Shailen Bhatt, the Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, visited the area Monday, Feb. 5, as part of the national response to the local Washington Bridge Closure crisis.

Bhatt joined U.S Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, freshman U.S. Congressman Gabe Amo, Governor Dan McKee, Rhode Island Department of Transportation Director Peter Alviti, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley and East Providence Mayor Bob DaSilva in touring the 56-year-old structure to gain a greater understanding of what needs to be done to remedy the situation.

Bhatt said, "We have been tracking this pretty closely since it became a rehab and repair to a potential replacement."

He continued, "We got eyes on the bridge today, got a great briefing," while noting U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has also "been in regular contact" with the state's Congressional delegation since the westbound side of the bridge was deemed unusable on December 11 of last year.

Bhatt, the former secretary of transportation in Delaware and Colorado before becoming joining the FHA, said national bridge experts would be working closely with their counterparts at RIDOT to determine the best forward, including "if replacement is the best the possible option."

To that end, he said officials have decided to take a multi-faceted approach.

From an operations perspective, Bhatt said the federal government understands East Providence, Providence and the East Bay region as a whole have faced "significant impacts" since the west side was shuttered approaching two months ago.

"Intelligent Transportation System" experts will be coming to the state this week to analyze and scrutinize current traffic patterns and will likely offer up suggestions on how to improve upon those.

In addition, he assured residents "innovative financing and contracting" methods would be implemented if total span replacement is required.

Bhatt reiterated RIDOT will make a determination of how to proceed in the "next couple of weeks."

Bhatt continued, saying what also needs to figured out is "what can we do as quickly as possible to bring federal funds to bear as quickly as possible so that we can get the bridge built as quickly as possible if that is course of action."

Noting he had faced similar bridge-related issues at the state level, Bhatt added, "My message to the people of Rhode Island is whether it's federal state or local resources we've got everybody aligned here to get this bridge repaired or replaced as quickly as possible."