Comm Ave Reopens Wednesday
Normal service resumes, but continuing caution urged
Schedule delays, coupled with rain Saturday morning, delayed the reopening of Commonwealth Avenue and resumption of Green Line B trolleys until midweek. Off-peak lane reductions will continue for several weeks after that so the contractor can complete work on sidewalks, fencing, and curb settings. Photo by Cydney Scott
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Updated August 15 Beginning at 5 a.m. on Wednesday, August 16:
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The massive Commonwealth Avenue Bridge Replacement Project, whose original schedule called for reopening Comm Ave on Monday, August 14, to private vehicles and MBTA Green Line trolleys, will reopen Comm Ave Wednesday, according to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT).
Phase one of the project, which has shut down traffic on the thoroughfare as well as the MBTA Green Line B trolleys between Blandford Street and Babcock Street for more than two weeks, will wind down this week, but officials are urging drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists to continue to exercise caution in the area. For the next several weeks, there will be off-peak-hour lane reductions on Commonwealth Avenue in the vicinity of the bridge as the contractor completes work on sidewalks, curb settings, final paving, fencing, and utilities. And in the months ahead, work crews will continue utility relocations and signal work in preparation for next summer’s second phase of the project.
The $110 million project to replace the half-century-old concrete surface and steel beams that support Commonwealth Avenue as it passes over the Massachusetts Turnpike began on July 27. Replacement of the eastbound portion of the bridge and both the eastbound and westbound trolley tracks required closing that section of Comm Ave to all but MBTA buses, pedestrians, bicycles, BU essential services vehicles, and emergency vehicles. The second phase of the project, scheduled for summer 2018, will replace and reconfigure that portion of the westbound side of Comm Ave.
The project will improve the safety of all bridge users, with dedicated bike lanes on the BU Bridge, a traffic signal at the University Road intersection, and sidewalk and pedestrian walkway enhancements.
The bridge project is the largest single part of a BU-MassDOT public-private partnership that began in 2003 and includes Comm Ave streetscape work from Amory Street to Alcorn Street, under way now and scheduled for completion in 2019.
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