`AVOID THE AREA' AS BRIDGE WORK BEGINS
Commuters on Pike, Green B line warned
The dreaded closure of the Commonwealth Avenue bridge will get its first real weekday commute tomorrow, and state transportation officials are warning drivers to stay away.
“If you don’t have to be coming into the city and you can avoid the area altogether, that will be your best bet,” Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver told reporters yesterday. “The less traffic that comes in, the better for everybody.”
Gulliver said the project is on track to be completed by Aug. 11, on schedule. Tomorrow’s commute will be impacted by a series of different closures and diversions, including:
• Lopping off four lanes total on the Mass Pike, reducing traffic to two lanes in each direction.
• Closing the entire BU bridge.
• Replacing the B branch of the Green Line with buses.
“Leave yourself plenty of time,” Gulliver said.
The bridge’s structure
was built in 1965 and needs to be replaced, the state has said. The steel beams have corroded in several places, and the deck has deteriorated, the state said. The new bridge will add a dedicated bike lane and an improved sidewalk for pedestrians, on top of the new construction.
“This is necessary core infrastructure work that has been several years in the planning,” said Jacquelyn Goddard, a spokeswoman for MassDOT.
The construction is the second and final phase of the $110 million project after the bridge was closed last summer.
Goddard said MassDOT prefabricated large concrete slabs off-site to reduce the amount of on-site work that will have to be done.
“These prefabricated concrete slabs now just have to be lifted onto the bridge,” she said.
Yesterday, 11 “Big Daddy” excavators were tearing up the concrete. The demolition work is expected to finish this evening. Once that is complete, new steel beams will be installed, and eventually new concrete slabs and pavement. Crews will be working continuously, 24 hours a day, until the project is finished, the state says.