St. Mary’s, Washington Bridge closure will get a closer look from lawmakers in coming weeks

PROVIDENCE – A legislative probe of what happened that required the immediate closing of the westbound lanes of Interstate 195 West on December 11 is moving up on the legislative agenda.

In an interview this week, House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi told The Journal he anticipates the first House Oversight Committee hearing this year will happen in the “next week or two” and it will focus on St. Mary’s Home for Children, in the wake of a newly released report on “significant safety concerns and abusive living conditions” there.

“It will be followed by an oversight at DOT,” he said of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, headed since 2015 by Peter Alviti.

What is the goal of the oversight hearing?

Asked what he hopes will come from a House Oversight Committee hearing, Shekarchi said: “I just think it needs to have a full vetting of the story – what happened, why it happened if they know … what they are doing to find out those answers and … when we expect it to be fixed.”

And even more basically: “What happened? What actions have they taken?”

“We have kind of heard that in dribs and drabs along the way,” he continued. “I think it’s good we hear a comprehensive report and update on the bridge … 30 to 45 days since it happened.”

Will it be a joint hearing with the Senate?

Shekarchi said he has asked Senate leaders if they would like to hold a joint hearing. When? “Before the February break,” he said of the legislature’s Feb. 19-23 week off. It remains to be seen if the Senate will go along.

When asked, Senate spokesman Greg Pare said: “Our intention is to have Senate oversight hearings at the appropriate time. The President and Speaker have discussed doing so jointly, but no determination has been made at this time.” (He did not respond to follow-up questions on what would be the “appropriate time.”)

What is going on with the Washington Bridge?

In December, both Shekarchi and Senate President Dominick Ruggerio said there was merit in waiting for the Federal Highway Administration to do their own investigation first of how the bridge so quickly deteriorated less six months after its last recorded inspection.

But when asked on Wednesday what the FHWA has done so far, DOT spokesman Charles St. Martin said: “We have had no indications from FHWA regarding a site visit nor any requests for records.”

More: Investigation into the Washington Bridge’s condition is coming. What will happen next.

That means the only investigation underway in the month since the abrupt closure of the westbound span of the bridge is the “forensic analysis” being done by one of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation’s regular bridge-inspection contractors. The question: how did anchor rods holding it together break sometime between July and December?

The initial forensic analysis is being done by WJE as a subcontractor to Michael Baker Co., which DOT spokeswoman Lisbeth Pettengill has described as “our regular bridge-inspection company.”

The McKee administration has in recent days, however, given a contract to the Connecticut-based McNary Bergeron & Johannesen, LLC to do what is broadly described as a “forensic structural engineering analysis and inspection on Washington Bridge” at a cost of $27,019.83.