The firm overseeing demolition of the westbound Washington Bridge is one of four bidders to reconstruct it. (Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
After garnering no interest during the state’s initial solicitation, the rebuild of the westbound Washington Bridge now has four bidders — including the firm overseeing demolition of the old bridge.
Firms had until noon Tuesday to respond to the Rhode Island Department of Transportation’s (RIDOT) request for qualifications, which did not require any design plans or cost estimates for replacing the westbound highway spanning the Seekonk River.
Responding were:
- New York-based Halmar International LLC
- Chicago-based Walsh Construction Company II, LLC
- A joint submission from Pennsylvania-based American Bridge Company and New York-based MLJ Contracting Corp.
- A joint submission from New York-based Skanska and Warwick-based Aetna Bridge Co.
State transportation officials will now whittle that list down to two finalists, which they expect to do by Dec. 11 — the one year anniversary of the bridge’s sudden closure. State officials shut down all traffic on the westbound highway after engineers discovered broken anchor rods that put the Washington Bridge at risk of collapse.
Gov. Dan McKee’s administration tried again to find a bridge builder after the first attempt in the spring failed to attract any bids. State officials said the original timeline of August 2026 to complete the project was too aggressive, despite $10 million in incentives based on per-day rates ranging between $5,000 to $7,000 to get the job done as quickly as possible.
This go-round, in an effort to generate interest, state officials will offer $1.75 million to the losing finalist (of the top two) for costs associated with creating its proposal. The rebuild contract is expected to be awarded June 6, 2025.
New Washington Bridge rebuild contract won’t be awarded till June 2025
Estimates last May pegged the cost at $368 million, but state officials have yet to share an updated price tag — something that will be shaped by the final contract.
That’s on top of the nearly $100 million the state will also pay for demolition after RIDOT in October decided to expand work on the piers and beams below the bridge, which required an amended contract with Warwick-based Aetna Bridge Co. — one of the respondents to the request for qualifications.
Aetna had initially promised to complete demolition by January 2025, but the extra work on the substructure pushed that date between Nov. 30, 2025 and Jan. 30, 2026.
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