Washington Bridge: RI sues companies over abrupt closure [Video]

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, along with R.I. Governor Dan McKee and an outside legal firm, announced on Friday that the state is suing more than a dozen companies they say “failed to timely and adequately identify worsening structural issues that ultimately led to the sudden and unexpected closure of the Washington Bridge.”

In a complaint filed in Rhode Island Superior Court, the state alleges that the companies failed to alert the Rhode Island Department of Transportation to “multiple issues over multiple years.” The state’s lawyers are bringing allegations of breach of contract, fiduciary duty, and negligence. Specific charges vary by company, but all thirteen companies are named in a single suit.

Among the named companies are several based here in Connecticut, including Jacobs Engineering Group (Wethersfield), Michael Baker International, Inc. (Rocky Hill), Prime AE Group, Inc. (Wethersfield), Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. (Middletown), and Transystems Corporation (which has …