closure of the westbound Washington Bridge and its immediate aftermath, will retire later this month.
Robert Rocchio, RIDOT’s chief engineer for infrastructure, will take over as interim director at the end of February. Gov. Dan McKee said his administration will conduct a nationwide search for Alviti’s permanent replacement. Rocchio has worked at RIDOT for his entire 33-year career, according to his LinkedIn profile.
“I am confident that Bob Rocchio will provide the steady leadership and engineering expertise we need — not only for this crucial project, but for the many infrastructure improvements that are underway across our state,” McKee said in a prepared statement. “We recognize Director Alviti’s many years of state service across two administrations and wish him well.”
Alviti was the face of the McKee administration as it responded to the Washington Bridge closure, taking fierce criticism as he explained to the public how a critical section of Interstate-195 in Providence fell into a dangerous level of disrepair.
At a legislative oversight hearing where he faced questioning in November, Alviti defended RIDOT’s management of the bridge’s annual inspections, which were performed by various private contractors, none of whom warned officials of major impending infrastructural problems.
Alviti blamed the contractors for failing to perform their duties, although his department continued to hire many of the same companies to inspect other bridges in Rhode Island.
The RIDOT director’s retirement at this moment, after surviving in the post over two years of intense scrutiny and criticism, has confused many in state government. McKee said through a spokesperson that he did not ask Alviti to resign.
State Sen. Sam Zurier, a Providence Democrat, said Alviti had just testified before a legislative committee in November that he planned to stay in the post long term.
“At that time, Director Alviti said that he was going to stay on the job until the new Washington Bridge opened,” Zurier said, “so I was surprised by the announcement, personally.”
Alviti, whose salary topped $192,000, will collect an annual pension of about $20,000, according to the state treasurer’s office. He qualified for the pension and reached retirement age years ago, and did not pass any major thresholds this year that would significantly boost his benefits. Alviti will have spent just over 11 years as director when he steps down on Friday, Feb. 27.
In his resignation letter, Alviti said he and his wife were discussing and planning his retirement for “quite some time,” but he first wanted to make sure the Washington Bridge was “well on a path to successful completion.”
Helena Foulkes, a challenger in this year’s Democratic primary for governor, claimed Alviti is stepping down under duress because of mounting political pressure.
“After holding no one accountable for the Washington Bridge fiasco, bungling the bid process to further delay the bridge’s repair, and hiding safety and inspection reports for over a year, the governor is hoping that playing musical chairs during election season will hide the fact that he has failed the people of Rhode Island,” Foulkes said.
Public transit advocates also vented frustration with Alviti, who implemented the largest service cuts in the state bus system’s history. As chairman of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority’s board, Alviti helped lead a push by the McKee administration to “rightsize” RIPTA, as Alviti put it at one of the authority’s board meetings.
“On far too many occasions, Director Alviti refused to prioritize the interests of public transit users and people walking and biking in Rhode Island,” said Dylan Giles, a transit advocate who leads the Providence Streets Coalition.
Alviti’s replacement will take over a state transportation department that manages over $1 billion per year in construction and employs more than 700 salaried workers.
McKee’s administration currently projects that a new westbound span of the Washington Bridge will open in November 2028. The project’s budget is $427 million, and a contractor has already been selected for the work.
