Rhode Island Can Rebuild Critical Bridge Without Fed Money; URI Athletic Field Upgrades Ongoing : CEG

Even if the federal government witholds hundreds of millions of federal dollars previously promised to Rhode Island, the state will have more than enough money to build a new westbound Washington Bridge, state Transportation Director Peter Alviti told a joint House-Senate Oversight hearing at the Statehouse in Feb.

Alviti said more than $600 million has been allocated for the bridge and a series of improvements along Interstate 95 in Providence, R.I., and that the money does not fall into the categories being restricted by the White House.

According to The Public’s Radio in Providence, Alviti said the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) remains in regular contact with federal transportation officials about trying to spur the release of the funds.

“But in their absence, we have the funding in place through the GARVEE debt [capacity],” he said, referring to a form of borrowing for transit projects known as Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle Bonds, “and other sources that I outlined for you to be able to build the bridge. So, we’re moving ahead.”

There were few other fresh revelations during the almost three-hour hearing on Feb. 13, 2025.

State Sen. Mark McKenney and chair of the Senate Committee on Rules, Government Ethics and Oversight, noted at the meeting’s outset that lawsuits over the Washington Bridge’s condition being led by Attorney General Peter Neronha limited Alviti’s ability to discuss the roots of the bridge crisis and why it happened.

The westbound Washington Bridge was abruptly closed on an emergency basis in December 2023.

Nevertheless, lawmakers pressed Alviti to answer when the new westbound bridge will be complete and how much it will cost.

The Public’s Radio reported that Alviti answered by saying what he and Gov. Dan McKee have said before: that a final contractor for the project is slated to be selected in June 2025 and that the cost and timeline will be detailed at that point.

State Rep. Pat Serpa, chair of the House Oversight Committee, prefaced her questioning of Alviti by lambasting RIDOT.

“My biggest concern is that Rhode Islanders have lost their faith in the Department of Transportation and that hasn’t been fixed yet and I don’t know how we’re going to fix that,” she said, pointing to how the state has yet to settle on a contractor more than a year after the closing of the bridge and after an initial RFP attracted no bids.

While Alviti touted improvements in travel times on the bridge, Rep. June Speakman added that she continues to hear from frustrated constituents.

“The East Bay residents have moved in their processing of the situation from sort of anger and confusion to resignation about the traffic and now we hear a lot more about the concerns of the stress on the [eastbound] bridge, which is carrying traffic east and west, because we spend so much time on it,” she said.

While the installation of monitoring equipment on the eastbound bridge is only partially complete, Alviti explained that the structure is being monitored on a daily basis and can safely carry its increased traffic.

In addition, he told lawmakers that RIDOT has improved hundreds of bridges in recent years and noted the replacement of the westbound Washington Bridge is moving more quickly than the rebuilding of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland.

“I’m very pleased, let me tell you, with the progress and the effort and I couldn’t be more proud of these people behind me,” he said, referring to RIDOT staffers, “at the level of effort and the kind of results that they have been getting.”

“I don’t know what construction you’ve done,” Alviti continued. “I’ve built 290 bridges and let me tell you, this one is going faster and better through the procurement process, the subsurface explorations, the demolition, than any project this state has ever seen even before my time and we intend on keeping it that way.”

URI Athletic Field Renovations Likely to Accelerate in 2025

Ongoing renovations to the University of Rhode Island’s athletic fields in Kingston are expected to pick up later this year, with formal construction on the school’s new outdoor track and field expected to start this summer, Thorr Bjorn, URI’s Director of Athletics, recently told Providence Business News (PBN) for a Feb. 25, 2025 article.

In addition, Bjorn said construction on Meade Stadium, home to URI’s football and new women’s lacrosse programs, is expected to start in November 2025 at the conclusion of next football season. The stadium renovation is slated to take 18 months, he said, while construction of the track will begin in about a year.

Therefore, the football team will have to play its 2026 home schedule at an alternative site, Bjorn said, before returning to Meade in the fall of 2027. He said URI is seeking a temporary home facility for football, with hopes of having “a really good plan in place” by summer 2025.

When asked if the new Stadium at Tidewater Landing in Pawtucket — set to open in May 2025 — is a possibility for URI football, Bjorn said it would be “a great option” but would depend on the usage cost.

“There’s certainly great people there and it’s a great facility,” he told PBN. “We have to figure out what makes the most financial sense [for us] and [the most sense for fans].”

Bjorn also said he hopes women’s lacrosse can be played inside Meade while construction is ongoing, but added, “We’ll see.”

Both Meade Stadium and the new outdoor track are the centerpieces of URI’s $82 million renovations to multiple athletic fields and aging facilities. The soccer and softball fields, as well as underground infrastructure at Tootell Aquatic Center, also are being upgraded.

New artificial turf was installed at the baseball field fall 2024, PBN noted. The design work for Meade and the track was done first, given their cost and size, Bjorn said, and the initial designs for the other fields will hopefully be complete “in the near future.”

The university received $65.8 million in Rhode Island’s 2024 fiscal year budget to fund most of the initiative. In October 2023, URI launched a $20 million fundraising campaign to close the financial gap for the project.

Bjorn said the school is still fundraising the final $16 million to finish the project. Conversations between URI athletics and donors are “going well,” he said, but physical designs showing the finished project will likely help drum up more enthusiasm and financial contributions.