When state engineers first contemplated the project, they planned merely to rehabilitate the rusting, crumbling bridge with the same configuration it had known for ages: two tight lanes of traffic in each direction, no shoulder or dedicated space for bicyclists, and a harrowing series of lane hops and tiny islands for pedestrians on the Cambridge and Boston approaches.
But officials reconsidered and ultimately redesigned the bridge to hold three lanes of traffic - one in each direction on the approach switching to two on the exits, intended to accommodate through and turning traffic while giving more space to cyclists and walkers. They also improved the approaches with an eye to pedestrian safety.
“It has been so long in coming,’’ said Elizabeth Reed of Jamaica Plain, an MIT dean who has been biking to and from her Cambridge office for more than 30 years. She stopped to sign a postcard for MassDOT, one of about 125 LivableStreets collected, happy to thank them for improving what had long been the most harrowing part of her commute. “It’s taken a long time, but I think it will be really worth it.’’
The work on the BU Bridge was the first to begin in a coordinated eight-year, $400 million-plus state effort to rehabilitate or replace six major Charles River bridges linking Boston and Cambridge. Two of those six are done now. (The Craigie Bridge-Craigie Drawbridge began after BU but was completed first.)
MassDOT spokeswoman Cyndi Roy said some minor work remains on the BU Bridge, with “punch list’’ items to be finished this week and landscaping to follow in the spring. The state will monitor traffic for four months to determine if any changes are necessary, she said.
In other bridge news, the state will hold a ribbon cutting Tuesday to celebrate the completed Winter Street Bridge over Route 128 in Waltham, a $23 million project to rebuild that bridge and expand the Exit 27 interchange. That project, separate from the Accelerated Bridge Program, began in 2005 but stalled after the first contractor collapsed in the economic downturn.
