Repairing storrowed I-93 overpass could take months, and that will mean delays all the while, state says

I really hope that taxpayers aren't going to be footed the bill for this.

Most probably aren't old enough or may not have lived in the area to remember a couple of really spectacular damaging crashes

One in May 1996 involved a allegedly inebriated driver from Quebec hauling big timbers who hit one of the vertical parts of the then double-decked bridge crossing the Charles [Charlestown High Bridge] where the Bunkerhill-Zakim is now located. The big piece of lumber bent the big piece of steel substantially*1 and could have taken the bridge down. Purely by happenstance there was some sort of construction engineering meeting in town that day and the world expert in reworking such damage was able in a couple of hours to inspect the damaged steel piece. He led a heroic project to reform the piece in place using a lot of heat a quite a bit of force. And Voila -- within a couple of days the bridge was almost good as new. It stayed in place without further work until it was removed as part of the Big Dig.

The other major crash and damage to highway accident happened in 1973 after Gov. Frank [don't call me Major] Sargent had stopped the Inner Belt and the Southwest Expressway cold. What is now the double decked part of I-93 had already been finished through Medford and Somerville and had reached the highway out of Boston to the North over the Tobin Bridge, but since it was supposed to connect to the now-cancelled Inner Belt -- it was the double decked highway to nowhere. Then a really heavy gravel truck hit one of the vertical piers holding up the upper deck of the ramp to the Tobin Bridge. This time the impact was so severe that the upper deck of the ramp collapsed on top of the truck taking out the upper deck crushing the truck, killing the driver and blocking the lower deck*2. Essentially in that instant -- highway access north from Boston was eliminated. Governor Sargent against his Green-sensibilities [he was Green before most of today's Greenies were even a glimmer in their parents eyes] -- decided to open the I-93 on a temporary basis. Of course this being Boston and the Commonwealth -- well its been about 50 years of temporariness the last time I checked. It took amore than four months before the Tobin was able to deliver cars to/from Boston without driving through city streets.

This one seems to be likely to fall between the two historic accidents. Since the actual I-93 was not damaged -- all of the problems after the damaged overpass is removed will be associated with the elevated rotary [one of a very few of that type of interchange]. Hopefully, the redo of the overpass will be completed before winter.

Refs:
*1
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1996/05/02/Boston-traffic-jammed-by-truck-m...

BOSTON, May 2 -- A Canadian lumber truck driver was charged with drunken driving Thursday after an accident on the main elevated highway through Boston created a massive traffic jam. Officials said the load of lumber on his truck shifted and slammed into a steel girder, part of the support system for the Central Artery's northbound upper deck. The girder buckled and was 'twisted like a pretzel,' officials said...
Police said the driver of the truck, Serge Brosseau, 32, of Quebec, was charged with drunken driving and driving to endanger. He was arraigned in Charlestown District Court and ordered held in lieu of $15, 000 bail. Prosecutors said Brosseau's blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.

*2
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=10395.0

Tobin Bridge - September 10th, 1973
At about 7:45 am, a semi-truck named Georges Tonka Toy, which was headed for Logan Airport with an overloaded trailer of gravel, lost control and struck one of the support bents of the Tobin Bridge as it was entering the lower (northbound) deck from the slip ramp at Henley Street in Charlestown. This caused the upper deck of the bridge to collapse at that location.

Beside shutting down the Tobin for about four months while repairs were effected, the collapse had another long lasting effect on the Boston area. It forced MassDPW to finally open the portion of I-695 between the Charles River Crossing and Somerville (now the I-93 upper and lower decks) to traffic. This section of I-695 had been mostly completed in 1970, but had remained closed due to concerns about additional traffic overloading the junction between Storrow Drive, the Tobin Bridge, and the Central Artery.