DEDHAM, Mass. — United States Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited Rhode Island on Tuesday for a tour of the Washington Bridge, which needs to be demolished and replaced due to safety concerns.
The bridge, located just a couple of miles away from the Massachusetts state line, carries Interstate 195 traffic over the Seekonk River from Providence to East Providence and serves as a key gateway to Providence.
An inspection in December revealed a “critical failure of some bridge components.” The cost to demolish and replace the bridge is estimated to be between $250 million and $300 million.
“If that repair project were not undertaken, the inspections that caught this potentially deadly flaw would not have happened,” Buttigieg said. “There is a very real risk that our residents would have found out through a collapse.”
The bridge carries nearly 100,000 vehicles every day. It’s just one of hundreds across southern New England, including in Massachusetts, that have been flagged for various structural deficiencies.
An interactive map highlighting Massachusetts Department of Transportation data shows that 676 of the 8,044 municipally or state-owned bridges and culverts are structurally deficient.
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A few of the many structurally deficient bridges include the Westford Street Bridge in Chelmsford, the Grafton Street Bridge in Worcester, as well as the bridge on the Concord Turnpike.
Gov. Maura Healey addressed these potential safety issues on Tuesday following an event at TD Garden. She vowed to secure federal money to put toward repairs.
“I know how important this work is. So, so important,” Healey told reporters. “I’m going to do everything I can as governor to get as much money as I can from the US Department of Transportation.
Healey’s administration has already secured nearly $400 million in federal funding for a project that will “restore and modernize” the 90-year-old Sagamore Bridge on Cape Cod. Additional applications for federal funding are pending.
In August 2023, Healey signed a $375 million bridge, road maintenance, and infrastructure bill to improve transportation across Massachusetts.
View a list of all of the structurally deficient bridges in Massachusetts below:
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