(light calming music) - [Michelle] Tonight why warning signs about the failing condition of the Washington Bridge may have been missed.

- The key components are actually buried inside the concrete.

- [Pamela] Then stopping neighborhood violence.

- We learn about values.

We've learned how to control our emotions.

- And state lawmakers face one of the most challenging budget environments in years.

Ted Nesi explains.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Good evening and welcome to "Rhode Island PBS Weekly."

I'm Michelle San Miguel.

- And I'm Pamela Watts.

We begin tonight with breaking point, our ongoing investigation into the Washington Bridge.

- Many are still wondering how does a bridge go from handling tens of thousands of vehicles every day to being suddenly shut down and then permanently closed?

Did the Rhode Island Department of Transportation miss warning signs that could have averted a possible disaster?

My colleague, Jeremy Bernfeld and I spoke with engineers about why critical components deserved special attention years before, but may have never received those crucial checks.

They've become some of the most talked about images in Rhode Island.

Photos of broken anchor rods on the westbound Washington Bridge taken in December of 2023.

(cars whooshing) It led to the emergency closure of the westbound bridge and triggered further evaluation.

Its traffic was offloaded onto the newer eastbound bridge.

A report by engineering consultants delivered three months after the shutdown found a laundry list of deficiencies.

The next day, governor Dan McKee announced the bridge needed to be demolished and rebuilt.

- We will now move forward with a replacement of this bridge in the safest and most expedient way possible.

- [Michelle] Many of the problems with the bridge relate to what's called the post tensioning system.

Steel cables called tendons run through ducts in concrete.

- The cables kind of act like a rubber band that squeezes the concrete and keeps it in place.

- [Michelle] David Lattanzi is an Associate Professor at George Mason University.

He's a former bridge engineer and inspector.

One issue he says is that many important components of this kind of bridge are buried in concrete.

- You're trying to look inside these ducts to see what is going on, but visually we can't inspect them and so we need to use other technologies to verify that we've got a good seal or whether or not there's water inside.

And this has been a longstanding problem for those kinds of components.

- [Michelle] The bridge opened to traffic in the late 1960s and while its closure was a shock to Rhode Islanders, corrosion in post tension tendons is not a new issue in the world of bridge engineering.

It's a problem that's been known for decades.

- These post tension ducts and especially at this era, became something that engineers across the country have dealt with.

It was just really hard at that time because you could create an air gap in the duct and you can't see it.

- [Michelle] Back in 1999, a bridge in the Florida Keys was found to have a post tension tendon failure caused by corrosion.

The tendon went on to be replaced.

Other bridges in Florida as well as Pennsylvania, Virginia, Minnesota, Indiana, South Carolina, have also had these kinds of problems according to a report by the Federal Highway Administration.

And now we can add Rhode Island to the list.

- If anything happens to that post tensioning cable or rod that in terms of fracture or corrosion, that you can have a very sudden failure.

- [Michelle] Andrew Smith is a professor of civil engineering and engineering mechanics at Columbia University.

- You can also have just weakening if there's cracks or other deterioration or the grout that's holding the post-tensioning cable.

It just allows a sort of relaxation and then you run the risk of a sort of sudden catastrophic failure.

- We asked RIDOT, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation for an interview with director Peter Alviti.

A spokesman declined our requests citing the ongoing lawsuit the state filed against 13 companies that did work related to the bridge.

When we followed up and asked RIDOT if the department was aware of tendon failures in post tensioned bridges across the country, a spokesman again declined to answer because of the litigation.

According to the state's lawsuit, engineering firms failed to identify red flags that compromise the structural safety and integrity of the bridge.

Attorneys representing Rhode Island also say, "Issues with the post tensioning system were first brought to the state's attention back in 1992, which included concerns about corrosion from moisture and salts exposure."

- A contractor who's being sued as part of this lawsuit... - [Michelle] Kansas based engineer, Casey Jones, has been following the abrupt bridge closure from the start.

He's released more than two dozen YouTube videos on the Washington Bridge.

- Rhode Island DOT's Bridge Inspection manual says that the ultimate responsibility for conducting and documenting these bridge inspections lies with Rhode Island DOT.

I'm sure if there's some culpability with the design consultants that should be exposed and investigated, but the main person in charge is Rhode Island DOT.

- [Michelle] The engineers we spoke with, say RIDOT could have been monitoring the post tensioning components for years using special inspection methods.

- That means that you're gonna watch this thing and you're going to use more advanced technologies and you're going to increase the frequency of the inspections as a result as well.

- [Michelle] Lattanzi and others point to bridge inspection technologies that operate like an x-ray and offer an internal scan of bridge components.

Detecting issues like bad grouting and pockets of moisture.

- The broad term that we use for this kind of thing is what's known as non-destructive evaluation or non-destructive testing.

Sometimes we call this NDE.

And that's a blanket term for any kind of special non-visual technique that we use to assess a structure.

The two that are the most common are something called ground penetrating radar, which is just what it sounds like.

It's a way of sending radar pulses that, you know, you bounce back and then they get received.

- [Michelle] The other he says is a magnetic flux leakage, which tests how much magnetism there is in a metal component.

And there are other non-destructive testing techniques that could have been used.

- Definitely a visual inspection should be done, paralleled with non-destructive testing.

- Dana Tawil is a structural engineer and is studying corrosion in concrete bridges as a PhD student at the University of Ottawa.

When should a Department of Transportation start to use some of these techniques, specifically non-destructive evaluation?

- Once there are signs of damage, for example, cracks, spalling, so that's when the concrete, you know, pieces fall off.

It's an alarm that you know it's telling us, okay, the next step should be done, which is the non-destructive tests.

- [Michelle] We asked RIDOT if the department had used any non-destructive evaluation techniques to inspect for corrosion in the post tensioning system prior to the bridge's emergency closure.

A RIDOT spokesman said the department could not answer that citing the ongoing lawsuit.

We also asked RIDOT for a list of special inspections done on the bridge since 2014.

None of the reports they shared included NDE techniques.

Tawil and other engineers say photos from the inspections RIDOT did complete, illustrate how the bridge could have benefited from a non-destructive evaluation.

- When you have this much damage in the structural elements or components around attendance.

I would definitely move forward to do some non-destructive evaluation of the attendance.

- [Michelle] Professor Andrew Bechtel is the chair of the Department of Civil Engineering at the College of New Jersey.

We showed him these photos taken during a 2016 inspection.

He was struck by the amount of corrosion on the beam and the area behind it.

- Water will destroy every civil engineering creation that there is.

We drain the bridge to the abutments, so keeping them clear and controlling the water will ultimately control the corrosion of the abutments.

- The basic issue here is that people weren't putting eyes on certain aspects of the bridge on inspection, after inspection.

And the reason for that should be addressed.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, it's ultimately up to bridge owners, in this case RIDOT, to decide what type of special inspection it conducts.

But again, RIDOT won't say if it did the kind of inspections that could have flagged issues with the post tensioning system sooner.

If the Rhode Island DOT had found out about these issues earlier, could anything have been done to solve the problem?

- One of the problems with this type of component is that it is extremely hard to repair.

They could have done things that would've provided an extra 10 years, 20 years, and what that would've actually done is allowed them to do better capital allocation and better planning for the a new bridge replacement.

- [Michelle] After the bridge was shut down, engineers conducted a non-destructive evaluation to assess the post tensioning tendons.

They found some of the tendons had corroded significantly.

It was one of the many reasons the bridge needed to be demolished.

The bridge was shut down more than 50 years after it opened.

When we asked RIDOT about the life expectancy of the bridge, a spokesman once again said the department could not answer that because of the lawsuit.

RIDOT had already spent 34.5 million dollars rehabilitating the bridge since October of 2021.

A project that was expected to cost a total of $78 million.

It's raised questions about whether repairing an old bridge was a wise use of taxpayer money.

- Foresight would've had me say, you know what?

This is gonna cost us too much money in the long term.

We need to replace it before it becomes an issue.

- [Michelle] Ultimately, Lattanzi says, Rhode Island is extraordinarily lucky that an engineer spotted the broken anchor rods nearly a year and a half ago.

- The tie rods didn't cause a major safety issue, but they triggered a deeper investigation that found a worse issue.

It's kind of the analogy of you go to the doctor because you've got heartburn or something and then that triggers the doctor to do blood work and it comes back that you have some sort of a serious issue and it's only because you went to the doctor for something else that they were able to see you and make that assessment.

- There are important lessons I think, that need to be learned and I don't see any will within the leadership of Rhode Island DOT to answer such questions.

- Next week, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation plans to announce who will build the westbound bridge and how long it will take.

State officials have said it won't include the problematic components that forced the closure of the old bridge.

Up next, teaching peace.

25 years ago, one Providence teenager's violent gun death sparked a movement at a local church, which led to the creation of the Nonviolence Institute.

The work continues today.

Our contributor and Arius Rodriguez visited the center recently to learn about community violence and how it affects the mental health of young people.

This story was generously underwritten through a grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island.

- [Teacher] Rashad, is that you?

- [Arius] It may be spring break for these Rhode Island teens, - Yes, Ms.

Maple.

- [Arius] But here in Providence, they're getting a different kind of education.

- When conflict shows up.

How do you handle conflict in your community?

- Their leader, Felipe Flip Mercedes, is teaching Martin Luther King Jr's theory of nonviolence in the hopes of turning these kids into a force for peace.

We sat down with Bentley Teverez, Sophia Laura, Cariana Castillo, and Jerry Nicolo.

What would you say teenagers are dealing with today?

- People are experiences very bad, traumatic experiences.

A lot of these kids nowadays, like they're with guns, they're with these things that could kill people.

These are weapons.

- [Arius] According to the most recent statistics on gun violence from Johns Hopkins, in 2022, guns were the leading cause of death for children and teens in America, taking more lives than car crashes or cancer.

- I feel like all this violence, it needs to stop in the community.

All of the violence and all the bullying and all that other stuff that really does affect people and their brains.

- Young people who experience chronic community violence have the same sort of symptoms and kind of markers as those who have experienced wartime violence.

- [Arius] Dr. Yvorn Aswad has examined how community violence, violent acts that take place within a neighborhood, impacts mental health in youth.

- That when a person's experiencing just high levels of chronic stress, that raises their baseline body cortisol level, which is a stress hormone.

- [Arius] Typically, he says when a person experiences a stressful event, their cortisol level increases and then when the event is over, it goes back down to baseline.

- But when folks are living in kind of chronic, ongoing stressors, ongoing trauma, that cortisol level just kind of is up and is stuck.

- [Arius] That can lead a person to be hypervigilant, looking out for threats long after a dangerous moment has passed.

And in teens the trauma can culminate an outburst.

- Because that teenager never got that consoling that they should have gotten when they were a younger child to be able to understand that you can learn to just like say, "Hey, you hurt me," or "Hey, my feelings are hurt."

It doesn't have to kind of translate into like, I gotta beat somebody up to say that like my feelings are hurt.

- It can be a difficult lesson to learn.

Lisa Pina-Warren grew up in Providence.

What did you learn about resolving conflict growing up?

- I can hear my mother's voice saying it.

"Don't come home and say someone put their hands on you and you didn't do anything."

"He hit you.

You hit them back."

You know that's you're teaching violence.

- [Arius] She would go on to see the toll of violence firsthand.

In 1996, her older brother, Louis, died in a car crash following a high speed chase with the police.

In the wake of his death, she began working in case management and then faced the loss of a special client named Dionne Robinson.

- He had graduated from high school and a car drove by and shot him and he didn't survive.

And that really hit me different.

I just couldn't make sense of it.

- [Arius] She had a candlelight vigil for Dionne and at the ceremony, a man named Teny Gross approached her.

- He said, "What are we gonna do?

And he said it was such passion, "What are we gonna do about this?"

- [Arius] At an organization that would go on to be called the Non-Violence Institute, he was working to prevent the root causes of violence.

Pina-Warren joined the team.

- We have nonviolence training and we also respond anytime there is a victim of violence.

And this is our memorial room.

A space where loved ones can memorialize their loved one that they lost.

- [Arius] Grappling with grief is a regular part of the job.

- I have family and friends that will say to me, "How can you do this work?

And you've been doing it for a really long time."

I did take a break at one point, I thought I was done.

- [Arius] She decided to take a step back until one day she received a call.

- The young person I was working with had gotten killed.

He was shot and killed.

And not that I want any of our youth to go to prison, but I had then received a call stating that they had made an arrest and I was relieved for this young man's family.

And after that relief, in that same conversation, they gave me the name of the person that they arrested and it was my nephew.

And that was really, really, really difficult.

This is my brother's son, my brother that I lost and I wanted to his son have a different life.

You know, I wanted to see him succeed and do well.

But it also made me feel like I wanted to come back here because the work wasn't over.

My nephew is still incarcerated and I visit him and we talk regularly.

But you know, my mission and my purpose is to help young people to not make those decisions.

- [Arius] 22 years since that first conversation with Teny Gross, Pina-Warren fills her old mentor shoes as the Executive Director of the Institute.

- You know, when we talk about nonviolence, it really is a skill.

It's not a magic wand.

It doesn't make everything better.

But when you study it and you practice it and you understand it, then it's something that can really change your life.

- [Arius] For some, it's a tough sell.

Despite receiving a $200 stipend for the week and having Pina-Warren as a grandmother, Bentley Teverez had his doubts.

- Day one, I came up in here angry, actually.

I wasn't trying to talk to nobody.

I wasn't in the mood for it.

I just wanted to do this for the money.

That's the whole reason I was here.

But as I'm going day on and day on, I started becoming more comfortable and then looking forward to it.

- What are ways people in your city celebrate?

- Jerry?

- Going to block party.

- Black party.

- On day four of non-violence training students discuss the ways a healthy community takes care of itself.

What are some of the tactics or strategies or steps that you are learning to resolve conflict without violence?

- Just stop, think, and then visit the same thing tomorrow.

'Cause when you have all the anger buildup, you're not really thinking straight.

- Conflict is like a car in neutral and whichever way you push it is whichever way it goes.

So if you push it towards the bad side, it's gonna go bad.

If you push it to be calm and try and be peaceful, it's probably gonna end up peaceful.

- It's just giving you the ability or helping you work on that skillset to be able to kind of pause, to be mindful, to really think about the situation before you react on it.

- How does your community grieve in positive ways?

- Healthy therapy?

Big time.

All right Jerry?

- [Jerry] How do you talk to somebody in the time of need?

- Talk to someone.

- There's multiple young people in the room that have a loved one that's incarcerated.

And there's multiple young people in the room that lost someone to violence.

We have a lot of adults that are still holding on to a lot of life's traumas and hurts and things that they haven't healed from.

- We learn about values.

We've learned how to control our emotions.

- Not a lot of kids get help with mental health problems these days.

Not a lot of kids actually talk about their emotions or issues.

So this is actually a great program coming in here, getting kids to talk.

- We have to allow young people to express their feelings and to talk about them.

- So they can be free.

- So they can be free.

- Finally, primary care and public transportation.

Those are two of the most expensive issues Rhode Island lawmakers are trying to address.

On tonight's episode of Weekly Insight, Michelle and our contributor, WPRI 12's politics editor, Ted Nesi, have the latest on the state's budget.

- Ted, welcome back.

We're getting a better sense of Rhode Island state budget as a general assembly session winds down.

And you have described this as one of the most challenging budget environments in years for lawmakers, how so?

- Yes, and they've been saying it themselves, especially House Speaker Joe Shekarchi.

It's basically for one big reason, Michelle, the federal money that was provided either to help directly with the pandemic or relief money to recover from the pandemic is, I shouldn't say gone, 'cause some of it hasn't been fully spent yet, but it's been allocated.

There's not more money coming in.

And so the state is kind of back to budgeting, living within its means from the pre=Covid days.

And that's a challenge.

- So this can get pretty wonky for those of us who are not Ted Nesi, who don't follow the minutia of the budget.

But the reason this time of year is important for the budget is because Final Revenue estimates are finally in.

- Right, these are so important, Michelle, to understanding the budget process.

So every November and every May, the state's number crunchers, they sit in a room and they determine down to the penny how much money the state is going to have that the lawmakers can allocate in the next budget.

They just did this and they came up with $65 million extra beyond what we were expecting in the governor's budget back in January.

- And that's not a huge amount of money.

I mean, it sounds like a lot of money, but you're saying it's not that big because we're talking grand total of $14 billion budget.

- Well, that's exactly it, right?

You and I would love $65 million, right?

But when you have $14 billion and a lot of needs, it's not that much money.

Plus Michelle, there's other factors going on at the same time.

So updated school enrollment data shows they need to spend about $20 million more to fund the school funding formula.

Union contracts came in higher than expected.

They need about $15 million more to cover those.

That's half the $65 million already.

Before we get to any other asks anybody has.

- Right, and we all know that there are advocates pushing for the issues that they would like to see funded.

Where does that stand?

- Well, one, I have a close eye on Michelle's, RIPTA.

They're a public transit agency because they have a very big deficit, tens of millions of dollars last time I checked.

If lawmakers wanna do something substantial to help them, they need money for that.

Healthcare, you and I have been talking about that a lot on this segment.

The hospitals have asked for $90 million of big ask.

There's also asks for increases to doctor rates.

Some of that could be separate, but that would be another expensive fix.

And then they don't necessarily wanna do everything Governor McKee proposed to close the deficit back in January, like a new tax on digital advertising.

So if you take that out, the hole gets even bigger.

- And this is part of why we're seeing this push to raise taxes on the higher income Rhode Islanders.

- Yes, and we've had that as a perennial conversation, Michelle, in Rhode Island.

But what's different right now is the new Senate leadership since the death of Dominick Ruggerio.

So Senate President Val Lawson and majority leader Frank Ciccione, they both are supportive historically of raising taxes on upper income earners.

Ruggerio was not.

Now the governor and the house speaker are pretty cool to that idea.

So it's not clear to me it's actually gonna make it into the budget, but it is a change to have one of those, the three main parties in these budget negotiations actually supporting a tax increase and they might get a little more of a hearing in this budget environment.

- Yeah.

Good to see you.

Thank you, Ted.

- Good to be here.

- And that's our broadcast this evening.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Pamela Watts.

- And I'm Michelle San Miguel.

We'll be back next week with another edition of "Rhode Island PBS Weekly."

And you can now listen to our entire broadcast every Monday night at seven on the Publix radio.

And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and YouTube.

You can also visit us online to see all of our stories and past episodes at ripbs.org/weekly, or listen to our podcast on your favorite streaming platform, goodnight.

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