Isaac Walwrath took what could be his last walk across the doomed Casey Overpass this morning - the state is scheduled to shut the overpass towards Jamaica Pond this weekend, and the other side next weekend and then tear the whole thing down. Read more.
Dark lines show pedestrian routes: Note absence of sidewalk on T-stop side of street.
State officials said tonight the Casey Overpass demolition begins in earnest this weekend, when crews shut off the side heading towards Jamaica Pond and begin diverting traffic onto the new temporary surface road they've built. Read more.
Demolition of the abutments on the Arborway side of the Casey Overpass in Forest Hills began today, as Clay Harper shows us.
State officials say next week is when workers take the first real bite out of the Casey Overpass - they're scheduled to remove a piece of the abutment on the rotary side of the hulking, crumbling bridge.
Along with that comes the first overpass-removal detours: Traffic heading from the rotary into Jamaica Plan will be diverted onto the temporary road that's been built alongside the Arborway bus depot - which means the gazillion traffic lights the state has installed will blink into use.
Clay Harper wonders what group plastered this pineapple finial resistance message on the Casey Overpass yesterday - and what they want.
The City Council today agreed to let Councilor Charles Yancey (Dorchester) hold a series of hearings at which state and city officials can explain how replacing the Casey Overpass with a series of surface roads won't give residents cancer or block ambulances from getting heart-attack and stroke victims to the medical area - but not demand the work be stopped altogether.
Or, at least, that's what Yancey professed today.
"This is not [a motion] to cease and desist the demolition of the Casey Overpass," Yancey told fellow councilors.
City Councilor Charles Yancey (Dorchester) wonders if the project to replace the Casey Overpass with surface roads will cause problems for people heading to lifesaving medical treatment in the Longwood Medical Area or to soul-saving worship services at area churches, so he's seeking "a series of hearings" on the demolition plans - three years after state officials announced the plans.
The blizzards may have slowed the work, but there's no mistaking the Casey Overpass is coming down: Trees all around it have been chopped down, there's a new road and sidewalk on the bus-depot side and construction equipment is everywhere.
Clay Harper, who has been chronicling plans for the Casey Overpass, watched workers smooth out the new temporary lane along the overpass yesterday, in preparation for the demolition of the overpass. The work has also included taking down trees - yesterday, workers chopped down the trees along the upper busway at the Forest Hills T station.
State transportation officials said tonight they will shut the Arboretum-bound side of the Casey Overpass in February, followed by the Mattapan-bound side by the end of March.
With contractors now getting ready to begin tearing down the Casey Overpass, MassDOT will hold its first construction-update meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the Boston English auditorium, 144 McBride St. in Jamaica Plain.
Clayton Harper reports MassDOT last week awarded a contract worth nearly $60 million to Barletta Heavy Division of Canton to tear down the Casey Overpass in Forest Hills and replace it with a series of surface roads.
Harper says state engineers want the work started ASAP, partly because a winter teardown will minimize the effects of all that dust and noise on nearby residents, who will mostly have their windows shut, and partly because they're concerned the overpass could get all Long Island Bridge and not even make it through the winter without having to be shut down as unsafe.
The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports Mayor Walsh has basically thrown up his hands and said there's nothing he can do to stop state plans to tear down the Casey Overpass and replace it with surface roads because, you know, it's state land and the state can do what it wants with its land. Meanwhile, the Gazette adds opponents of teardown, who want the decrepit, crumbling hulk rebuilt, are now comparing themselves to the people who worked to keep I-95 from being bulldozed through Boston in the 1960s and 1970s.
State historic-preservation officials on Friday acknowledged there's no feasible alternative to replacing the apparently historic Shea Circle when the Casey Overpass comes tumbling down, Clayton Harper reports.
Harper attended a Friday meeting between the Mass. Historical Commission and the state highway officials anxious to replace the crumbling overpass with a series of surface roads before the thing tumbles to the ground of its own accord.
The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports plans to replace the concrete-dropping Casey Overpass are on hold because the Massachusetts Historical Commission is raising questions about Massachusetts Department of Transportation plans to significantly alter what turns out to be the rather historic rotary on the decrepit overpass's southern end.
The Jamaica Plain Gazette interviews a local artist who has done a series of oil paintings of the crumbling Casey Overpass, slated to be torn down next spring.
McCabe paints from photographs, as "standing in traffic would be suicidal," he said. He adapted his painting technique to reflect the decay of the structure and "achieve a more tactile surface much like the paint and rust of the bridge itself."
McCabe said his intent is to draw attention to "what is often overlooked" and the rapid pace of change in Boston.
The Walsh campaign has announced an 11;45 a.m. endorsement at the Moakley Courthouse by state Sen. Therese Murray.
CommonWealth reports that the vast majority of outside money pouring into Boston is pouring into Walsh's coffers:
Casey all patched up. Photo by MassDOT.
Weekend road repair atop the crumbling Casey Overpass went so well the elevated road won't need to be shut for further repairs, the state Department of Transportation says. According to MassDOT spokesman Michael Verseckes:
The work on Saturday made full repairs to 15 spans and partial repairs to five more.
The overpass, slated to be torn down and replaced with surface roads, has 40 spans, he said. He added:
MassDOT plans to shut the Casey Overpass on Oct. 5 and 6 for emergency repairs to the road surface "to ensure the bridge can remain open during snow and ice events."
And that's just the start. The state says some 17 sections of the overpass, which is slated to be completely be torn down, need repair, and that it will have to be shut for three more weekends as well. Also:
During the closures, MassDOT is intending to remove the existing driving surface with jackhammers. As a result, there will be noise associated with this work. The end result will be an improved riding surface.
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