Rhode Island Government and RiDOT- Why so Defensive! (YouTube)

In this video, I share my view on what I consider to be a very defensive posture taken by Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee and RiDOT director Peter Alviti in their press conference that they held January 13, 2025.

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0:00 · well hi everyone I'm sure you've heard
0:01 · the expression my ears must be burning
0:04 · referencing somebody's talking about you
0:07 · and uh I had that feeling earlier today
0:09 · and it turns out that the governor of
0:12 · Rhode Island Dan mcke and Rhode Island
0:15 · de director Peter alvid had a press
0:19 · conference apparently trying to tout
0:22 · that the eastbound bridge is safe nobody
0:26 · said it was unsafe to my knowledge I
0:28 · certainly haven't said that
0:30 · but uh they spouted some nonsense here
0:33 · in my opinion unfortunately and I'm
0:35 · going to have to break it down for you
0:37 · because they're taking shots at
0:39 · everybody uh who dares to raise
0:42 · questions about the integrity and the
0:45 · viability of having all this increased
0:47 · traffic on the eastbound Bridge as a
0:49 · result of the closure of westbound
0:51 · Washington Bridge I 195 over the seon
0:54 · river and uh they seem to have zero
0:58 · appetite to examine their own uh
1:02 · culpability that created this situation
1:05 · in the first place where they had to
1:07 · have emergency closure of the westbound
1:09 · bridge in December of 2023 so I'm going
1:11 · to play several clips from this news
1:15 · conference if you want to check out the
1:16 · full 45 minute news conference for
1:18 · yourself I'll put a link in the
1:20 · description WJ posted it on their
1:23 · website so let's uh jump into this so
1:25 · I'm going to start out with director
1:27 · alvid describing
1:30 · the results of the November 2024
1:33 · inspection they're inspecting the
1:35 · eastbound Bridge every six months
1:37 · now the
1:39 · substructure is in fair condition again
1:43 · as it has been since the bridge was
1:46 · built in 2008 these
1:49 · recent uh Bridge inspection reports
1:52 · showed that since
1:55 · 2008 the condition of the substructure
1:58 · and the superstructure has not not
2:00 · changed hasn't changed at all but let's
2:03 · look
2:04 · at whether that's
2:07 · true well as many of you know from my
2:09 · previous videos I submitted a public
2:11 · records request to Rhode Island Dot and
2:14 · I have obtained all their previous
2:16 · inspection reports for this bridge the
2:18 · most recent report November 2024 they've
2:21 · posted in partial form on the Rhode
2:26 · Island do website but in 2009 this was
2:30 · the first inspection uh that I was
2:33 · provided following the rebuild or
2:35 · reconstruction of the eastbound bridge
2:38 · bridge 200 in 2008 and the overall
2:42 · Bridge condition is good and if you go
2:44 · to the substructure condition it's also
2:47 · rated as good number seven but if we go
2:49 · on to
2:50 · 2017 the overall condition rating is
2:53 · fair and the substructure rating is six
2:56 · which is satisfactory it's a step below
2:58 · good so that's clearly
3:00 · an indication of director alvid being
3:02 · incorrect In His statement that the
3:04 · substructure rating hasn't changed since
3:07 · this bridge was rebuilt and when I say
3:09 · rebuilt they used the existing
3:11 · foundations for much of the new pier and
3:14 · rebuilt everything else columns all the
3:17 · super structure all that was built new
3:19 · and completed in 2008 and we can see in
3:22 · the 2024 reports April and then November
3:26 · the bridge is still with an overall
3:28 · rating of fair condition and the
3:30 · substructure conditions still six
3:32 · satisfactory let's play this next
3:34 · segment might ask why was the
3:37 · substructure in fair condition when The
3:40 · Purge was built well the rating for
3:43 · first of all the rating for the entire
3:46 · Bridge remains Fair because the overall
3:50 · rating of any bridge is determined by
3:53 · the structural element with the lowest
3:55 · rating in this case the substructure
3:57 · well again that's clearly incorrect
3:59 · based on their own inspection reports
4:00 · that they've made
4:02 · available the bridge was originally
4:06 · built and designed to be built on its
4:09 · original footings the ones that
4:12 · pre-existed the new bridge or the newer
4:15 · bridge and those were rated in fair
4:18 · condition and remained Fair now bridges
4:22 · are often built on pre-existing pilings
4:26 · as this one was okay I'll interject here
4:29 · that's actually not true most bridges in
4:32 · the United States are built on New
4:35 · Foundations but the previous eastbound
4:37 · Bridge was constructed in the
4:39 · 1930s so the pier and the piling
4:42 · supported supporting the rebuilt bridge
4:45 · in 2008 was constructed nearly 80 years
4:49 · before Engineers who designed that
4:53 · bridge determined at that time that the
4:56 · footings would remain in fair condition
4:59 · with the new bridge well you know that
5:01 · seems reasonable but how does that
5:04 · explain why in 2009 the bridge
5:08 · inspection report rated the substructure
5:12 · condition as satisfactory you know they
5:14 · reused the pile supported peers for most
5:18 · of the pier they installed a drilled
5:20 · shaft to support a single column for the
5:23 · new construction completed in 2008 okay
5:25 · so the eastbound bridge that was
5:28 · reconstruction that was completed in
5:30 · 2008 was supposed to have a design life
5:33 · of 75 years so that would put the use of
5:38 · the existing foundations for the peers
5:41 · for the eastbound bridge at over 160
5:44 · years in age if it reaches its full
5:47 · design life of 75 years okay now we're
5:49 · going to get into the load rating
5:51 · situation because in the spring of 2024
5:55 · Rhode Island dot decided that they were
5:58 · going to move move all the westbound
6:00 · traffic and maintain the eastbound
6:02 · traffic among a total of six Lanes with
6:05 · a dividing concrete barrier along the
6:08 · full length of the eastbound Bridge so
6:10 · they had a company perform an analysis
6:14 · as to whether the bridge could sustain
6:16 · that additional loading and uh the
6:19 · company based their initial
6:21 · analysis on essentially the plan
6:25 · configuration of the bridge and
6:27 · apparently didn't account for the actual
6:30 · condition of the bridge as reflected in
6:31 · recent inspection reports that is
6:33 · reports that indicated the bridge had a
6:35 · fair overall rating all right so let's
6:38 · look at this rating report it was done
6:41 · by AI engineers and this was done in the
6:43 · end of February 2024 however in this
6:46 · analysis there was no indication that
6:48 · they evaluated the ability of the
6:53 · reused 90 plus year old uh Foundation
6:57 · pile supported peers
7:00 · for the bridge could sustain additional
7:03 · loading from a total of six Lanes plus
7:06 · the barrier this eastbound Bridge from
7:08 · what I understand was designed for a
7:10 · total number of five Lanes of traffic
7:13 · not not an additional Lane of traffic
7:15 · and the addition of the loading imposed
7:17 · by the jersey barrier So based on
7:21 · everything presented by Rhode Island dot
7:23 · I would question whether that analysis
7:25 · has been performed it would appear that
7:27 · it has not so far anyway
7:30 · another thing I raised in a previous
7:31 · video is a lot of these inspection
7:33 · deficiencies for the eastbound Bridge go
7:36 · back over 10 years and uh I questioned
7:40 · in previously in my videos why these
7:44 · maintenance and repair issues had not
7:45 · been addressed and it looks like now
7:47 · finally Rhode Island do is starting to
7:50 · address these issues my question is why
7:53 · does it apparently take somebody like me
7:56 · and and others raising questions about
7:59 · the condition of the bridge and the way
8:01 · they've evaluated the bridge to sustain
8:03 · this additional traffic to get them to
8:05 · actually do something uh such as what
8:07 · they're talking about here compiling a
8:09 · list of Maintenance items and and
8:11 · actually ex executing repair work we
8:15 · asked our maintenance
8:17 · division to compile a list of the
8:20 · deficiencies that show up in the April
8:22 · and the November
8:24 · reports and to put a plan in place to
8:27 · correct
8:28 · them we so far they've done uh many of
8:33 · the items in these reports they've
8:35 · cleaned scuppers and drains they've
8:37 · tightened bolts and nuts were called for
8:40 · they've uh cleaned the Expansion Joints
8:44 · they've done some deck rehab work okay
8:47 · so these are some of the deficiencies
8:48 · that we're talking about clogged Scupper
8:51 · drains these drains are to take water
8:53 · from the surface of the bridge deck and
8:56 · discharge it away from the bridge and if
8:58 · you have a clog Scupper then the water
9:01 · has to find another way to exit the
9:02 · bridge which is cracks within the bridge
9:06 · joints and that sort of thing which most
9:09 · CA in most cases promotes a lot of
9:11 · unintended corrosion which is very
9:13 · problematic and I think this was a
9:15 · contributing factor to the severely
9:17 · degraded condition of the westbound
9:18 · Bridge because there was similar
9:20 · situations with the westbound bridge
9:21 · where they were not maintaining the
9:24 · cleanliness of these drains and we have
9:26 · things like broken connecting bolts
9:29 · cracks in the pier Rhode Island dot just
9:32 · comes across as really
9:34 · defensive uh in this press conference
9:36 · here today they won't even State an
9:40 · estimated timeline for the completion of
9:43 · the replacement bridge for westbound
9:45 · Washington Bridge which I don't
9:47 · understand they could they could put a
9:49 · range that you know this is the earliest
9:51 · it could possibly be and this is the
9:53 · latest that we would ever allow it to be
9:55 · they're in control of the situation
9:57 · although they're heavily reliant on what
9:59 · I consider top tier contractors
10:01 · competing for this work the design build
10:03 · contract American Bridge and Walsh but
10:07 · again who's driving the train it should
10:09 · be Rhode Island Dot and they are
10:13 · unwilling to Hazard a completion date
10:16 · estimate because they got burned on
10:19 · trying to initially issue the request
10:22 · for proposal for the design build
10:24 · replacement Bridge Project and the
10:26 · contractual terms were so unrealistic
10:29 · that that they didn't get any bids and
10:31 · that misstep by Rhode Island dot in my
10:35 · opinion I think it was a mstep has
10:38 · resulted in well over a year delay on
10:41 · the start of the replacement work for
10:43 · this bridge and another misstep that I
10:45 · think Rhode Island do made was planning
10:48 · to reuse these existing foundations for
10:50 · the westbound bridge that were based on
10:53 · my understanding installed in the late
10:55 · 1960s and of course they're not doing
10:58 · that now and they've had to modify the
10:59 · demolition contract to include
11:02 · demolition of the existing peers and cut
11:05 · off the piling a few feet below mudline
11:08 · on the westbound Bridge before it can be
11:10 · rebuilt um on the westbound Bridge house
11:13 · you gave an estimate on another media
11:16 · program uh estimating that the westbound
11:19 · Bridge could be built by 2028 do you
11:22 · agree with that don't I'm not I'm not
11:25 · going to comment on the um on the
11:27 · speculation of anyone else you know mcke
11:31 · here is currently Governor obviously I
11:35 · don't know whether he's running for
11:36 · reelection I think that's a couple years
11:38 · off but if he does I think the election
11:42 · in all likelihood is going to be a
11:43 · referendum on the handling of the
11:45 · replacement for the westbound Washington
11:47 · Bridge among other
11:48 · things and uh I think one of the main
11:52 · things that they've done the state as
11:54 · well as Rhode Island do to avoid any
11:57 · suggestion of accountability on their
11:58 · part is to file all these lawsuits
12:01 · against contractors and mostly uh
12:04 · engineering professionals Design
12:05 · Consultants that were involved with
12:07 · previous inspections for the westbound
12:09 · bridge and and other related work you're
12:12 · going to have people from out of the
12:14 · country with satellites you're going to
12:16 · have other Engineers who aren't even
12:17 · engineered Bridge Engineers tell you
12:20 · differently I want to just tell the
12:22 · people in state of Rhode Island we've
12:24 · done the work the bridge is safe and
12:27 · that's the bottom line well I don't want
12:30 · to just assume that that's about me but
12:32 · uh you would you could reasonably infer
12:35 · that it was because I've done previous
12:37 · videos that incorporated satellite
12:39 · technology analysis that was done by
12:42 · value space and again I've merely raised
12:46 · questions at no point have I stated that
12:48 · the I think the eastbound bridge is
12:50 · unsafe I've never said that I've raised
12:53 · I think legitimate questions about
12:55 · what's being done for inspections
12:57 · implementing correc actions for any
13:00 · deficiencies that were identified in
13:01 · previous inspections for this bridge and
13:04 · other related questions so they
13:06 · apparently they can't Brook any
13:09 · questioning of what they've done and why
13:11 · they've done it and so that's going to
13:13 · be up to the people of Rhode Island to
13:16 · decide how they how they view such a
13:18 · position and because we don't want the
13:22 · public to associate what has happened on
13:26 · the on the west side
13:29 · being on the east side right so the East
13:31 · Side bridge is coming down and we put in
13:35 · the provisions again I can say here
13:37 · confidently because of the Bel and
13:39 · suspenders that have put in and other
13:42 · people may disagree that have no
13:44 · knowledge on this issue uh that we are
13:46 · doing above going above and beyond
13:48 · because that's the nature of the issue
13:50 · right now and that's the reason why I
13:53 · made sure that these belt and suspenders
13:55 · are being put in so people know that
13:57 · they're traveling over bridge that is
14:00 · safe well again most of the information
14:03 · that's been out there about the
14:05 · situation with both the Eastbound and
14:06 · Westbound bridges for Washington Bridge
14:08 · has come from Rhode Island dot
14:11 · themselves and that's been problematic
14:13 · as I'll explain here again in a minute
14:16 · why you so confident you say a little
14:18 · angry today in this press conference
14:20 · saying we know the inside of the bridge
14:22 · is safe but we have the same information
14:25 · over 20 year they breaches save the
14:27 · breach is save we have to
14:30 · in I'll answer it this way I initiated a
14:35 · lawsuit against
14:38 · contractors that I believe should be
14:40 · held
14:42 · responsible that's a lot different than
14:45 · past 20 years what we're doing today is
14:48 · we're
14:49 · directing do to make sure that we have
14:54 · we can answer your questions which we
14:56 · have and we have a backup to virtually
14:59 · every question that people out of the
15:01 · country with satellites and out of state
15:04 · you know that are that are giving
15:05 · information that is giving the wrong
15:08 · information to the people uh that travel
15:10 · over that bridge okay I haven't given
15:13 · out any information aside from
15:15 · stating what information they've
15:17 · provided in my view of it and uh
15:20 · apparently they can't handle that and uh
15:23 · I've actually invited director alvid to
15:27 · participate in a podcast there just
15:29 · seriously misguided here in my opinion
15:31 · so look at all the people that that
15:32 · they're suing here I mean they're suing
15:35 · mostly Design Consultants and I don't
15:37 · think Rhode Island dot in the state of
15:40 · Rhode Island is going to be able to suo
15:42 · their way to a replacement bridge this
15:44 · is in my view a complete distraction for
15:48 · political purposes because anytime
15:51 · somebody tries to assert any type of
15:54 · transparency or accountability on behalf
15:57 · of Rhode Island do and state government
15:59 · they can simply say as they've had said
16:01 · in numerous occasions that hey we can't
16:04 · talk about it because there's a lawsuit
16:06 · well that's rather convenient in my
16:08 · opinion again I've stated this in
16:10 · previous videos but out of the most
16:13 · recent Bridge inspection manual that's
16:16 · been published by Rhode Island
16:18 · dot their program manager with ryot is
16:23 · ultimately responsible for the results
16:25 · of these inspections says right here 2.1
16:28 · 1.3 which is on page 35 of their Bridge
16:32 · inspection report the Statewide program
16:34 · manager is assigned the duties and
16:35 · responsibilities for bridge inspection
16:38 · reporting and inventory these duties and
16:41 · responsibilities May then be delegated
16:43 · by the Statewide program manager to
16:45 · project managers consultants and team
16:48 · leaders within the state although the
16:49 · Statewide program manager may choose to
16:51 · delegate some or all functions to other
16:53 · Bridge inspection Personnel the
16:55 · Statewide program manager retains all
16:57 · responsibility for Bridge inspection
16:59 · operations for which he or she was
17:01 · assigned I mean how can they even try
17:03 · and pass the buck with language like
17:05 · that and by the
17:07 · way I'm going to play this next segment
17:10 · where Governor mck seems to suggest that
17:13 · they just do what they're told by
17:15 · Consultants which I don't think that's
17:17 · very likely but you can make up your own
17:19 · mind about that but my action said we're
17:23 · going to hold the people
17:27 · accountable that told us to repair a
17:29 · bridge that was not repairable and as
17:32 · soon as I learned that on March
17:34 · 14th we made the announcement that the
17:37 · bridge is coming down and we're going to
17:39 · rebuild a new bridge so again the reason
17:43 · why so many people are asking questions
17:45 · about the condition of the eastbound
17:46 · bridge is in my opinion Rhode Island do
17:51 · and particularly director alviti has
17:54 · seriously damaged their credibility due
17:56 · to numerous incorrect In what I think
17:58 · are misleading statements that they've
18:00 · made since the very beginning of the
18:03 · bridge closure of the westbound bridge
18:05 · in December 2023 I'm just going to play
18:07 · a couple of these segments uh once in a
18:10 · while an extraordinary event will happen
18:13 · as we as we as our Engineers are telling
18:16 · us happened in this case some kind of
18:18 · outside force that was extraordinary
18:21 · over and above the normal use of
18:23 · everyday use of the bridge happened
18:25 · between July and now that's the best
18:28 · information that they have that they're
18:30 · giving to me that I'm passing to you
18:32 · right now um we we certainly will be
18:35 · having a look at the forensic analysis
18:38 · of hopefully at least providing a bucket
18:41 · of potential explanations of what could
18:44 · have cause that failure between July and
18:46 · now and uh we'll certainly use that
18:49 · information and we'll have that looked
18:51 · at by an outside independent set of
18:53 · experts that could advise us on what the
18:57 · conditions that could have created
18:58 · created that event to happen and we'll
19:01 · be taking a look at that but
19:03 · uncontrollable circumstances interfere
19:05 · you've seen it happen for example in
19:06 · Philadelphia where a truck full of fuel
19:09 · blew up and caused the fa of a bridge um
19:13 · we didn't have that kind of obvious kind
19:16 · of event happened but we do know our
19:18 · Engineers do know that some event like
19:20 · that happened between then and now
19:22 · because this the pin and the in the
19:25 · condition that they were in
19:27 · July uh were detered determined by those
19:29 · experts to be able to have a lifespan
19:32 · that far exceeded the time that we're in
19:34 · the Reconstruction process right now of
19:37 · of all of those bridges so obviously we
19:39 · know that's not true that the anchor
19:41 · bolt was apparently broken for a very
19:44 · long time and certainly it predated the
19:47 · July 2023 inspection that was performed
19:51 · so I don't know why he would immediately
19:53 · jump to the conclusion that hey this
19:55 · breakage must have occurred in a 5 month
19:58 · span from July to December 2023 and he
20:03 · also never provided any evidence for any
20:06 · extraordinary event that would have
20:08 · caused the damage to this anchor Rod
20:10 · what they say in technical terms in Lay
20:12 · terms they say that in um July the
20:18 · inspection was made and though the pins
20:21 · that are in question here the the anchor
20:24 · uh rods that are in question here were
20:26 · in adequate serviceable
20:30 · shape and that
20:33 · uh during the construction of the span
20:37 · adjacent to this one that we haven't
20:39 · gotten to yet we saw that it was
20:43 · observed that uh there was a deficiency
20:46 · or break and we responded immediately to
20:49 · that so let's look at this this is a
20:50 · picture of the broken anchor rod and
20:53 · early on you know back in December 2023
20:56 · alvid trots out this comparison set of
21:00 · photos showing on the left an apparently
21:03 · intact anchor rod and on the right it
21:06 · being broken in December and I've
21:08 · pointed out many times that these are
21:10 · different camera angles and you actually
21:12 · cannot see the location that may or may
21:17 · not be broken on the leftand panel so
21:19 · from the July 2023 inspection and again
21:23 · director alviti is from what I
21:25 · understand a degreed engineer with
21:27 · Decades of experience
21:29 · if I had a staff member that brought me
21:32 · a picture like this try to represent
21:33 · before and after I
21:36 · would I would question why in the world
21:39 · would they give me a comparison set of
21:41 · photos that was apples and oranges but
21:43 · you know that's just me perhaps so
21:45 · Governor mcke kind of threw several
21:48 · aspersions my way that's how I took it
21:51 · anyway and a while back I did a video
21:54 · about the overall condition of the
21:55 · eastbound Bridge as a result of my
21:57 · obtaining the INSP ction reports for the
21:59 · eastbound bridge I was apparently the
22:01 · first one to obtain those reports
22:03 · although I understand other uh media
22:07 · folks investigators had requested that
22:09 · information and they weren't provided
22:12 · that for whatever reason so I
22:13 · distributed these reports very widely
22:15 · among the media in Rhode Island but
22:19 · let's play what I said about the
22:22 · satellite analysis of the data for the
22:25 · East and Westbound bridge and let you
22:28 · decide if I said anything at all that
22:32 · would even suggest that I thought the
22:34 · eastbound bridge wasn't safe for traffic
22:37 · I've done a number of recent videos that
22:39 · incorporates insar data that's been
22:42 · supplied and analyzed by value space so
22:44 · again I really appreciate their support
22:47 · in these types of videos and I've got
22:51 · data for the Washington Bridge
22:53 · originally I was curious as to whether
22:55 · the westbound Bridge would have shown
22:58 · issues
22:59 · with that would coincide with those
23:01 · broken anchor rods that forced the
23:04 · shutdown of the bridge back in December
23:06 · and surprisingly to me they came up with
23:09 · areas of concern on not only that
23:12 · location of the westbound bridge but on
23:14 · both sides of the eastbound Bridge so
23:17 · I'm not going to go into all the details
23:18 · of insar as I've covered that in other
23:20 · videos but again let's look at these
23:21 · spots here I'm going to focus in on the
23:24 · east side here and we can see some
23:26 · deflections that location of the bridge
23:29 · and again here and oddly there's been a
23:31 · change in the trend so those changes in
23:34 · the trends don't coincide with seasonal
23:36 · variations which you know winter summer
23:40 · you have different uh ambient
23:43 · temperatures which can cause shrinkage
23:45 · or expansion of structural elements and
23:48 · this trend is contrary to that it's not
23:51 · coincident with seasonal variation so I
23:55 · wouldn't suggest using this data right
23:57 · now in an absolute abolute sense to say
23:59 · yes they definitely have a problem but
24:01 · it's definitely a red flag and I think
24:04 · you know with this technology it's you
24:06 · really need to incorporate what they
24:08 · call Ground truth into the analysis So
24:11 · based on this insar data if I was Road
24:14 · Island do I would get out there and look
24:16 · at these spots to see if there's a a
24:19 · reason for these
24:21 · apparent uh indications of deflection so
24:25 · I don't understand why the governor
24:27 · apparently so chapped about uh that
24:30 · video uh suggesting that hey there's
24:33 · some interesting Trends shown with the
24:36 · analysis of the satellite data I think
24:39 · you should check it out relative to what
24:41 · you know about the physical condition of
24:42 · the bridge based on your most recent
24:45 · inspection work as it turns out the
24:47 · analysis indicated potential areas of
24:50 · concern that coincided on the westbound
24:52 · Bridge with the uh location of the Bro
24:56 · broken ancher rods and then on the east
24:59 · side of the eastbound Bridge there was
25:02 · interesting or curious deflection
25:05 · patterns that coincided with the Joint
25:07 · locations that they've actively been
25:09 · repairing so again that's uh rather
25:12 · interesting and I think it it Bears
25:14 · further analysis rather than just
25:17 · dismissing people who may raise such
25:20 · questions that aren't in Rhode Island as
25:23 · in essence being crackpots you're going
25:25 · to have people from out of the country
25:27 · with satellites you're going to have
25:29 · other Engineers who aren't even engineer
25:30 · Bridge Engineers tell you
25:33 · differently I want to just tell the
25:35 · people in state of Rh Island we've done
25:37 · the work the bridge is safe and that's
25:40 · the bottom line he's apparently
25:42 · suggesting I'm not a bridge engineer
25:44 · I've worked as an engineer on
25:46 · construction phase testing of bridge
25:48 · foundations for over 25 years I wonder
25:52 · if he considers director alviti to be a
25:54 · bridge engineer or if he's suggesting
25:56 · that you have to be a Bridge designer in
26:00 · order to raise any potential concerns
26:02 · about a bridge that somehow the public
26:05 · uh can't read inspection reports and ask
26:09 · reasonable questions including those
26:12 · presented by the media and I'm just one
26:14 · form of the media here I've got a
26:16 · YouTube channel and I cover engineering
26:18 · and construction related issues and
26:20 · geology issues I think it's fair to
26:22 · raise these questions and uh you have to
26:25 · really Marvel at the sensitivity
26:28 · apparently of Rhode Island do and Rhode
26:32 · Island state government When anybody
26:34 · raises what's or what I think reasonable
26:36 · questions in light of their lack of
26:40 · cander and inaccurate statements going
26:42 · back to the very beginning of the
26:44 · closure of the westbound bridge in my
26:46 · opinion and talking about apparent lack
26:48 · of
26:49 · transparency I submitted a request to
26:53 · Rhode Island dot through public records
26:55 · to please provide a detailed cost
26:57 · breakdown for the approximately $500,000
27:00 · repair cost total that was estimated for
27:02 · the repair of joints associated with the
27:04 · approach slab for the eastbound
27:05 · Washington Bridge Bridge 200 and they
27:08 · basically said H they consider that
27:10 · information to be exempt and they're not
27:11 · going to provide it now I've made an
27:15 · appeal for that response to see if they
27:18 · would actually provide that information
27:20 · uh they want to charge me money to do
27:22 · that so I'll mail him a check but uh let
27:25 · me know what you all think about this uh
27:28 · I think it's rather interesting that uh
27:32 · a state Governor and a director of a do
27:36 · would go out of their way to try and
27:39 · discredit what they consider to be
27:41 · critics of how they've performed
27:44 · relative to these Bridge projects and
27:46 · the Washington bridges in particular
27:48 · rather than being transparent being open
27:52 · suggest whether there was any thing on
27:54 · their part that they could have done
27:55 · better providing any clarity about what
27:59 · they're likely to change going forward
28:00 · to improve their performance but but no
28:03 · they're they're taking a different
28:05 · approach here so I really appreciate
28:06 · everyone's support of this channel I
28:09 · have channel members and those of you
28:11 · who provide super thanks that's a great
28:12 · way to support the channel and in either
28:14 · case I've opened up buy me a coffee
28:17 · that's another great way to support the
28:18 · channel so please check that out there's
28:21 · a link in the description if you're so
28:22 · inclined thanks very much everyone and
28:24 · please stay tuned for future videos

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