‘Never looked better’: 2018 Alviti tribute praised his work to improve RI’s roads and bridges

PROVIDENCE – Few Washington Bridge commuters are likely to hail the state’s transportation director, Peter Alviti, as Rhode Island’s man-of-the-year. The frustrations since the Dec. 11 bridge shutdown run too deep.

But that was, in essence, what the DaVinci Center for Community Progress did in 2018 in a nine-minute video hailing Alviti as its “Community Humanitarian of the Year.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, while there is still much work to be done, Rhode Island’s roads and bridges have never looked better,” says the unseen narrator, former NBC10-sportscaster Joe Rocco.

“It’s no coincidence,” finishes Rocco, whose voice segues into an on-camera cameo by Armand Sabitoni, then General Secretary-Treasurer & New England Regional Manager for the Laborers International Union.

“He gets an A plus,” says Sabitoni.

“Before Peter got there, there was a different culture in the Department of Transportation. Things just weren’t getting done. It was his idea for RhodeWorks ,and then obviously the governor embraced it and they both ran with it,” says Sabitoni of the 10 year, $5.7 billion transportation improvement plan adopted in 2016 that relied in part on the truck tolls.

The truck tolls have since been ruled unconstitutional. And Rhode Island clearly still has work to do, aside from the undetermined next steps in addressing the Washington Bridge emergency.

 Of the 782 bridges in the state, 120, or 15.3%, are classified as structurally deficient, according to the latest state-by-state rundown by the Federal Highway Administration. A recent analysis of that database by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association found Rhode Island had the fourth-highest percentage of structurally deficient bridges in the nation.

Video traces Alviti’s rise to head of RIDOT

Filmed in what now feels like another era, when Gina Raimondo was still governor, the video was produced by One Cut Productions, in collaboration with Rocco’s own RocJo Productions and is packed with tributes to Alviti – a son of Silver Lake and an “engineer in public service.”

It traces Alviti’s beginnings, from “the rich culture of Italian immigrant families in Silver Lake” – where being an Eagle Scout “created in Peter a deep sense of civic duty, morality, leadership, charity, and religious values.”

Then there’s his career milestones: Cranston Public Works Director; Program director for an arm of the Laborers Union; the $182,664-a-year director of RIDOT, the agency at the center of the current firestorm of unanswered questions about the state of the Washington Bridge, including how long potentially “catastrophic” failings went undetected.

In the video, Alviti’s wife, Kathy Lanni, says she initially opposed his move to RIDOT. But, she explained, he “kind of sat me down and said, ‘I want this to be the capstone of my career. I want to end my career in public service, which meant giving up a lot’.” (Cue: Images of Alviti boating. )

As the unseen Rocco explains: “Peter Alviti wanted to end his long and impressive career as an engineer in public service. It was 2015, and despite some pushback at home, sacrifice of free time and a lower salary, he took the governor’s offer to be the Rhode Island Director of Transportation.”

“Typical Peter, thinking less about himself than the impact he could make for the greater good,” Rocco told The Journal on Wednesday.

More: Peter Alviti: RIDOT director faces bridge repairs, possible RIPTA showdown

Who paid for the video?

A question posed by The Journal: Who paid for the video produced for the DaVinci Center, which last year alone got $67,085 from the elderly-affairs division of the state’s Department of Human Services and a $10,000 legislative grant?

Rocco said his company filmed and edited the video, and Kurt Bertozzi’s company, One Cut Productions scripted it at the reduced price they charge non-profits, which he did not recall exactly but said was probably under $5,000. He said the DaVinci Center paid.

Rocco said the bridge closure has probably added about 15 minutes to his and his wife’s own trips from Rehoboth to Cranston and Providence.

“It’s too bad it happened,” but “it could be worse,” he said.