Public Meeting Notice  Boston: River Street over Amtrak and MBTA (Hyde Park)

A live, virtual public information meeting will be hosted by MassDOT to discuss the status of the currently closed River Street Bridge, in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston, over the Amtrak and MBTA Northeast Corridor railroad line.

Purpose:

The purpose of this meeting is to provide the public with the opportunity to become fully acquainted with the conditions of the existing River Street Bridge and MassDOT efforts to provide full vehicular, pedestrian, and bicycle connection on River Street.

Proposal:

The River Street Bridge has been closed to all traffic, except pedestrians, since May of 2022. Over the course of the summer, MassDOT has been analyzing the condition of the existing structure and working with a consultant team to advance a design for the bridge replacement. MassDOT has determined that repairing the existing structure is infeasible given the magnitude of work needed and the limited time to perform it during railroad closures and that a considerable time saving in constructing the new bridge can be achieved by maintaining the current structure as pedestrian-only with vehicular traffic detoured. The removal of utilities and relocating the Amtrak electric wires from the current structure; two activities which were originally part of the new bridge project, have been advanced as early action steps. It is anticipated that a proposed design for the new bridge will be shared with the public in the first quarter of 2023.

Project inquiries regarding the proposed undertaking may be submitted to Carrie E. Lavallee, P.E., Chief Engineer, via e-mail to DOTHighwayDesign@dot.state.ma.us or via US Mail to Suite 7360, 10 Park Plaza, Boston, MA 02116, Attention: Highway Design, Project File No. 606901.

This meeting is accessible to people with disabilities. MassDOT provides reasonable accommodations and/or language assistance free of charge upon request (e.g. interpreters in American Sign Language and languages other than English, live captioning, videos, assistive listening devices and alternate material formats), as available. For accommodation or language assistance, please contact MassDOT’s Chief Diversity and Civil Rights Officer by phone (857-368-8580), TTD/TTY at (857) 266-0603, fax (857) 368-0602 or by email (MASSDOT.CivilRights@dot.state.ma.us). Requests should be made as soon as possible and prior to the hearing, and for more difficult to arrange services including sign-language, CART or language translation or interpretation, requests should be made at least ten business days before the meeting.

This live virtual design public hearing or a cancellation announcement will be posted on this website.