R.I. Governor McKee to hold briefing on Providence’s Washington Bridge closure and repairs – The Boston Globe

In a series of news conferences Wednesday, state officials provided key updates on the closure of the westbound lanes of the bridge that carries Interstate 195 over the Seekonk River between East Providence and Providence.

Rods bracing the bridges cracked and ultimately severed, forcing the closure of the westbound side, officials said. The span was at risk of collapse.

Transportation Director Peter Alviti Jr. on Wednesday showed two before and after photos taken of the rods during a routine inspection in July and from a few days ago. In July, the rods were solid and in one piece. In December, one was severed near the base, and the other was cracked. (The full inspection report from July was released later Wednesday afternoon.)

“I hope that this dispels the rumors and fearmongering that’s going on, that goes to the issue of whether or not we’re hiding something or things should have been known,” Alviti said. “The fact of the matter is our inspection reports in July showed these as being stable structures, and something catastrophic happened between July and now. Don’t know whether it was a large load that may have driven over it that imposed a shear force.”

He has ruled out damage caused by ongoing construction on the eastbound bridge structure, and said that the rods were part of the original bridge structure when it was built in 1968, and had reached the end of their life span.

Alviti added Wednesday that officials expect to open two emergency bypass lanes this weekend on the eastbound side of the bridge, to allow westbound traffic to get moving again.

“We have made considerable progress in the last day,” Alviti said. “I know we had projected one week or two weeks out. I am happy to say we have a high confidence level of completing it by this weekend. That should bring the travel times down, not to where they were prior to this emergency, but closer to it.”

In addition, Alviti said ferry service between Bristol and Providence could start up in a week or so. The 500-passenger ferry would travel from one of two potential sites in Bristol to the summer ferry landing spot at India Point in Providence, he said.

The department is also working with the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority to provide shuttle services between parking lots at the ferry landing and Kennedy Plaza and the Providence train station, said Alviti.

East Providence schools, which shifted to remote instruction Wednesday because of traffic jams throughout the city, are resuming in-person classes Thursday, East Providence Mayor Bob DaSilva said.

State Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green told reporters Wednesday that the traffic jams have affected not just East Providence students but also those traveling to private schools, charter schools, special education programs, and career and technical education programs in the area.

Out of our 300 school bus routes statewide, 62 have been impacted by the bridge closure, and of those, 23 had experienced “more of the severe delay” on Tuesday, Infante-Green said. But that number was reduced on Wednesday, she said. “So we’re happy to announce that,” she said. “We thank the parents for being patient and understanding.”

The broken and damaged rods were noticed by a young engineer working on the demolition of an old bridge deck nearby — not during a routine inspection.

“Fortunately, [the damage] was more of a gradual kind of domino effect,” Alviti said. “As the structure weakened, the other pins on it failed.” However, he continued, “it didn’t cause a cataclysmic failure of the bridge decks falling into the river, and vehicles falling into the river below, and having that kind of casualties that they have had in other locations.”

Alviti said that RIDOT has rebuilt 300 bridges in the last seven years, when Rhode Island bridges were rated the worst in the country. He said that RIDOT has a regular and accelerated inspection and reinspection each year and a special bridge unit in maintenance.

“We are not only rebuilding them, and learning from this kind of thing, and rebuilding them in a different way, where this in the future will not happen to those bridges, but we’ve also put in place an effective maintenance force that will keep them from deteriorating like they did during the last 50 years,” he said.

It’s not just Rhode Island commuters frustrated by the sudden closure of the bridge, said Congressman Jake Auchincloss, a Newton, Mass., Democrat.

“The closure of the Washington Bridge on I-195 is a major disruption for Bay Staters traveling to Providence, making commutes longer and limiting access to one of the biggest cities in New England,” Auchincloss tweeted Wednesday at 4:23 p.m., just as rush hour was kicking into gear. “I’ll continue to work with @USDOT to get the bridge re-opened ASAP.”

Also Wednesday, Rhode Island state House Oversight Committee Chairperson Patricia A. Serpa, a West Warwick Democrat, she had received a couple of request from East Bay representatives asking the committee to bring Alviti or his staff in to discuss the bridge situation. She said that she’d like the committee to address the matter, but that this might not be best time to pull away the officials who are dealing with the bridge problem.

“If we are going to take the people who are charged with solving this problem away from this work, I don’t know if this is the right time to do it. Let them get it done,” Serpa said. “Let it play out. There will be plenty of time for who did what, when. We will follow up on this at the right time.”

Serpa led the House Oversight committee’s analysis of the botched UHIP benefit rollout in 2016 – which caused a massive backlog of applications for food stamp and health benefits – and drew parallels between that crisis and the bridge debacle.

“It’s like we are always doing things after the fact in this state — that is why people get so frustrated,” she said. “It’s UHIP on wheels. Here we go again.”

Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report. This breaking news story will be updated.

Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.