The Washington Bridge: alleged fraud and questionable political donations

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — RIDOT had considered replacing the Washington Bridge in 2019 and 2020. They performed a number of evaluations of the bridge and its components with outside consultants Steere and AECOM. They developed an opinion that was backed up by McMahon engineering, the substructure of the bridge would not make 25 years of service life. If they were going to replace the bridge in 2020 they would need to replace the substructure. The AECOM and Steere docs are attached here showing that.

Fast forward to 2024 and VHB performs an evaluation for RIDOT that states the substructure could be reused and would have a 100 year service life, despite having zero maintenance done between the evaluations. Jeffrey Klein of VHB and Anthony Pompeii of RIDOT are friends outside of work and have known each other a long time. Was this evaluation above board? We obtained the VHB evaluation from YouTuber Casey Jones through his APRA, he is working for Rhode Islanders.

Aetna Bridge was recently called out by Senator Sam Zurrier for not turning in their campaign contribution declarations. The demo contractors Aetna/Vinagro have donated to Governor McKee in the last few years. Aetna Bridge cannot get bonded for jobs over $50 million on their own. The VHB evaluation that claimed the substructure could be reused allowed RIDOT to put a demo RFP out that Aetna could afford. RIDOT then fell back on the 2020 evaluation after Aetna had already won the bid. RIDOT then changed their minds about the substructure VHB said could be reused and just a few short months later they added it to the demo with no competitive bid.

McKee’s donors profit and return the favor with new donations. The VHB evaluation was either done to help get Aetna/Vinagro the work, who fund McKee, or it was correct and we should have reused the substructure. Reusing the substructure gets us a bridge 1 year faster and we save over $50 million on the demo and another $100 million plus replacing it. Casey Jones offered this VHB evaluation to all local RI press and they showed no interest. Minnesota needed Nick Shirley to uncover fraud their local press ignored. RI clearly needs Casey Jones.

Washington Bridge alleged fraud