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Crumbling West Roxbury bridge to be replaced in 2024; new span could include bike lanes
By adamg on Tue, 12/27/2022 - 3:37pm
Westie bridge is crumbling down, crumbling down, crumbling down, my fair lady.
MassDOT plans to replace the bridge that carries West Roxbury Parkway between the Holy Name rotary and Belgrade Avenue over the Needham Line train track sometime in 2024, following a July inspection that found it in "poor" condition.
The state plans to use "accelerated bridge construction methods," in which a prefabricated bridge is hauled into place and then basically bolted in after the substructure is rebuilt and the old span, officially the Arthur J. Lewis Bridge, is removed, in the summer of 2024.
The $6.4 million project will include a five-foot-wide bike lane with a "buffer" strip painted on the asphalt to keep motorists away from the bicyclists. Belgrade Avenue has unbuffered bike lanes, while the rotary, West Roxbury Parkway just south of the bridge and Centre Street have no bike lanes at all.
The current bridge, which has been narrowed by traffic barriers for several years:
The state's schedule means the new bridge could be open to traffic well before the replacement for the closed River Street Bridge in Hyde Park. However, that project is complicated by both the frequency of trains that speed under it and the need to relocate several utility conduits and the electrical wires that power Amtrak trains.
MassDOT has scheduled an online meeting on Jan. 11 to discuss its preliminary plans for the West Roxbury span.
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Comments
Make West Roxbury
great again.
Hopefully no bike lanes
It’s at the tail end of a state road which enters into a very busy rotary. Bike lanes on this bridge are a terrible idea.
?
It also lies on a parkway which connects Brookline to the Turtle Pond area, and after that the Neponset Valley and the Blue Hills.
You can ride fairly free of dopes in Dodge Rams from BC to Blue Hill with the exception of Eneking Parkway and parts of Readville
Its, um, kind of perfect for bikes.
It’s near your mother’s house, anon
so I bet it’s perfect for flatbed pickup trucks with mattresses in the back.
I'm hoping they're smart with this
You need two lanes to get traffic away from the rotary, but you really only need one lane to get cars into the rotary. Take the lane away and create the bike lanes that way.
Of course, my worry is that people are going to view this as 4 lanes versus 2 lanes, with the associated histrionics.
"buffer" strip painted on the
paint does not keep motorists away from bicyclists. people will absolutely be driving their cars in this space since there won't be a physical barrier or any enforcement.
Centre St Bike Lanes
Centre Street is mentioned as not having any bike lanes here, however there are painted, unbuffered lanes on Centre St east of the rotary. There are currently no bike lanes heading west of the rotary into West Roxbury.