After a lengthy period of public discussion where few passions were left unnoted, the Casey Arborway Project has moved into the first stages of its operational phase with the awarding of the construction contract to Barletta Heavy Division Corp.

Bids were opened on Oct. 21 and the MassDOT Board of Directors voted the next day to award the contract to Barletta, with a signing expected to take place this week and construction to begin later this year or early next year.

Consistent with a contractual requirement to set up an in-depth public information process for the project, Barletta, in conjunction with the MassDOT public and government affairs team, will schedule an initial public meeting before construction gets under way.

The 60-year-old Monsignor William J. Casey Overpass is the elevated section of Route 203 that carries the Arborway over Washington and South streets in Jamaica Plain. It is located directly north of the Forest Hills Transportation Complex and serves in both directions as a gateway to such Boston institutions as Franklin Park, Forest Hills Cemetery, Shattuck Hospital, the Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Pond, the Riverway, and the Longwood hospital complex.

According to MassDOT, the overpass was determined to be structurally deficient in 2010. Officials cited numerous superstructure and substructure problems resulting from a combination of deterioration and original design flaws and concluded that the structure was beyond the point of effective repair.
The viaduct, which was built at a time when the city and the state were laying waste to the coherence of local neighborhoods in the interest of traffic efficiency and commuter satisfaction, will be replaced with a new at-grade boulevard to be known as the Casey Arborway.

The replacement will be paid for through a combination of funds drawing on the Accelerated Bridge Program (ABP) and the commonwealth’s transportation bond bill known as “The Way Forward.”

As work moves along, MassDOT will post related information on the website massdot.state.ma.us/caseyarborway/Home.aspx.

– TOM MULVOY