Boston Bridge Crew Opens Mass. Pike Three Weeks Early
Beginning work on the rehabilitation of the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge that runs over the Massachusetts Turnpike in Boston, crews opened the toll road to preconstruction traffic patterns on Aug. 7—nearly three weeks earlier than planned.
The high-pressure design-build project, which is employing accelerated building techniques, began in earnest on July 26. Construction was expected to snarl traffic on local roads and the MBTA’s Green Line and bus routes until a few days past its originally scheduled completion date, Aug. 14. But frazzled turnpike commuters welcomed the early reopening of all four lanes of traffic in both directions. The road was reduced on July 7 to three lanes in each direction and then further reduced, from July 28 to Aug. 7, to two lanes or one lane. Restrictions originally were scheduled through Aug. 28. As many as 145,000 drivers travel that stretch of I-90 each day.