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Glory be: Closed Hyde Park bridge might re-open to traffic next week
By adamg on Thu, 12/19/2024 - 2:21pm
Armand Walker shows us the fresh asphalt at the River Street bridge in Hyde Park's Cleary Square today, reports workers there are optimistic the bridge could be re-opened to traffic next week, which would end the long running nightmare for people trying to get somewhere in or near Cleary Square.
MassDOT shut the bridge as unsafe in May, 2022, announced plans to keep it shut until it could get a brand-new replacement fabricated off site and dropped in in the spring of 2025, then agreed that was a long time, so said it would make enough repairs to the crumbling old bridge to re-open it to traffic this past spring, then pushed those plans back until about now, or just a few months earlier than the originally announced plans for a complete replacement
The state says a major reason for delays in getting the bridge re-opened to traffic has been that for the most part, contractors only had 90 minutes a night to do repair work because it crosses over New England's busiest rail line - the Northeast Corridor, used by both Amtrak and the MBTA - and Amtrak refused to stop trains or reroute service onto the Fairmount Line, which would require swapping in diesel locomotives for electric ones, to allow for more repair time.
MassDOT says it still plans to completely replace the old span, originally built in 1883, but is no longer posting even a vague date for when that might happen. Its last update was that "75% plans" were scheduled for January, 2024.
The bridge has remained open to pedestrians and bicyclists throughout the repair work.
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Comments
River Street bridge
I figure that this bridge closing cost me about 100 hours of my life. Some days there seemed like there was no way through Hyde Park.
It is just incredible that this kind of infrastructure issue was allowed to carry on for so long. Complete lack of cooperation by government and trains.
How can Amtrak just refuse. Who gave them that power!
It would be nice if Amtrak made some kind of donations to Hyde Park since Amtrak refused to stop trains or reroute service onto the Fairmount Line to allow for more repair time.
I already see a problem
The businesses on the far side of the street had parking before and kind of had it during the bridge shutdown. If anything, they need to get deliveries.
Hopefully the yellow line will get a shift before full opening, unless I'm seeing the lines now wrong.
Not so sure about that
I can't recall what the parking situation was before the bridge closed, but two way traffic needs some structure, and the configuration will necessarily be different from that of a dead end street. As for the businesses, I suspect they are eager to be more accessible to customers who live on the other side of the tracks.
If only there was a way
Look, if I were on another device, I could google 1285 River Street and go to street view, where one could see the cars parked way back in 2022. One could also see that while the bridge itself was 2 lanes, going towards Hyde Park Ave, River Street opened up, with, from south to north, a straight/right turn lane, a left turn lane, all going west, then the eastbound lane and finally the parking lane. But I’m using what I’m using.
As for the customers, as the article notes, foot traffic over the bridge was nor affected, which is a white lie as the crossing on the side of the street with businesses was blocked for a few months last spring or summer. Foot traffic remained, with the only immediate issue being deliveries, which is why that one lane was open.
And suddenly I’m in the
And suddenly I’m in the Christmas spirit. This is an amazing gift.