Fore River Bridge Public Meeting Set

MassDOT has scheduled a Public Information Meeting for the Fore River Bridge Replacement Project as follows:

Tuesday, January 15, 6:30 – 8:30 PM, McCullough Building, Whipple Senior Center – Gymnasium, 182 Green Street, Weymouth

The meeting will provide an overview of the construction plans and traffic impacts for the replacement of the Fore River Bridge, which carries Route 3A over the Fore River between Quincy and Weymouth.  MassDOT’s design/build team for the the project will will lead a discussion and answer questions.

Governor Deval Patrick in November broke ground on the start of construction to replace the Fore River Bridge connecting Quincy and Weymouth.

The $244 million replacement project is one of five “megaprojects” funded through the Patrick-Murray Administration’s Accelerated Bridge Program. Since the program’s start in 2008, the number of structurally deficient bridges has declined approximately 20 percent.

The Fore River Bridge project replaces a temporary bridge constructed in 2002 with a new vertical-lift bridge. The Fore River channel will be widened to accommodate the vessels that serve the active petroleum terminal, and its vertical clearance in the down position will be higher to reduce the number of openings for sailboats.  Design improvements will improve the aesthetics of the bridge.

The joint venture selected for the project is JF White and Skanska-Koch.  Completion is scheduled for fall 2016.

To be added to the project email list, please contact Donny Dailey, 857-368-8902 or donny.dailey@state.ma.us. For more information, we invite you to visit www.mass.gov/massdot/foreriverbridge.

Comments

[boblothrope]

Are ships allowed to proceed before the bridge is fully open if the captain determines there's clearance? If so, why does the bridge have to keep opening after the ship is already through?

What regulation governs this?
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Thanks, these are common questions related to this project. Answer: When a call is placed into the bridge tender requesting an opening, the tender is responsible to complete the full opening of the bridge. Captains say they do not transit the bridge site before the opening is completed due to the liability of any damage to their own ship and the bridge equipment.

[boblothrope]

How long will it take for the bridge to open and close? And will the bridge be able to open just a little for smaller ships that don't need the full clearance?

The documents on the project website say different things. One says 5 minutes (2.5 minutes to open, and 2.5 to close), while another says 13 minutes.

I hope it won't be as slow as the new Chelsea Street Bridge.
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Thanks for the questions. The tender is required to perform a full opening regardless of height of vessel for liability purposes.

The opening and closing cycle of the BTC designed bridge is 13 minutes inclusive of vehicle barrier gates and opening and closure of bridge proper. ALL times are dependent of how quickly the vessel passes the bridge site.