Officials for the Washington State Department of Transportation and KGM, a joint venture group that is designing and building the new State Route 520 bridge, are investigating employees drinking alcohol in the Bellevue office they share, following a hidden camera investigation by KOMO 4 News.

A source, who worked in the office for two months, told KOMO that workers routinely drank beer throughout the day.

“People drink pretty heavily, I mean, it’s all over the place,” the source said. “On Monday through Thursday, some people have one, two, three. On Friday, it’s a six-pack.”

KOMO came to the office on a Friday afternoon in an attempt to get comment. While waiting they witnessed two employees each entering with 12-packs of beer. As the KOMO reporter was leaving, she looked in the refrigerator in a break room and found the two packs of beer.

A WSDOT official said he had never seen alcohol in the workplace before. State regulations prohibit government employees from drinking on the job. Representatives of KGM told KOMO the company takes the allegations very seriously, and it is beginning an investigation into the matter.

In response to the report, Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond released a statement, promising that such antics will not be repeated.

“WSDOT executives learned of alcohol use by contractor employees on Friday, May 18,” Hammond said. “In response, we have taken swift action confirming our policy with our contractors to help prevent a situation like this from happening again.”

WSDOT sent letters to all employees and contractors reminding them of state laws that prohibit alcohol in the workplace.

Normally WSDOT and private contractors don’t share office space, but because the bridge design is a complex and complicated project, employees work there in what’s called a “co-located” office.