*Sponsored Post*
The City of Boston has announced a community meeting regarding the Northern Avenue Bridge Project, to be held on June 3rd, 6:30pm at District Hall, 75 Northern Ave, in the Seaport. The City invites you to provide input at this meeting to help identify a preferred bridge type that meets the City’s and community’s needs for Boston’s next century.
Built in 1908, today’s Northern Avenue Bridge was in service for over a century before it was closed to all modes of travel in 2014. The City of Boston has been looking at families of design concepts for bridge types and will present them at this meeting. Improving mobility, honoring history, strengthening resiliency and placemaking of a new destination along Boston’s harbor are four themes that the City will attempt to incorporate, to the extent feasible.
A short presentation will begin at 6:30pm followed by an Open House at 7:00 p.m. where attendees can view proposed design concepts and speak with the project team. View the meeting flyer above and see the project site for more information.
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It’s important to note that the Northern Ave Bridge was closed to cars in 1997 but remained open to pedestrians and cyclists until 2014. It would be great to keep the Northern Ave Bridge as a car-free amenity for city residents, local employees, and tourists from around the world. Keeping the bridge car-free will also help to connect our ever-improving Harborwalk.
In addition, enabling more vehicular traffic into the Seaport makes no sense given that there is a cap on the number of parking spaces that can be built in South Boston–only 1,745 more spaces can be built in all of South Boston, which includes the Seaport. If there’s a limit on the number of spaces in which cars can be stored, why encourage additional incoming car trips?
For those who drive, adding another stoplight 120 feet from the light at Seaport Blvd and Atlantic Ave may make the immediate area much more confusing than it already is and may cause more congestion there as well.