The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) will hold a public hearing on the Longfellow Bridge rehabilitation project at the State Transportation Building, 10 Park Plaza, Conference Rooms 1, 2 and 3, on Thursday, March 1, from 7 to 9 p.m., allowing citizens the opportunity to comment on the Environmental Assessment.
The bridge rehabilitation is a signature project of the Patrick-Murray Administration’s historic Accelerated Bridge Program to replace or rehabilitate structurally deficient bridges across the Commonwealth. The project will repair structural deficiencies and accommodate public transit, motor vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian transportation options, while restoring the historic elements of the bridge.
The Longfellow Bridge is one of the most architecturally significant bridges in Massachusetts, completed in 1908 and renamed to honor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1927. The bridge joins Cambridge Street in Boston with Main Street in Cambridge and carries the MBTA Red Line and other modes of transportation across the Charles River. The bridge presently carries 28,000 motor vehicles, 90,000 transit users, and significant numbers of pedestrians and bicyclists each day.
The Environmental Assessment document includes the preferred cross section of the bridge that will carry one lane of traffic outbound and two lanes inbound, with sidewalks and bike lanes on both sides and the MBTA Red Line in the center.
Written views received by MassDOT up to five days prior to the public hearing will be displayed for public inspection. Plans will be on display one half -hour before the meeting begins, with an engineer in attendance to answer questions. A project handout will be made available on the MassDOT project Web site.
Comments on the Environmental Assessment must be submitted by March 21. Written statements and other exhibits in place of, or in addition to, oral statements made at the Public Hearing regarding the proposed undertaking are to be submitted to Pamela S. Stephenson, Division Administrator, Federal Highway Administration, 55 Broadway, 10th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02142, Attention: Damaris Santiago with a copy to Thomas F. Broderick, P.E., Acting Chief Engineer, MassDOT Highway Division, 10 Park Plaza, Boston, MA 02116, Attention: Kevin Walsh, Project File No. 604361. Such submissions will also be accepted at the meeting. Project inquiries may be e-mailed to [email protected].