Instant Bridges

[AmericanFolkLegend]

Indeed if anything accidentally good came from the Stimulus -- this might be it.

This had nothing to do with the ARRA. This was the state-level Accelerated Bridge Program. For once we need to give some credit to Mass DOT!

[Ron Newman]

If you can close major parts of I-93 for multiple successive weekends, you should be able to close a small piece of 128 for a weekend.

[AmericanFolkLegend]

Originally Posted by Ron Newman

If you can close major parts of I-93 for multiple successive weekends, you should be able to close a small piece of 128 for a weekend.

Agreed. Though in some cases you'd be closing I-95 (federal highway with state oversight) to rebuild a town/city road. Not sure how the DOT would handle that.

At any rate, it's a moot point on 128 since much of the highway is being widened. So the bridges need new abutments and/or piers. You HAVE to phase those projects.

[F-Line to Dudley]

Originally Posted by AmericanFolkLegend

Agreed. Though in some cases you'd be closing I-95 (federal highway with state oversight) to rebuild a town/city road. Not sure how the DOT would handle that.

At any rate, it's a moot point on 128 since much of the highway is being widened. So the bridges need new abutments and/or piers. You HAVE to phase those projects.

If CalTrans can do it on the 405--the country's single busiest freeway--for a weekend without an international-news hyped "Carpocalypse" materializing, then there is no road in this region that they can't close all the same and not have it confidently work out smoothly and uneventfully. All it takes is being immaculately well-planned about warning the public. Which they executed spectacularly well on "Fast 14". CalTrans studied "Fast 14" and used it as its litmus test before going for it on that weekend shutdown of the 405. They never would've attempted it with the whole world watching had MassHighway not come through with flying colors on their experiment.


The 128 widening doesn't quite fit that mold because the bridges they're replacing aren't getting drop-in replacements. Unlike with 93 abutments here are getting moved, rock's getting blasted and terrain altered, road geometry is radically changing. There's not as many applications where the fast approach is going to make too big a difference. I mean, you could demolish an old overpass on a Friday night, but then the bridge is going to be out for weeks on end because there's so much heavy realignment to do before a new deck can be dropped in. In those cases it's better to put up with Highland Ave. in Needham lane-restricted for 18 months while it's reconstructed vs. no Highland Ave. crossing whatsoever for an entire season.

[F-Line to Dudley]

In similar news. . .

http://www.mbta.com/business_center/..._bid/?cbid=206

T is bidding out the contract for replacing 7 Fitchburg Line bridges. 1 contractor for all, with some/most of them being another streak of rapid replacements. So the pace of this is already picking up sharply statewide for subsequent fiscal years.