It’s been easy crusing for the Sumner Tunnel restoration challenge, which is almost a 3rd via its first spherical of weekend closures, however structural points have set substitute of a 124-year-old Boston bridge again by a yr.
“One of our bigger bridge projects, North Washington Street Bridge, has been effectively shut down for the better part of last year,” State Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver stated at Wednesday’s MassDOT Board of Directors assembly.
“Our inspectors identified a cracking that was occurring in a number of different structural members,” he stated. “We had to go through a very long process of understanding what the issue was and coming up with a way to address it.”
Gulliver stated the issue was brought on by a hydrogen crack, which happens when the weld level is just too chilly. Eventually, the hydrogen that seeps into the weld results in cracking, he stated.
He stated MassDOT labored with its contractor, J.F. White Contracting, to restore the problem, which includes heating metal up within the subject and reapplying the weld in a means that doesn’t trigger cracking sooner or later. Those repairs are underway.
“We’re working slowly over the next two weeks to get a better handle on what the schedule impacts are going to be,” Gulliver stated. “As it stands right now, we’ve lost about a year out of the construction season. We’re hoping to make some of that time up.”
North Washington Street Bridge, also referred to as the Charlestown Bridge, spans roughly 1,000 ft lengthy, connecting the Boston neighborhoods of Charlestown and the North End.
Construction of a brand new “21st-century bridge,” estimated to value $177 million, was initially projected to wrap up within the spring of 2023. An up to date challenge timeline might be shared by MassDOT throughout a public assembly subsequent month.
Gulliver stated issues are progressing extra easily with the $156 million Sumner Tunnel restoration challenge, which is approaching its eleventh of 36 deliberate weekend closures in part one, set to finish in May 2023.
From there, the 88-year-old tunnel will shut down utterly from May to September 2023, after which once more on weekends from the autumn to winter of 2023.
Highway congestion has been mitigated via use of a precedence lane carried out at Logan International Airport, which flushes visitors via the airport and into the Ted Williams Tunnel, Gulliver stated.
“This was a little bit of a sleeper over the summer with the excitement going on with the Orange Line, but Sumner Tunnel has been chugging along,” he stated.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”