Advocates push for new bridge as talks go on

City Council set to discuss

City officials will update councilors tomorrow on the much-debated project to replace the bridge to Long Island and establish a drug-treatment center there.

Chief of Streets Chris Osgood, Chief of Health and Human Services Marty Martinez and Public Facilities Director Tricia Lyons will speak at 1 p.m. at City Hall as city councilors seek a timeline of the large and expensive project meant to help with the addiction issues that have ravaged the area.

“The closure of the Long Island Bridge eliminated hundreds of recovery beds and hundreds of beds for the city’s homeless, which exacerbated our city’s resources,” at-large City Councilors Annissa Essaibi George and Michelle Wu wrote in the description of the hearing. “Despite making up the 742 shelter beds and 225 recovery beds lost from closing the Bridge, the opioid crisis has furthered the need for the facilities on Long Island.”

Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s office did not have any further information immediately available last night about the update.

The bridge is mired in a series of legal battles with neighboring Quincy, which adamantly opposes reconstruction. Walsh estimates the project will cost $80 million, connecting Quincy’s Squantum peninsula to Boston’s Long Island.

Residents and officials say it presents a safety hazard as vehicles accessing the bridge must travel the narrow, winding roads of Quincy neighborhoods leading up to it. A bridge existed in the same place for several decades — to the chagrin of many in the City of Presidents — before the state closed and demolished it in 2014 due to structural issues.

Quincy’s Conservation Commission has denied the project, while Boston’s Conservation Commission has given it the go-ahead. Each city is appealing the other’s agency’s finding. Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch asked his City Council last week for $250,000 for lawyers and experts to fight Boston in court. Koch and other Quincy officials advocate for a ferry service from Boston rather than the bridge.

STAFF FILE PHOTOS BY NICOLAUS CZARNECKI, ABOVE; AND FAITH NINIVAGGI, BELOW IN LIMBO: Abandoned footings remain for the Long Island Bridge in Boston Harbor. Boston and Quincy are at odds over rebuilding the bridge.