Repairs to Back Bay Overpass to Run $12 Million

New plans for repairs on the major bridge separating Back Bay from Kenmore Square won't be the last such project locals will see.

In fact, the quickly-deteriorating Bowker Overpass is deteriorating so quickly that state officials believe repairs are needed just to keep it safe for travel as bigger plans are formulated.

A few dozen locals turned out to the Boston Public Library Central Branch Tuesday evening for a public meeting on the topic of the repair project.

Officials said the project will cost upwards of $12 million and take place over a proposed 18-month period from early 2014 to July 2015. They plan to advertise for a contractor for the project this month.

According to Matt Hopkinson, project manager with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, all four lanes of the overpass on a section that crosses over Beacon Street, Commonwealth Avenue and part of the Muddy River will be re-done on the overpass that connects Storrow Drive to Back Bay and Kenmore Square.

"Our proposed repair program is not a complete rehabilitation," Hopkinson said. "It's just to keep the bridge in safe condition."

The state is continuing to evaluate a long-term solution for the bridge, which officials said has many sections that are completely rusted out and has required numerous emergency repairs.

Paul Nelson, a DOT official working with that study group, said a complete study is expected in March 2014, after the current project is expected to get underway.

"We've got to keep this bridge up until those studies that are ongoing are complete, and that's going to take some time," said Paul Moyer with project engineers Gill Engineering of Needham. "The bridge, quite frankly, is not going to stay up without some repairs to it."

Moyer explained the work hours for the project will be from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with any work after 6 p.m. adhering to city noise ordinances.

The deck of the overpass lanes as well as parapets in the median, structural steel repairs and a retrofit of many of the beams under the bridge are part of the project, Moyer said.

Officials are hoping for a minimal disruption to traffic as a result of the project, according to Scott Carpenter, also of Gill Engineering.

He said the project will maintain two lanes of inbound traffic and one traffic of outbound traffic throughout the project, which will be conducted in four phases all around four months long.

Carpenter said the plan is for no long-term detours, with one short-term detour involving the eastbound Storrow Drive off-ramp for about three weeks during repairs.

Resident concerns were voiced at the meeting most prominently by Hef Fisher, leader of the Friends of the Charlesgate. Fisher said residents are wary of noise problems in the area after an emergency Bowker repair five years ago lasted six months longer than originally proposed.

"It was constant chaos and a totally unlivable situation," Fisher said. "This is a much, much bigger project...These people are no longer going to put up with the kind of discomfort they faced five years ago."

Fisher expressed concerns about storage issues for construction debris in the wetland areas around where the project will take place. He also was skeptical the project could be completed in an 18-month time frame.

"There will be another big project," Hopkinson said in reference to what will happen to the bridge after these repairs.

"We’d like to have 10 years left of life in this thing when we’re done with these repairs," he said.

The impetus to reach "substantial completion" for the project by July 2015 is because of planned work to the Massachusetts Turnpike in the Back Bay area that is scheduled to begin one month later.