11 Things You Didn’t Know about the Comm Ave Bridge Replacement
One crane came from Kentucky in 22 truckloads
More than four dozen steel girders will support Comm Ave over the Mass Pike.
For good reason, the only thing most of us have considered about the massive Comm Ave Bridge Replacement Project is how we were going to avoid it. But the project, which started July 26 and ends August 14, is worth musing about. The $110 million replacement of the half-century-old concrete surface and steel beams that support Commonwealth Avenue as it passes over the Massachusetts Turnpike offers up some fascinating facts:
1. Five gigantic cranes are on site: two 400-ton cranes (capable of lifting 400 tons), one 100-ton crane, and one 75-ton crane on Comm Ave, while a 440-ton crane sits below on the Mass Pike.
2. The 440-ton crane was delivered from Kentucky on 22 truckloads and is approximately 157 feet tall.
3. More cranes: at the Beacon Park Yard in Allston, where the construction materials are stored, there is a 300-ton crane and a 200-ton crane, both 130 feet tall.
4. The project changes the routines of the 30,000 drivers who cross the Commonwealth Avenue bridge each day and the 26,000 daily Green Line riders who pass over that stretch of the roadway.
5. About 200 men and women work on the project every day.
6. BU Dining Services is feeding all of the hungry construction workers, making 400 sandwiches each day (choice of Mediterranean grilled chicken or mesquite smoked turkey breast), served with kettle chips, a cookie, and a drink. All meals are delivered to the Upper Bridge parking lot (near BU Academy).
7. Materials are transported on 40-foot flatbed trailers.
8. The bridge replacement has 267 concrete deck panels, all laid out ahead of time in the Allston rail yard in the order they’ll be put together.
9. There are 44 steel girders, ranging in length from 50 to 150 feet and weighing between 6,000 and 90,000 pounds.
10. The project is part of a much larger, $2.8 billion initiative by the state, which includes the replacement of 80 bridges, 160 miles of new sidewalks, and thousands of miles of newly paved roadways across the commonwealth.
11. Think construction is busy now? When the Comm Ave overpass was built in 1965, the three towers comprising Warren Towers were going up.
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