In an attempt to recoup any money Rhode Island will owe to others for rerouting traffic on half of a high-volume interstate bridge in Providence after structural flaws had been detected, the state Dept. of Transportation filed a lawsuit Aug. 16 against 13 engineers and contractors that had inspected or performed work on the Washington Bridge in the last decade. 

The DOT suit claims defendants all knew or should have known of engineering and past inspection history of the 56-year-old bridge on I-195 and taken that into account "as part of their collective obligations to the State."

One named defendant, Warwick, R.I.-based Aetna Bridge Co., now is working on a DOT contract to demolish the closed-off westbound span of the bridge, deemed dangerous.

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee (D) in March promised to take action against those responsible for not revealing the bridge’s dire condition. The "lawsuit seeks to hold accountable those responsible and recover the maximum amount possible for the state,” State Attorney General Peter Neronha said in a statement.

Anticipation of the lawsuits after McKee's call for accountability may have chilled the atmosphere surrounding the state's request for proposals to replace the westbound bridge span. The proposals were due last month. No companies made submissions.

The breach of contract and negligence complaint filed in state court in Providence details each contract under which engineers and contractors performed inspections, prepared plans or began repairing the Washington Bridge. The state in its complaint says it seeks to recover any money owed to third parties because of the shut-down and rerouting.

The suit raises familiar questions about inspections, scope of services and engineering standards-of-care that have come up in the past with unforeseen danger or failures in vital infrastructure.

Designed by Charles A. Maguire & Associates in 1967 and built in 1968, bridge problems first became known from a 1992 inspection that pointed to voids in the prestressed beam tendon grout and problems with beam cracking that at the time were not considered serious. Neither Maguire & Associates nor the inspection consultant on the first report is a defendant.

The 1,671-ft-long span carries I-195 over the Seekonk River connecting Providence and East Providence. Its 18 spans vary in structural types. Among its systems are post-tensioned cantilevers, drop-in prestressed girders and simply supported steel beams and prestressed girders.

The bridge is "inherently nonredundant," states a report and recommendations the DOT released in March, when the state shut down the westbound span.

 Cantilever beams in sections of the bridge "do not have" internal post-tensioning redundancy or "adequate access to allow for inspection, maintenance or replacement" of individual elements, the state's recent report indicates.

State transportation officials had kept the bridge open during a five-year, $78-million design-build reconstruction effort begun in 2021 by the Barletta Heavy Division and Aetna Bridge Co. joint venture, with Watertown, Mass.-based VHB as lead designer. But on Dec. 8, state officials said a VHB engineer noticed an apparent failure of a 2-ft-long steel anchor or tie rod in a bridge section that was not part of the reconstruction work.

The tie rods are integral to the stability of the cantilevered beams.

Tie-down failure at a beam.

Source: Rhode Island Dept. of Transportation report

An intense inspection revealed other defects, including loose grout around post-tensioning cables, leading the agency to completely close the bridge's westbound span.

According to VHB’s report to the transportation department, several steel rods in a span between piers 6 and 7 showed evidence of deterioration and failure through corrosion and shearing. At one location, inspectors observed “bouncing” of both the components and of the "cantilever end and tie-down under live load."

So the reconstruction project was abandoned as it became apparent that a full bridge replacement was needed.

In its lawsuit, which names the Barletta-Aetna joint venture as a defendant, the state claims its proposal said DOT intended to replace the fracture-critical tie down on the east side of Pier 4, which required annual inspection, with a new column support. The joint venture recognized the fracture-critical nature of the tie downs "but did not address their existence at Piers 6 and 7," the suit claims.

AECOM, which the state hired in 2012 to design and prepare construction plans for a design-bid-build project to completely rehabilitate the existing structure, is also cited in the suit. The document claims company inspections and creation of construction plans for an earlier design-bid-build project should have revealed the full extent of the bridge damage. The project for which those plans were created was eventually abandoned.

Evidence of distress at a beam end in one of the bridge spans. Source: Rhode Island Dept. of Transportation report

Five firms named as defendants conducted inspections from 2017 to December 2023, when the severe problems came to light. One inspection in 2016 specifically sought to identify deteriorated parts of the bridge; another in 2017 was a routine review; another in 2017 by AECOM involved the beam ends of drop-in girders in several spans; another in 2018 was to monitor deteriorated portions of the substructure and superstructure.

There were additional inspections in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

The companies named as defendants could not immediately be reached for comment. 

However, a spokesperson for Aetna told WPRI, a regional television station, that the contractor is proud of its “more than 76-year history of bridge construction and repair work" in Rhode Island. “We stand behind the quality of all our past work and the work we will perform in the future," said the spokesperson. "We will vigorously defend ourselves against any claims made in this lawsuit.”