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Long overdue, the new North Washington Street bridge could finally begin carrying traffic this month
By adamg on Fri, 12/01/2023 - 11:18am
The Beacon Hill Times reports the new North Washington Street Bridge, bedeviled by construction problems, will open to vehicle and pedestrian traffic on Dec. 9. Only one side of the bridge will be open to traffic in both directions - with final completion not expected until December, 2024, since contractors first have to take down the current temporary bridge to complete the inbound side of the permanent bridge.
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Comments
Only in America does it take
Only in America does it take several years to make a bridge that spans only 300 yards.
The Dot Ave Bridge Replacement Says Hi!
2.5 years (if they meet the current delayed schedule) for a bridge that goes 80 yards over railroad tracks.
Dot Ave Bridge
I was thinking the same thing.
The River Street Bridge says hold my beer
Although state claims it'll have at least repairs in place to re-open the bottled up end of Cleary Square sometime next year.
Meanwhile, in Boston Harbor...
(sigh)
Please be careful!
If the "temporary" for 40 years Rourke Bridge in Lowell hears you, it might very well laugh itself into the Merrimack!
Was that the one between
Was that the one between Milton and Lower Mills? That one took forever.
Oh other countries can eff up infrastructure, too
Berlin's new airport took 15 years of construction and as many years of planning. I don't know about specific bridge projects but I would bet there are some that take longer, too.
This one was complicated, especially since there is a 115kV power feed in the bridge, so in a sense they pulled down the old bridge and are building a new bridge around this power line. It's also above a navigable waterway, with a 12-foot tidal range, and important enough that they couldn't just close the bridge. (They probably could have and it would have gone faster and thrown some ferry service at the problem. Traffic may have been appreciably worse.)
It turns out that infrastructure which is 125 years old is expensive to replace. $176 million for 1500 feet. That's about $600 million per mile. The 858 track miles the T operates, by comparison, will only cost about $5400 per foot or $29 million per mile. It's a steal!
Old Northern Avenue Bridge
Old Northern Avenue Bridge says "What about me???????"
Bring it back …
… restored, no rinky dink substitutes, as pedestrian/cyclist only with a kayak rental and storage.
Guys. Guys.
There's no equivalent to this one. Not. Even. Close. Bud.
It takes years to fix potholes too
But we never give up hope
Hooray
Hooray!
So tired of the bottleneck at the N Wash intersection with the bridge.
That and that temp bridge... it just doesn't feel all that safe. It gives a bit when its 100% full of traffic. This opening couldn't have come any sooner.
Rourke Bridge in Lowell
A temporary bridgewent up in the early eighties. They just started construction to replace the temp bridge forty years later.
They haven't even started construction
They just got the funding - construction starts in 2025, to be completed in 2028.