The city of Boston is at least one step closer to overcoming permitting challenges to rebuild the Long Island Bridge according to a recent interview with mayor Michelle Wu.
“We’re rounding the bend, I think, on the last set of permits for the ability to create that bridge and reactivate transportation to the island,” Wu said Sunday, May 21, on WCVB-TV’s “On The Record.”
The bridge has been closed and dismantled since 2014 due to structural concerns. Since 2018, Boston has been attempting to rebuild from Quincy’s Moon Island to Boston’s Long Island in the harbor. However, lawsuits and permitting battles between the two cities have persisted.
The bridge’s closure has caused a domino effect of issues in surrounding areas. A treatment space on Long Island’s Southampton Street closed shortly after the bridge and reopened as a city-run shelter that has become plagued with drug selling and use.
Some politicians and advocates see the rehab of the shelter space as a solution for the drug-related problems.
Although Wu’s position since taking office has primarily been to secure permits to rebuild the bridge, the mayor recognizes the positive short-term effects of revamping the shelter.
“This would be the ideal location for a regional recovery campus if we can get this to happen,” Wu said in the WCVB-TV interview.
In talking about meeting with state leaders Governor Maura Healey and Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll about the rehab of the facility and surrounding area, Wu said, “I’ve sat down with them personally”.
A study conducted under former mayor Martin J. Walsh estimated the revamped shelter at $200 to $540 million, not including the cost of the bridge which could be more than $80 million.
Wu also mentioned the potential benefit of ferries in the area, which the previous two administrations had not entertained.
Acknowledging that the addition of ferries would require dock construction and partnership with Quincy, Wu said, “there should continue to be conversations about whether a ferry could help."
Be it a bridge or a ferry system, the investment will be a major infrastructure project that would take multiple years, according to Wu.
A spokesperson for Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch told the Boston Globe on Sunday, May 21, that the city “respectfully” doesn’t believe permitting for construction of a new bridge is as close as Wu characterized it, but the administration is “happy to have a conversation about ferry service.”
So far, the Wu administration has had several successes in court battles brought over the bridge and had anticipated filing permits by the end of 2022.
Wu declined to comment Sunday on what the timeline is now.
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Source: The Boston Globe
