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With a series of beeps, first motorist drives over the River Street Bridge in Hyde Park in more than two years

By adamg on Mon, 12/23/2024 - 9:36pm
First car over the re-opened River Street bridge

The first across the bridge.

Shortly before 7:40 p.m. MassDOT workers removed barrels on the Gordon Avenue side of the River Street Bridge in Cleary Square and let the first driver back on the bridge since it was shut in May, 2022 because it was falling apart.

The driver beeped all the way across the short span and until he got to Hyde Park Avenue, where he turned left. Not long after, workers removed the barrels and "ROAD CLOSED" sign on the Hyde Park Avenue side and the first driver in 2 1/2 years to head up towards Gordon turned right from Hyde Park Avenue.

For the next five or ten minutes, the air was filled with the sound of beeping as drivers realized they could once again take the short way to and from Cleary Square and beeped in celebration over the span.

The repairs, meant to be temporary until the state can install a permanent replacement for the 19th-century bridge at some undetermined date in the future, were complicated by the fact that crews initially had only 90 minutes a night to work because Amtrak, whose main line to New York runs right under it, declined to reroute trains via the Fairmount Line, which would have required swapping in diesel locomotives for the electric engines the railroad normally uses.

The newly re-opened bridge means an end to long detours for people trying to drive into or through Cleary Square - and traffic jams that required rush-hour BPD details along West Street and Hyde Park Avenue.

Before they re-opened the bridge tonight, BTD workers and contractors first had to fiddle with the traffic-light control box in front of the Boston Restaurant Bar & Grill on Hyde Park Avenue, strip off the tape that had long covered the signals that allowed turns from Hyde Park Avenue - and from the bridge itself - and take out the cones that had blocked cars from the freshly repainted left-turn lane from Hyde Park Avenue onto the bridge.

Worker in bucket removing tape covering traffic lights at the intersection
Workers removing cones at the intersection

Among those who stood at the intersection for more than 90 minutes watching the work: City Councilor Enrique Pepén and state Rep. Rob Consalvo, both of whom represent Hyde Park.

Neighborhoods: 
Hyde Park
Topics: 
Driving
Free tagging: 
Cleary Square
River Street
Hyde Park Avenue


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Comments

By anon on Mon, 12/23/2024 - 9:42pm.

Hey!! Common sense accomplishment with infrastructure! What's the catch.

By KJL on Tue, 12/24/2024 - 12:44am.

Apparently, a straight-up replacement was planned for Spring 2025, but the resulting furor caused a temporary fix to be instituted instead … which has taken this long *anyway*.

So it definitely sounds like we should’ve waited for the replacement after all — and who knows how long this patch-up will last.

That’s the catch.

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By anon on Tue, 12/24/2024 - 9:56am.

temporary and a replacement is still planned. The temporary fix should have been done 2 f’n years ago.

By Angry Dan on Mon, 12/23/2024 - 10:50pm.

...Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a return to carcophony.

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By anon on Tue, 12/24/2024 - 9:55am.

people own cars, you’re never going to change that no matter how much you cry.

I’m certain the residents of the surrounding residential streets are thrilled to get some relief from heavy traffic.

By chaosjake on Tue, 12/24/2024 - 11:03am.

without telling me you've never been to Cleary Square.

River Street is a major connection from Dedham, all the way across Hyde Park and Mattapan and into Dorchester Lower Mills, and this bridge caused a major disruption that surrounding neighborhoods struggled to absorb. Get us trains that come more than once per hour and cost less than $24 per round trip, then complain about "carcaphony" or whatever.

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By Angry Dan on Tue, 12/24/2024 - 4:02pm.

Anyone who walks or cycles over that bridge would experience a decrease in cars as an improvement, there or anywhere else. That's been a sketchy and congested area to navigate whenever I've ridden through there and not everyone's experience will match the one from behind a steering wheel.

By Waquiot on Tue, 12/24/2024 - 9:40pm.

In the decade before closure, my ratio of foot to car crossing was probably 30 to 1. I’ve walked over the bridge on a regular basis during the closure. I am very, very happy it is reopened. It’s been a mess during the closure.

I’ll give you one reason to be happy. The fire station is on the Logan Square side of the bridge. The detour is about a mile regardless of taking West or Reservation Road.

My personal joy- less cars on West Street, which I cross on my runs. And let’s be honest, you are griping about cycling across the bridge. West Street is a wider bridge. You should have been using it all along.

By BubbaLooo on Tue, 12/24/2024 - 2:05am.

I am just getting into my winter hibernation, guess I'll check it out in the spring.
BTW they always claim they are going to replace it, it is never going to happen. It's historically, it costs too much, Amtrak is in the way, yadda yadda, pick your excuse.

By adamg on Tue, 12/24/2024 - 9:27am.

By necturus on Tue, 12/24/2024 - 11:05am.

For several years in the eighties Amtrak trains used it to reach South Station while the Southwest Corridor (that is, the most northern and easterly part of the Northeast Corridor) was being rebuilt. When the NEC was electrified, it should have made sense to electrify Fairmount line too.

Unless I'm mistaken, the new "Airo" trains Amtrak has ordered will have dual-mode locomotives than switch between diesel and electric mode... if the new administration doesn't kill them and the rest of Amtrak.

By anon on Tue, 12/24/2024 - 2:30pm.

Yes, they will be dual-mode. Which is pretty stupid, since the majority of service on the Northeast Corridor is the 500 mile electrified run from Boston to DC. It's adding cost, weight, and unreliability to an electric train, and will require hauling an unused diesel engine under all those wires, in order to avoid a 15-minute engine change in Washington for the subset of trains that continue to Virginia, or in New Haven for Springfield trains. I'm sure the DC stop will continue to take more than 15 minutes anyway.

Of course the correct solution would be to electrify DC to Virginia, New Haven to Springfield, and Croton-Harmon to Albany.