Walsh/WSP Win $339M Rhode Island Bridge Job

Walsh Development Co. has been chosen to construct a brand new westbound span for the I-195 Washington Bridge in Windfall, R.I., restoring a crossing compelled to shut in December 2023 because of superior structural deterioration.

Walsh and design accomplice WSP will start work on the $339-million design-build undertaking subsequent month, in keeping with the Rhode Island Dept. of Transportation (RIDOT). The company has additionally budgeted a $10-million bonus for completion forward of the scheduled November 2028 goal date, with a $25,000 each day penalty for missed milestone dates. Contingency funds, inspection and proprietor’s consultant companies and different “gentle prices” might deliver the rebuild undertaking’s whole price to as a lot as $427 million, RIDOT says.

“It’s a wonderful bid, it’s a wonderful value,” RIDOT director Peter Alviti informed a June 6 press convention asserting the choice.

He famous that whereas the Walsh/WSP price estimate for the best-value procurement was roughly $50 million lower than the bid from shortlisted competitor American Bridge Co./MLJ Contracting Corp., each groups’ technical proposals have been “inside a few factors of one another.”

Based on RIDOT, the five-lane alternative bridge shall be greater than 450 ft shorter than its 1,671-ft-long predecessor, which was closed on short notice in December 2023 when structural deterioration found throughout a restore undertaking was discovered to be extra widespread than had been reported throughout earlier scheduled inspections.

Final August, RIDOT filed suit against 13 engineers and contractors that had inspected or carried out work on the bridge over the previous decade. That litigation remains to be pending. In the meantime, the 25-year-old eastbound span of the Washington Bridge has been quickly reconfigured to deal with two-way visitors till a alternative is constructed.

After discovering structural deterioration in December 2023, the westbound bridge closed and the eastbound bridge has dealt with two-way visitors ever since. The westbound bridge was demolished after it was decided in March 2024 that structural deterioration on the 56-year-old span was worse than initially thought.
Picture courtesy Rhode Island Dept. of Transportation

Full demolition of the westbound bridge is scheduled to be accomplished in December, with removing of the final underwater foundations.

Walsh’s alternative design requires a brand new substructure with fewer in-water piers within the Seekonk River, a capability of 80,000 autos a day and options that may make the bridge simpler to examine and preserve throughout its 100-year design life.

Walsh Development program supervisor Chuck Parrish informed reporters that his staff modeled its method on the lately accomplished south span of the I-270 Chain of Rocks Bridge, a 5,400-ft-long concrete deck metal girder construction throughout the Mississippi River Walsh constructed as a part of a $496.2-mllion undertaking for the Illinois and Missouri Depts. of Transportation.

“The streamlined repetitive design of the construction parts…mixed with the constant and simply produceable metal members allowed for fast development with prime quality,” Parrish stated, including that the Chain of Rocks Bridge is sort of three-and-a-half occasions the size of the deliberate Washington Bridge, and was accomplished in two years.

The distinctive alternative to primarily construct the identical bridge twice, Parrish famous, “gave us the arrogance to decide to each the worth and schedule that we absolutely can meet in delivering the brand new bridge” in Rhode Island.

RIDOT’s funding technique for the brand new bridge consists of as much as $334.6 million in GARVEE bonding capability, and two federal Mega-INFRA grants totaling $221 million finalized earlier this 12 months. The state will even make the most of greater than $107 million from its capital tasks finances, a repurposed $15-million federal BUILD grant, and $35 million in unused federal pandemic support.

As such, Gov. Dan McKee (D) informed reporters, “the brand new bridge shall be constructed at no extra price to taxpayers.”

The highway to alternative

The collection of Walsh for the westbound Washington Bridge rebuild comes almost a 12 months after RIDOT’s preliminary RFP for a fast-tracked alternative attracted no bidders. A reworked procurement course of providing related early completion incentives with a less-aggressive timeline led to the shortlisting of Walsh and the American Bridge/MLJ staff final December.

Along with the brand new westbound bridge, the undertaking consists of a number of measures geared toward addressing longstanding congestion upgrades alongside the I-195 hall, together with reconfigured journey lanes and widening two current bridges in East Windfall. Prefabricated arches shall be constructed over native streets on each the Windfall and East Windfall sides of the river to imitate the look the unique Washington Bridge, RIDOT says.

The company has additionally stepped up the frequency and content material of its inspection program for the Washington Bridge’s eastbound span, together with the addition of automated monitoring gear. RIDOT director Alviti informed reporters that two separate assessments of structural masses commissioned by the company decided that eastbound bridge’s structural integrity had not been compromised by the a great deal of two-way visitors and non permanent concrete limitations

Alviti expressed confidence that the eastbound bridge will proceed to carry out safely throughout development of the brand new westbound span. He cited a lately obtained follow-up loading capability evaluation of the construction that, “discovered no change to the unique evaluation.”