RI was promised answers on the Washington Bridge failure. Where are they?

PROVIDENCE – Before Rhode Islanders were promised a "day of reckoning" for anyone responsible for the demise of the westbound Washington Bridge, Gov. Dan McKee promised them answers about what went wrong.

Months later, those answers, and the findings of an engineering "forensic analysis" of the bridge, may still be days, weeks or even months away from becoming public.

The state's quest for what McKee called "accountability," or to recoup money from any of the private firms that worked on the bridge, may not be perfectly aligned with getting information to the public as quickly as possible.

Last month the McKee administration said a "methodical and detailed approach" to the analysis was required now that it is needed to prepare for potential legal action.

How methodical?

"Wiss, Janney, Elstner is still in the process of drafting the report," McKee press secretary Olivia DaRocha responded to a series of questions about when more information will be released. "We plan to make the final report public after it is reviewed by the oversight engineering group [McNary Bergeron & Johannesen] as well as our legal team."

Wasn't the report supposed to be out months ago?

Yes. Initially the McKee administration said it expected the forensic analysis to be made public, along with a plan to repair or replace the bridge, by the start of March.

The decision to tear the bridge down was made March 14. At a news conference that day, McKee said the forensic analysis should be released in a "couple of weeks."

At the start of last month, McKee announced that the state had hired lawyers – Max Wistow and Jonathan Savage – to pursue lawsuits against firms that had worked on the bridge, which would delay the public release of the forensic report.

More: A report warned the state about the Washington Bridge in 2015. Why was nothing done?

The consultants working on the report have been asked to dig into archival information about work done on the bridge since it opened in December 1968.

A month later, not much has changed.

Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, under a Department of Transportation contract, is writing the forensic analysis.

Their work is being peer-reviewed by McNary Bergeron & Johannesen, which is working for the state Department of Administration.

On April 19, Wistow and Savage sent letters to a dozen companies that worked on or inspected the bridge, which was abruptly closed Dec. 11, alerting them and, indirectly, their insurance companies that they could be subject to potential legal claims related to the bridge. The letters asked the firms not to destroy any records connected to the bridge.

As it pursues possible litigation, the state over the past week has gone out to bid for contractors to demolish the bridge and another to build a replacement.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Washington Bridge forensic report was promised weeks ago. Where is it?