Longfellow Bridge update

Bike lanes are planned for Craigie, but not until Longfellow construction is complete. MassDOT will be restriping with sharrows, but then DCR is supposed to stripe the bike lanes at some point in the future (unfortunately I'm not holding my breath...)
 
Nightmarish pain for the next 4 years, but goddamn is that going to be a beautiful bridge when it's finished and vastly better for peds and bikes. If construction stays true to the design renderings it's going to be jaw-dropping. To the point where you go out of your way to sightsee on it. I can't wait until the first 4th of July when it's complete.

And I don't think the lane-drop is going to mess things up too bad. There's an induced demand effect that'll self-correct. The Craigie is the one that has no easy answers for traffic mitigation, although I suppose tearing down McGrath will help a little bit by discouraging thru truck traffic.
 
a press release I received today from "MassDOTPublicAffairs (DOT)" <massdot.pa@dot.state.ma.us>:

Longfellow Bridge Rehabilitation Project

Notice of Upcoming Construction Activities:

Main Street, Cambridge Preliminary Work

Median tree removal begins Wednesday, June 19, 2013 and
Modifications to median begin Monday, June 24, 2013

Bridge construction and traffic changes anticipated to begin in mid-July

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s (MassDOT) design/build contractor, White-Skanska-Consigli JV (WSC), will begin preliminary work on Main Street in Cambridge to prepare for Traffic Stage 1 for the first phase of construction of the Longfellow Bridge Rehabilitation Project.

The first phase of the activities will begin on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 and entails removing trees located just north of the MBTA’s Kendall station portal. The trees must be removed to allow the contractor to install jersey barriers across the median to shift traffic traveling to Boston (on the upstream side of the bridge) to the downstream side. The tree removal was previously announced at a City of Cambridge Tree Removal Hearing and at meetings and hearings during preliminary design for the project. The second phase entails additional median modifications to facilitate the traffic shift. Site restoration will occur once construction is complete.

In the first phase of construction, Boston bound traffic will be shifted to the downstream side of the bridge so the upstream side can be demolished and reconstructed. Cambridge bound traffic will be detoured using Craigie Bridge. Implementation of the traffic shift is now planned for mid-July. We will notify you two to three weeks prior to the shift via e-blast, website, social media and media outreach. A public meeting will also be scheduled to provide details on traffic management and monitoring.

To report issues or concerns or for questions related to construction, please use the dedicated project hotline, 617-519-9892, or email address, longfellowbridge@state.ma.us. You can also visit the website at www.mass.gov/massdot/longfellowbridge for updates and other information. To be added to the project email or US Mail distribution lists, please contact Stephanie Boundy, Public Outreach Coordinator for MassDOT’s Accelerated Bridge Program, at 857-368-8904 or stephanie.boundy@state.ma.us.
 
BRIDGE IS CLOSING ON SATURDAY JULY 20TH 2013!

According to MassDOT Cambridge-bound traffic will be detoured and one lane will be open to Boston-Bound traffic starting on Saturday July 20th 2013 until Late 2014.
 
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One final meeting, this time on the Cambridge side, and focusing on the impact to drivers:

"A public meeting to present details on this detour route is scheduled for Wednesday, July 10, 2013 from 7 to 9 PM at MIT, Building E 25, Room 111 (E25-111), 45 Carleton Street, Cambridge."

I walk across the bridge as part of my commute, so I will become very, very familiar with the project. The median on the Cambridge side is thoroughly torn up now, bits of equipment and markers are creeping in, and various people with hardhats and clipboards are walking around.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Jeez, guys...you've only had how many years worth of public meetings and PowerPoints to speak up about this???
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Residents and commuters may just be hearing about the project and complaining about the traffic, but surely the institutions like MGH that rely on the bridge have been aware of this for years.

I took a few photos of the state of the sidewalk. Missing parts of trim, light posts, and crumbling concrete everywhere. The poor condition is really evident on the cosmetic parts of the bridge, and I understand it is pretty poor structurally as well.

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This is just embarrassing for the institutions who have known about the outbound closure for years now. MassDOT has done a ton of outreach. There are no surprises here.
 
Scipio said:
Residents and commuters may just be hearing about the project and complaining about the traffic, but surely the institutions like MGH that rely on the bridge have been aware of this for years.

I took a few photos of the state of the sidewalk. Missing parts of trim, light posts, and crumbling concrete everywhere. The poor condition is really evident on the cosmetic parts of the bridge, and I understand it is pretty poor structurally as well.

IMAG2271.jpg


IMAG2272.jpg


IMAG2273.jpg


IMAG2274.jpg


IMAG2275.jpg
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Look straight down the next time a Red Line train is crawling at 5 MPH over the bridge. There are large holes in the deck where the trackbed meets the fence. Like there used to be on BU Bridge pre-rehab. The T dumped new ballast on it a few years ago to cover the holes, but all that did was make it rain rocks on boaters below.
 
There might be a reasonable argument for making that single one-way lane of traffic go different directions at different times of the day. Perhaps inbound until 1 pm, then outbound from 1:05 pm on? Change it back again between 4:30 and 4:35 am. Be flexible with the changeover times when large public events are happening in town.
 
Ron Newman said:
There might be a reasonable argument for making that single one-way lane of traffic go different directions at different times of the day. Perhaps inbound until 1 pm, then outbound from 1:05 pm on? Change it back again between 4:30 and 4:35 am. Be flexible with the changeover times when large public events are happening in town.
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The outbound side of the bridge is not as busy as the inbound side during the evening rush, at least according to my experience. Inbound gets backed up to Cambridge by 6:30pm, and I've never had that experience going outbound at the same time.
 
Here is a pic of the endless line of traffic. Looking from Cambridge toward the Longfellow.
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There easily could be 20 times more people riding that Red Line train than riding in the cars pictured. Maybe more.
 
AmericanFolkLegend said:
If only there had been some kind of notice that this traffic switch was going into effect...
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If they didn't, they should have used the mobile LED signs. Still, didn't everyone kinda see that things were starting to happen? (I did, on the Charles Circle end, anyway). And as of today, about 99% of the people who need to know, now know ...and most will find a new route starting tomorrow.
 
Can't you bail onto Memorial Drive shortly before the bridge anyway? Who are these people waiting for the Longfellow? Do they only know their one route into the city? Like Arlington said, people will redistribute their traffic very quickly. "Carpocalypses" are always overblown by NIMBYs anyway.
 
^I think you can only get onto memorial drive if you're on the other side of the Red Line tracks. And the Jersey barriers kind of preclude using the other set of ramps or turning around.
 
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