- Ted, welcome back.

Always good to see you.

Let's start with the latest developments with the Washington Bridge.

We recently received some news about the next steps that Rhode Island state leaders plan to take regarding finding someone to build the Westbound Washington Bridge.

At the same time, there are still so many unknowns about that timeline.

- Yeah, as people probably remember, the original goal set up by Governor McKee was to have the new bridge open by the end of August, 2026.

While no one's saying officially that that is out the window, it's getting much harder to imagine that happening because ever since they failed to get any bidders for the project back in July, the state has been unwilling to give a new timeline.

So this week, we learned that they're going out to bid for a second time.

They no longer expect to pick a contractor to build the bridge until next June, June of 2025.

They're so worried about not having enough participation, they're actually gonna pay the runner-up bidder $1.75 million just to participate.

That's the bidder that doesn't get the contract.

And then separately, McKee says demolition of the old bridge, which was supposed to be done by like January of 2025, will actually now take all of 2025 because they're gonna take down the peers that used to hold up... That currently hold up the old bridge too.

So a lot of changes to the timeline already, even though we don't even have a full timeline yet.

- And it's telling that Governor Dan McKee is not even estimating when commuters can expect to drive over that new bridge.

And as you've said, we don't even know if that bridge will be built in time when he's seeking reelection in 2026.

- Yeah, certainly the political risks here are very real.

McKee says, you know, part of...

He argues that part of...

There's a responsible reason he is not giving a new timeline, which is they have to see these bids come in, they have to see what these companies say they can do.

But certainly, the indications are we aren't gonna really have a firm timeline till next spring, or even summer.

- Yeah, very frustrating for people who drive over that bridge daily.

I do wanna stress though, there is some encouraging news.

Recently, there was a major infusion of federal money for that bridge.

- Yes, Rhode Island's Congressional Delegation are very pleased about this announcement.

They've now secured $221 million from two different USDOT grants to help pay for repairing the bridge.

That was the maximum the state could get under the old cost estimate for the project, which, again, is now off the table, so we don't actually know how much money is going to be needed because that new cost estimate is needed to find out.

But, still, certainly the state leaders are very happy to have this large amount of money set aside for the bridge project, at least as a large down payment, and then they'll maybe go for more later.

- Sure.

Let's turn now to the election.

Early voting is underway in Rhode Island and voters are being asked five ballot questions.

Last week, we talked about the constitutional convention question.

There are four other questions all centered around bond issues.

Question 2 is a $160.5 million higher education bond for URI and Rhode Island College.

Question 3, a $120 million bond for affordable housing programs.

Question 4, a $53 million so-called green bond for environmental projects and port infrastructure.

And then Question 5 is a $10 million bond for arts and cultural facilities.

And Ted, historically, these bond questions almost always pass.

- Right, it wasn't always that way.

As recently as the early 2000s, a couple of bond questions did fail.

But ever since the 2008 election, Rhode Island voters have approved every single bond issue that state lawmakers have put on the ballot.

Right now, I'd say that's the expectation again this year, that these will also pass.

There are active political campaigns being run on behalf of all of them.

And so far, there are no signs of any real organized opposition to these bond questions.

- We should point out, it's not a small amount of money that we're talking about.

- No, it's not.

I mean, once you add the interest payments, and it's like a mortgage, over the next 20 years, these will cost Rhode Island taxpayers over half a billion dollars for these projects.

So I think while politically, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of concern that voters will reject them, though a surprise could happen, the question maybe is more around, is the state gonna get value for money once this bond money hits the streets?

Housing, the big housing bond, I think is a place that's really in focus.

The Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council just recently put out a report looking at all the money the state's been putting into housing and where that money is going.

And they did raise some concerns about the high cost of each affordable housing unit.

And they stress that, you know, with more money potentially coming in if this bond question passes, the state leaders really should also take a look at how they're spending it, not just throw the money out there and see what happens.

- And Ted, I know how much you love political history, so there is some interesting trivia that ties these two topics together, bond questions and the Washington Bridge.

What is it?

- Yeah, Michelle.

Well, as we said, most bond questions pass in Rhode Island, but a few have failed over the last century, one of them, 1932, Rhode Island voters rejected a $5 million bond request for the Washington Bridge.

- Wow.

Full circle.

- Full circle.

- Thank you very much, Ted.

- Great to be here.