RI pauses Washington Bridge demolition to ‘preserve evidence'

The Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office announced Tuesday that demolition work on the westbound span of the Washington Bridge has been paused.

NBC10 Boston affiliate WJAR obtained a statement from the McKee Administration and the Attorney General's Office, saying, "The engineers for RIDOT, in cooperation with the state’s legal team, have reached the point in the demolition of the Washington Bridge where work must be paused to preserve evidence for the legal case. The goal is to be able to continue demolition as swiftly as possible while ensuring important evidence is preserved.”

There was no immediate word on what specific evidence the attorney general's office is looking to preserve, or if planned road closures would be continuing.

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee announced in August that the state had filed a lawsuit against 13 companies that provided design, construction, and inspection services related to the troubled bridge -- which carries Interstate 195 over the Seekonk River from Providence to East Providence and serves as a key gateway to Providence.

McKee said at the time that the lawsuit seeks to hold accountable those companies responsible for the near-miss catastrophic closure of the bridge and to recover the significant resources required to rebuild the bridge and compensate the state.

In the lawsuit, the state argues that the companies failed to timely and adequately identify worsening structural issues that ultimately led to the sudden and unexpected closure of the bridge.

During the demolition and construction of the new bridge, the state is rerouting six lanes of traffic — three in each direction — on the eastbound bridge structure.

The bridge carries nearly 100,000 vehicles every day.

The sudden westbound closure in mid-December initially wreaked havoc on traffic, turning a 40- to 45-minute drive into several hours, stranding commuters for hours and sending others veering off their normal path. Some schools closed and held classes remotely.

The Associated Press contributed to this report