Shortly before 4:45 p.m., a car on the southbound side of I-93 in the tunnel erupted in flames. And that's why the ventilation shaft at Essex Street and Surface Road began belching black smoke.
I-93
MassDOT reports it's restricting lanes on the I-93 connector ramp in Somerville after "a large vinyl portion" of a billboard there came loose - but can't be removed safely because it's just too windy for workers from Outfront Media to safely climb up to remove all the vinyl. Read more.
So far this afternoon, MassDOT reports there was a multi-car crash at the entrance to the O'Neill Tunnel northbound that shut the left lane and an "overheight" tractor trailer that jammed up the entrance to the Callahan Tunnel. Both scenes now clear.
BlueEyesRedHair got a look at the 18-wheeler flipped on its side on the Expressway southbound at Savin Hill early this afternoon. Read more.
A Transit Police officer who happened on a car just sitting on a Sullivan Square onramp up to I-93 north early Monday wound up arresting the driver, who was asleep behind the wheel with the lights off but the motor running, a gun loaded with eight rounds in the car with him, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports. Read more.
Jessica Dello Russo watched today as state troopers opened up the special Backup of Shame ramp from the Callahan Tunnel entrance to the Greenway today and then guided another big-rig driver slowly backwards up to the street after he realized his truck wasn't going to fit without a haircut.
Taylor Donovan shows us the Expressway southbound in Dorchester around 3:30 p.m., just after the vice president's motorcade went through:
The Zoning Board of Appeal today agreed to reconsider its decision in May to reject a plan by the Polish-American Club on Boston Street to erect a new billboard on a pole next to I-93, not because the club has since sued the board but because its zoning lawyer has since filed detailed renderings of what the billboard would look like, information the board didn't have in May. Read more.
Update: Victim identified as Mark McAuliffe, 49, whose last known permanent address was in Malden.
State Police report a man trying to walk across I-93 near South Bay made it across the outbound side and the median OK, but as soon as he jumped a barrier onto the inbound side was hit by a Highlander and thrown back onto the outbound side, suffering fatal injuries, around 9:40 p.m. on Saturday. Read more.
State Police report that a man who got out of his car after he crashed into a guard rail was hit and killed by a another car whose driver stopped and which was itself rammed into by another car - driven by somebody who was then charged with OUI - sending the driver and a passenger to the hospital with serious injuries. Read more.
The signboards along the Expressway say drivers should expect delays between 1 and 3 p.m. today as the president arrives in town for his "cancer moonshot" speech at the JFK Library.
Only thing is the speech is at 4 p.m. And then the officials White House schedule says he'll be staying in town for a Democratic National Committee reception at 6 p.m. We'll go out on a limb and assume that's not at the neighboring Bayside DoubleTree, so that probably means a motorcade somewhere downtown or in the Back Bay. And then he departs Boston at 7:10 p.m., which means still more traffic issues as he gets taken to Logan.
Joshua Fabian spotted this dude pedaling as hard as he could last night in the O'Neill Tunnel under the streets of Boston. No word if he kept going up onto the Zakim.
Live Boston reports Boston firefighters extracted the driver of a car they found flipped over and atop a guardrail on the Expressway southbound in the area of Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester around 2 a.m. on Friday.
A Suffolk County grand jury yesterday indicted now former State Trooper Kristopher Carr, 26, on a charge of motor-vehicle homicide while drunk for causing a crash on the Southeast Expressway last fall that killed a motorcyclist, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports. Read more.
On Aug. 21, 1969, three locomotives being readied to haul freight to Albany, NY escaped what is now the Cabot Yard in South Boston and barreled right into the Southeast Expressway, carving deep grooves in the roadway before they came to a halt and blocking northbound traffic.
Michael William Sullivan reports that the lead locomotive in the runaway express remains on the rails and doing hard work, now down in New Jersey. Read more.
The Polish-American Club on Boston Street and a Norwell billboard company yesterday sued the Zoning Board of Appeal over its rejection of a plan to build an electronic billboard aimed at motorists on the neighboring Southeast Expressway. Read more.
Michael Spicher spotted some geese littles taking advantage of a puddle near the Expressway and the narrow end of Fort Point Channel that splits the South End from South Boston today. Amy Deveau, who lives nearby, though, is not liking the scene:
this stresses me out. I helped escort a family of geese under 93 and stopped traffic in both directions and when we all made it to the other side I burst into tears. I hope these lil guys make it back to the channel.
Enoch Pratt reports this baby bunny was running up the Leverett Connector today when a woman stopped, jumped out and managed to scoop up the bun and get it off the highway.
Heading north on the Expressway, Kevin Tinsley captured the flaming remains of a pickup rammed into by the driver of a Jeep near the Neponset Circle exit early this afternoon, creating a jam up that left 93 south at a standstill as police closed the road to allow firefighters to douse the flames. Read more.