State transportation officials will convene a public meeting on Tuesday evening, Dec. 16, at Boston College High School to discuss the future of the John J. Beades Bridge on Morrissey Boulevard. The drawbridge, which carries six vehicular lanes and two narrow sidewalks over the boulevard, was originally built in 1928. It was last updated in 2001 with a $9.1 million repair project meant to keep it operational, but the work fell far short of the full replacement needed for the long-term.
In 2023, state officials estimated that a full replacement of the bridge might cost as much as $122 million. A Canadian Engineering firm, WSP, was awarded a state contract to design a replacement span, according to a letter sent from MassDOT officials to the city of Boston’s chief of streets in January 2023.
According to a summary currently posted on the MassDOT project page, the estimate for the replacement project now exceeds $155 million and it remains in “preliminary design phase” with construction now scheduled to begin in “spring 2029.”
A flier created for the Dec. 16 event by state officials notes: “While the existing bridge remains safe for all users, the structure has reached the end of its useful life span and should be replaced to ensure it can continue to provide a safe, multimodal crossing of Boston Harbor.”
In 2023, the Beades Bridge was included on a list of projects considered eligible for federal highway funding, but there was no firm commitment to secure those funds. In the interim, with the change of administrations in Washington, the likelihood of securing federal dollars for infrastructure projects like this one has dimmed.
Plans for the bridge’s eventual replacement have been in the works as a state-led commission spent the last two years evaluating the larger Morrissey Boulevard corridor with an eye toward a larger project to elevate the road system and create new barriers to protect it from coastal flooding, a now-regular problem along the coastal route.
The commission’s final report, filed with lawmakers last month, includes mention of the bridge project, but did not focus on it, as the bridge planning was already underway. Officials have said they planned to “coordinate” the engineering plans for the various elements of the Morrissey improvements, if and when they happen.
The meeting will hopefully bring new information to the surface about what the next iteration of the Beades Bridge will look like and how it might function. The drawbridge allows for maritime navigation between Dorchester Bay and Savin Hill Cove, which is the location of a private yacht club. In past statements, state lawmakers have indicated that they favor keeping a drawbridge to allow for crafts to navigate into and out of the cove.
The meeting at BC High will be held in the school’s Cadigan Lecture Hall starting at 6 p.m., according to a notice published at Mass.gov.
