Plans probably don't include restoring Charlesgate to its early 20th-century state.

State officials hold a meeting tonight to discuss options for the turnpike through the Back Bay and the Bowker Overpass - the decaying hulk that now speeds cars across the fetid remains of the Muddy River between Fenway and Storrow Drive.

At the session, which begins at 6 p.m. in the mezzanine conference room at the BPL in Copley Square, state transportation officials will discuss various options for improving the Back Bay for people encased in metal shells, including extending the overpass to the turnpike for people heading to the airport or just tearing it down altogether and replacing it with a simple surface road. Another possibility is a new offramp to Brookline Avenue.

State officials recently announced plans to tear down the equally decrepit Casey Overpass in Jamaica Plain and replace it with surface roads and parkland.

• Massachusetts Turnpike Boston Ramps Study

BostonZest discusses efforts by state and city arborists and local volunteers to protect elm trees on the Commonwealth Avenue mall and along the Esplanade and Charlesgate from the dreaded Dutch Elm Disease:

... When we have a few days of hot weather, the elm bark beetle will come out of hiding and begin spreading the disease. That's when volunteers look to the treetops for signs of distress. "We call it flagging, which is the yellowing of the leaves on a certain section," said Greg Mosman, Boston's city arborist. ...

Many years ago, I had just dropped my girlfriend off at church for Easter services and was heading back to Brighton when some jerk from New Hampshire plowed through a red light at Charlesgate and ran right into the front of my beloved Chevy Nova. Mats Tolander provides the latest proof that that whole interchange is just evil - photos of a two-car smashup this morning around 6:40.