HopNews
Workers were affixing the final pieces of decorative trim on the Fruit Street MBTA bridge today, capping a project that has continued for nearly 2 years. The bridge was scheduled to reopen more than a year ago, but when disassembling the old structure workers discovered several issues with the pylons and other support systems, which forced them to make unforeseen repairs.
The bridge is supposed to open Friday evening, with workers using the day to tidy up the job site.
Can we put in a work order to change the 2022 pictured above to 2023? Maybe just a slash through the last 2 and glue on the number 3 next to it ????
Yup. Number is supposed to correlate with year of completion.
Sidewalks need to be bigger like main st ????
So, now where is the bike lane?
Interesting reason for the delay. I was told the delay, by someone working over at the other fruit st bridge construction, was due to “… the other contractor walked away from the job because of the MBTA restrictions on when construction had to pause and stop each and every time when a train went underneath for safety reasons. He said 20mins prior to a train and 20mins after they had to stop construction and wait”.
How are the plans to take down the utility poles on Main Street coming? Is it true we’re waiting for the transformers? Or did they find yet another reason to dig up all the work again? Is Main St going on four years or five? Is the plan for those caution barrels to be permanent to keep drivers from driving the triple wide sidewalk/bike lane?
Also, would like to know if the new metal light poles will be replaced or just painted over? Many have peeling paint which points to improper surface prep, just re-coating would be a temporary fix as the paint will continue to peel in the future.
Yes, I was also told by workers on-site that a contractor has made mistakes with the drilling. A lot of the work had to be re-done and a contractor was fired. Then a different contractor walked off the job.
So there is more to this story. It will be 2 years in February. The demo was quick. That wasn’t the issue. Everything was taken out. Nothing had to be repaired.
The more I think of it, it’s such an insult to our intelligence by MA DOT to try and sell us on that excuse. That we would buy that any part of the old bridge structure or pylons were re-used with the new bridge structure and had to be repaired. Really?
You want us to believe the was the thing that threw the entire timeline off and made this take 2 years? The demo was all done by mid-March 2022. A contractor drilled new new support structures in the wrong place.
I’d be fine if they just said, “due to issues with 3rd party contractors the completion of the bridge was delayed for a year.”
Not sure if this would be a story with enough interest for HopNews to dig in more deeply.
But… yay! No more route 9 and no more Westborough rotary.
No more traffic thru Wedgewood – Yay!
Sure can, for a MA prevailing wage bid job & $50k in tax payer dollars.. oh and 3 years????
Shouldn’t it be on the contractor’s nickel since they didn’t deliver as speced (year should represent year of completion)?
Wedgewood Dr has been a lot quieter during commuting hours – a LOT quieter.