Rhode Island Bridge Conditions: Climbing Out of Last Place

The Washington Bridge

In December 2023, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation abruptly closed the westbound span of the Washington Bridge on I-195 in East Providence. An engineer had flagged broken tie-down rods. The bridge carried roughly 90,000 vehicles per day on one of the busiest segments of I-195, the primary connector between East Providence and Providence. (RIDOT)

Subsequent inspections found far more than broken rods. Concrete was unsound. Corrosion had spread through the structure. Joints were leaking. The damage was so extensive that repair was deemed unviable. In March 2024, Governor McKee announced full demolition and replacement.

The forensic audit told a longer story. WJE Associates completed a 64-page assessment in April 2024, concluding that the bridge had been poorly maintained "over an extended period of decades." Auditors found that officials "should have and could have been aware of problems that were developing." The closure, they wrote, was "entirely justified." (WJE Associates, April 2024)

That audit sat unreleased for more than a year. It was finally made public in September 2025, sparking legislative oversight hearings and public backlash over the delay. (Rhode Island Current)

Demolition was completed in December 2025 at a cost of approximately $84 million. Walsh Construction was selected for the rebuild: $339 million in hard costs, up to $427 million with soft costs, and $571 million total when demolition is included. The federal government committed $221 million in grants, including $125.4 million from the INFRA program and $95.5 million from MEGA. The new bridge is projected to open in late 2028 with a 100-year design life. (RIDOT; FHWA)

The Washington Bridge is not an abstraction. It is what decades of deferred maintenance produce, even in a state that has spent the past decade actively trying to fix the problem.

Statewide Snapshot

Rhode Island has 787 bridges. (ARTBA 2025) Of those, 110 are rated in poor condition, which is 14% of the state's inventory and more than double the national average of 6.7%. (ARTBA 2025) Only Iowa (19%), West Virginia (18%), South Dakota (16%), and Maine (15%) have higher rates.

A decade ago, the picture was worse. In 2015, more than 23% of Rhode Island's bridges were structurally deficient, and the state ranked #50 out of 50: dead last in America. By 2016, when RIDOT Director Peter Alviti took over, 27% of bridges were structurally deficient, with 192 classified as such. (RIDOT) The trajectory from that low point to the current 14% represents genuine improvement. It also means Rhode Island is still more than double the national average.

The full state breakdown is available on ARTBA's Rhode Island bridge profile.

Why So Many Bridges

Rhode Island covers 1,034 square miles, the smallest state by area, yet maintains 787 bridges. That density (roughly 0.76 bridges per square mile) reflects the state's physical reality. Narragansett Bay bisects Rhode Island north to south, and multiple rivers cross the landscape: the Blackstone, Pawtuxet, Woonasquatucket, Moshassuck, Ten Mile, and Sakonnet. The I-95 northeast corridor, connecting Boston to New York, runs the length of the state and generates a concentration of highway overpasses, interchanges, and rail crossings in a very compact area.

Four major crossings span Narragansett Bay: the Claiborne Pell/Newport Bridge (1969), the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge (1992), the Mount Hope Bridge (1929), and the Sakonnet River Bridge (2013). These structures connect communities separated by water and carry traffic that has no alternative route. Rhode Island is also the second most densely populated state, which means any bridge closure or weight restriction creates immediate detour pressure on surrounding roads.

Where the Problem Is Worst

Rhode Island has no county government. Its 39 cities and towns interact directly with RIDOT, with no intermediate layer pooling resources for bridge maintenance. Without county-level data, the clearest way to map the problem is by corridor and project area.

Corridor / Area	Key Project	Scale	Status
Washington Bridge (I-195)	Full replacement	$571M total cost	Under construction, late 2028
I-95 / Route 10 corridor	The I-95 15	15 bridges, $251M	Under construction
Route 37 (Cranston to Warwick)	Route 37 rehabilitation	27 bridges (rehab + replacement)	Under construction
Providence metro (various)	Multiple projects	~75 persistently poor	Ongoing

The Providence metro area accounts for roughly half of all persistently poor bridges statewide: approximately 75 structures that have carried a poor rating every year for nearly a decade. (RIDOT)

The Route 37 corridor between Cranston and Warwick illustrates the concentration of need. Nearly half of Route 37's bridges are in poor condition, and RIDOT is rehabilitating or replacing 27 bridges along this east-west freeway. The I-95/Route 10 corridor carries 185,000 vehicles daily (including roughly 9,000 trucks) and moves $9.7 billion in freight value annually, a figure projected to nearly double by 2050. The 15-bridge, $251.1 million I-95 15 project targets bridges in poor and fair condition along this corridor. (RIDOT; FHWA)

Municipal capacity is another factor. The RhodeRestore program provides $33.5 million over its first three years for locally owned bridges, but the 67% local match requirement is a barrier for smaller, fiscally stressed communities. Memorial Boulevard Bridge in Newport, where RIDOT flagged "severe damage," illustrates that even tourism-dependent cities can struggle with bridge maintenance costs. (RIDOT)

The RhodeWorks Gamble

In 2016, Governor Gina Raimondo signed the RhodeWorks Act into law. The legislation created a 10-year capital program to repair 150 or more structurally deficient bridges and make improvements to another 500, with a goal of reaching 90% structural sufficiency by 2025 or 2026. The centerpiece was truck-only tolling: 12 gantry locations targeting Class 8 and larger vehicles (80,000 pounds or more). (RIDOT)

Tolling operated from 2018 until September 2022, collecting approximately $101 million in total billable revenue over four years. Peak annual revenue reached $39.8 million in the 2021 to 2022 fiscal year, below the original projection of $45 million per year. (RIDOT)

The legal challenge came quickly. The American Trucking Associations, Cumberland Farms, M&M Transport, and New England Motor Freight sued, arguing the truck-only tolls violated the Dormant Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. In September 2022, a federal district judge agreed and ruled the tolls unconstitutional. All tolling was suspended. (U.S. District Court, District of Rhode Island)

Rhode Island appealed. In December 2024, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the overall tolling system but struck down caps that had exempted local traffic from higher rates. Under the ruling, in-state trucks must be tolled at the same rate as out-of-state trucks. (1st Circuit Court of Appeals)

Tolls are expected to resume in 2026, with $10 million budgeted in the current fiscal year. The gap between the September 2022 suspension and the projected 2026 resumption represents roughly four years of lost toll revenue during a period when the state needed every dollar for bridge work. (Rhode Island FY2025-2026 Budget)

The Funding Picture

Rhode Island's gas tax stands at $0.41 per gallon as of July 1, 2025, including a 3-cent RIPTA surcharge. The state indexed its gas tax to inflation in 2014, and the rate has risen from $0.33 when indexing took effect in 2015. By contrast, Maine's gas tax has been frozen at $0.30 since 2011. Indexing does not solve the funding problem, but it prevents the slow erosion that a flat rate creates. (RIDOT; Rhode Island General Laws)

RIDOT's budget has roughly doubled, from approximately $490 million during Director Alviti's early tenure to approximately $1.1 billion in Governor McKee's FY2025 request. Much of that increase reflects federal funding. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) is providing $225 million in Bridge Formula Program funds over five years (FY2022 through FY2026), the statutory minimum floor of $45 million per year. Rhode Island's formula-based calculation did not exceed that floor. (FHWA)

Competitive federal grants have added substantially more. The Washington Bridge and I-95 15 projects together received over $470 million in federal grants. A separate $17 million PROTECT grant targets resilience improvements. (FHWA)

The gap between investment and need remains large. TRIP estimates a $4.5 billion transportation-funding shortfall over the next 10 years. The Washington Bridge alone consumes $571 million. Driving on roads in need of repair costs Rhode Island motorists an estimated $620 million per year, or approximately $823 per driver annually. (TRIP)

The Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority (RITBA), which owns the Pell/Newport and Mount Hope bridges, had its credit rating upgraded to A+ by S&P in April 2024, a sign of improving financial discipline. (S&P Global Ratings)

What's Being Done

According to RIDOT, 302 bridges have been reconstructed or replaced since the RhodeWorks program launched in 2016. (RIDOT) The trajectory from more than 23% structurally deficient in 2015 to 14% in 2025 reflects real, sustained investment. In 2019, 174 bridges were classified as structurally deficient. By 2021, that number had dropped to 136, and the deficiency rate fell to 22%. (FHWA NBI) The current ARTBA count of 110 bridges in poor condition continues that downward trend.

The largest active projects tell part of the story. The Washington Bridge replacement ($571 million) is under construction with a late 2028 opening and a 100-year design life. The I-95 15 project ($251.1 million) is rebuilding 15 bridges along the I-95/Route 10 corridor. The Route 37 rehabilitation is addressing 27 bridges on the Cranston-to-Warwick freeway. The RhodeRestore municipal program has committed $33.5 million over three years for locally owned bridges, and combined state and local investment through the program reached nearly $110 million in its first two years. (RIDOT)

The Methodology Controversy

A WPRI investigation revealed that RIDOT changed its quarterly bridge-condition reporting methodology. The agency had previously tracked all 1,206 state bridges. It shifted to tracking only the 420 bridges on the National Highway System, removing 786 bridges from the count.

Under the new methodology, RIDOT reported meeting the RhodeWorks goal of 90% good or fair condition in January 2025, a year ahead of the program deadline. Under the old methodology, which counted all bridges, only 88.4% were in good or fair condition, still short of the 90% target. (WPRI)

RIDOT defended the change as conforming to FHWA standards, calling the previous methodology "unofficial." (RIDOT)