Replacement for closed Cleary Square bridge will take until at least spring, 2025 to open, state says

MassDOT told Hyde Park residents last night they're going to have to keep detouring around the bridge over the train tracks through Cleary Square until at least spring, 2025, which is the earliest officials say they can have a new River Street bridge built.

The state shut the bridge to vehicle crossings in May after an inspection should it was in really bad shape. Officials at first had hoped it could be repaired by the fall, but now say the only answer is to just replace the whole thing.

At a meeting last night, MassDOT says replacement work could begin in the fall of 2023, but would then take another 18 months or so to complete. But on the bright side, the state says, the work means the span will remain open to pedestrians and bicyclists.

Unlike other projects around the state, in which the state pre-builds bridges elsewhere, then drops them in place, River Street is complicated because the bridge supports not just catenary power lines for Amtrak trains, but utility lines and pipes as well. The bridge was installed in 1883, with major repairs done in 1914, 1940 and 1990.

MassDOT plans a meeting in January to show its preliminary bridge design for what it currently estimates is a $12.5-million project.

MassDOT presentation.