In late August, Gov. Dan McKee — in collaboration with Walsh Construction and the Rhode Island Department of Transportation — released a schedule of construction benchmarks for the Washington Bridge rebuild. The schedule targets a November 2028 reopening date.
The bridge closed in December 2023, and in 2025, a leaked forensic audit revealed underlying structural deficiencies in the bridge existed long before it was ultimately closed by the state.
The “design-build project is proceeding well,” RIDOT Chief Public Affairs Officer Charles St. Martin wrote in an email to The Herald, adding that the agency began in-water construction this past spring.
Now, the construction team is constructing the foundations for the new bridge, Martin wrote. The team is currently “installing 32 long pipes called drilled shafts which are driven to a depth of 130 feet to bedrock,” he added.
Next steps after the installation include cleaning the shaft interiors and inserting and curing concrete-filled reinforcing steel bars, according to Martin. So far, six shafts have been fully installed, cleaned, reinforced and cured, he added.
When the process for all 32 shafts is complete, a steel structure will be placed on top. The concrete within this “box-like” steel structure will “tie the shafts together and form the base of the pier,” Martin wrote.
RIDOT aims to complete the pier base by early fall, with steel beams to be placed later in the fall. This stage of the process will be repeated “across the river, working from west to east” and is projected to be completed by next year, he added.
Some aspects of the rebuild are ahead of schedule at this point. Foundation work that had been scheduled for the fall was able to start this past spring, and steel work intended to be completed in spring 2027 is now planned for this fall, Martin wrote.
Martin said there have not been any challenges or delays that would impact the rebuild’s planned November 2028 completion date.
Carl Austin Grondin MPA ’24, press secretary for the office of Providence Mayor Brett Smiley, wrote that, although the rebuilding project is managed at the state level, “the Mayor wants to see the work move forward as quickly and safely as possible for Providence residents, businesses and commuters.”
The city will work with the state and RIDOT to “limit impacts on nearby neighborhoods, support safe traffic patterns and ensure residents are kept informed,” Grondin wrote.
To minimize the construction’s encroachment on nearby homes and businesses, RIDOT is “using quieter, vibrating hammers to install the drilled shafts,” Martin said.
State Rep. Rebecca Kislak ’94 said that she believes the Washington Bridge reconstruction process is “taking a really long time,” citing interstate highways in Pennsylvania and Maryland that “got built much more quickly.”
“I don’t understand why we were unable to act with the same level of urgency as the other states who had recent interstate bridge issues,” Kislak said.
Martin wrote that the project’s main construction company, Walsh Construction, set the project completion date, not the state. RIDOT vetted the “best bridge building companies in the United States” before landing on Walsh Construction, which “is consistently ranked as the best bridge builder in the country and has more than 100 years of experience,” Martin added.
Kelly Ding is a senior staff writer for the community and culture beat. She is from College Station, TX and plans to concentrate in IAPA on the policy and governance track. In her free time, she loves to explore new coffee shops, curl up with a good book, and be a gym rat.
