PROVIDENCE — A lawsuit over the failure of the Washington Bridge on Interstate 195 west is “way more likely than not” to be filed, according to the legal team hired by Governor Dan McKee, with a projected timeline of early August.
A team of six lawyers has been investigating since April what caused the bridge to fail, and from whom the state can recoup money. Max Wistow, one of the lead attorneys, told reporters Wednesday the team will reveal in early August if they will bring a lawsuit, against which defendants, and for what.
“This is not a slip and fall at Stop & Shop,” Wistow said, explaining the length of time it has taken to determine whether to bring a suit.
McKee had promised a “day of reckoning” for whomever is responsible for the bridge’s failure. But a planned release of a forensic analysis back in April was delayed because the private firm needed to retrieve “additional archival documents throughout the bridge’s 50-year history,” the governor’s office said at the time.
It is still unclear when that report will be released. If there’s no lawsuit, Wistow said, the report would be turned over to the governor’s office, who could release it. But if there is a lawsuit — which is very likely — it would likely take longer to release the report as part of the discovery process in court.
“There’s this big, legitimate request for it,” Wistow said. “And the governor has decided, correctly in my opinion, is that what’s more important here is, are we going to be able to do a successful lawsuit?”
He said releasing the findings too soon could compromise “millions and millions” of dollars that could potentially be recovered.
Wistow and Jonathan Savage, the two lead lawyers in the case, have not revealed the names of the potential defendants, though they sent letters in April to a dozen companies that have worked on the bridge in the past.
While the letters said the companies should not interpret the letter to mean they will be defendants, it ordered them not to destroy any records they may have, and suggested they may want to notify their insurance carriers of a potential lawsuit.
The companies were also invited to inspect the bridge before it gets knocked down, which no one has done thus far, Wistow said. (Demolition is slated to start next week.)
Wistow declined to say if there are any potential defendants outside of the 12 that received letters. He noted that there would be “no sense” in the state suing anyone within the R.I. Department of Transportation who was responsible for the bridge failure, since the goal is to recoup money from outside entities.
“But we are interested in knowing whether or not there is potential liability for the Department of Transportation,” he said.
McKee, for his part, said he has shifted his focus to building a new bridge, which has hit a roadblock after no companies submitted a bid to construct it.
In a news conference Tuesday, officials said the state would now solicit feedback from companies about why they didn’t bid, before issuing a new solicitation for a firm to design and build the new bridge. McKee would not say how long this could delay the reopening of the bridge, which was originally pegged for September 2026 at the latest.
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Steph Machado can be reached at steph.machado@globe.com. Follow her @StephMachado.