McKee on Bridge Cost: “Don’t Know Answer to That Question & It’s Very Dangerous to be Answering”
Wednesday, May 08, 2024
In a one-on-one interview with Governor Dan McKee on Tuesday at the Rhode Island State House, GoLocal asked four critical questions about the Washington Bridge.
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McKee seemed to walk back the price tag announced by his office in a press release 24 hours earlier.
On Monday, Governor Dan McKee’s office issued a press release claiming a new cost for the demolition and rebuild of the Washington.
“Since its initial estimates, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) has updated its estimates for the costs of the bridge’s demolition and subsequent design-rebuild to include a change of scope, contingency dollars and construction incentives. The change of scope includes work on off- and on-ramps to the bridge itself. The new estimates are $40.52 million for the demolition and $368.3 million for the design-build process,” according to the McKee press release on Monday.
But when GoLocal asked him at the State House on Tuesday, McKee said, “So [we] don't know the answer to that question, and it's it's very dangerous to be answering a question that you know you don't in particular...we do know that.”
At a March 14 press conference, McKee and Rhode Island Department of Transportation Director Peter Alviti unveiled a report from McNary Bergeron & Johannesen, headquartered in Colorado, which identified the cost of removing the failed Washington Bridge and building a replacement at $250 million to $300 million.
In less than two months since the announcement of the consultant’s report on March 14 and Monday’s new pricing by the McKee Administration — the price to demolish the bridge and replace it has jumped between more than a third and fifty percent.
McKee on Who Is Responsible for the Bridge Failure
When asked about the failure, McKee said his administration is going through a process.
“That's certainly now coming down the line… bringing a legal team to hold people accountable that should be held accountable.” McKee referenced the hiring of attorneys Max Wistow and Jonathan Savage to investigate. The two were named by McKee on April 5.
Why Did RIDOT’s Bridge Inspection Program Fail
When GoLocal asked how did the bridge inspection program fail, McKee said, “Those are really good questions. In terms of the fact that we are putting a team a legal team and engineering team to go backward to answer those questions because we know that they need to be answered.”
Watch the full interview with McKee Above
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