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By Katrina Margolis
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Greater Bostonians are no strangers to highway construction. Despite living a few miles outside of the city, projects such as the Big Dig did not exactly escape Needhamites’ attention or distress. While not as big as that monster of a project, this past weekend, the construction came a little bit closer to home.
The Highland Avenue bridge was demolished over the weekend.
From November 4 at approximately 8:00 p.m. to November 6 at 3:00 p.m., Highland Avenue over I-95 was detoured to allow the demolition of the existing Highland Avenue Bridge. I-95 beneath the existing Highland Avenue Bridge was closed in order to ensure public safety during the demolition period. According to the MassDOT website, demolition began on the east side of the bridge Friday night to Saturday afternoon, followed by the west side of the bridge from Saturday evening to Sunday afternoon.
The weekend was chosen by MassDOT, who was in extensive communication with the local public works. “Our public works and public safety staff have been attending regular meetings with the MassDOT project team and we will be providing detail officers to assist with the detours,” Chair of the Needham Board of Selectman, Matt Borrelli, said. “We have been communicating the detours through social media, the website and on our electronic message board.”
Of course, the main concern for locals was traffic. While this was perhaps the largest impediment to traffic patterns, the work being done leading up to this weekend was not exactly smooth sailing for those commuting. However, Borrelli said, “We are confident that the combination of detour signage and police details will ensure that motorists can get in and out of Needham during the weekend hours.”
The main concern for the town was safety. Borrelli explained some of the safety measures which were put into place: “For fire, we are adding extra staff, and have coordinated responses to the other side of the Highway with the City of Newton. Public Safety personnel will be able to cross the bridge if necessary with the assistance of the police details, but it will be slowed down.”
In addition to this closure, there is a scheduled traffic shift at Route 9 the weekend of November 11 to 13. During this weekend, the on-ramp from Route 9 WB to I-95 NB will be closed, in addition to the breakdown lane on the Northbound side of I-95. The MassDOT site promises that the construction of the new on-ramp will be finished and re-opened before the Monday morning commute.
