Work on the Savin Hill Avenue bridge next to the MBTA station is expected to continue into the fall. After an inspection last fall revealed issues with the bridge, MBTA officials shut down access to the sidewalk areas in November by setting up temporary sidewalks and barriers along the parking lane, which was closed to vehicles.

Asked for an update this week, MBTA spokeswoman Lisa Battiston said the public transit agency “continues to make progress” after some repair work over two weekends last month. “The repair work performed last month will allow for a temporary sidewalk to be established on the south side and for reopening of the sidewalk proper on the north side,” she wrote in an email to the Reporter.

The establishment of a temporary pedestrian way on the south side of the bridge is going through a permitting process at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation that, she said, is expected to take two to three weeks.

“Once the necessary permits are in place, the MBTA project team will be able to set up that south side temporary sidewalk within a timeframe of one week, using overnight work windows that do not impact rail passenger service below,” Battiston added, referring to the Red Line trains and commuter rail cars that travel underneath the Savin Hill bridge.

The temporary walkway set up on the north side of the bridge is expected to be removed later this week, likely before Friday, allowing pedestrians to return to the sidewalk. The area will also be reopened to parking.

“The MBTA is working to schedule and finalize additional weekends in fall 2023 to perform one remaining group of structural steel repairs to be able to fully reopen the south sidewalk and then remove the yet-to-be-established temporary walkway area described above along the south side of the bridge deck,” Battiston wrote.

The Savin Hill bridge repairs come as the MBTA is under pressure to fix crumbling infrastructure across the system. Last week, the agency’s new board chair, Thomas Glynn, who previously held top jobs at MBTA and Massport, said that fixing the ailing system’s “slow zones” has to be considered in the context of overhauls to the MBTA’s organizational culture and overall decision-making process.

“Those things take some time,” Glynn said during a virtual forum last Thursday (June 1). People will see a “different T one year from now.”

Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch, the MBTA advisory board’s chair and a member of the MBTA’s oversight board, said it could be even longer. “We might be a year, a year and half, I think, from really turning the corner because we all know there’s some huge structural issues at that agency that’s been unattended to for a long time.

The new head of the MBTA, Phil Eng, said “everything is a priority” as he mentioned safety and customer service. But he noted there is a tension between moving quickly and “accomplishing a state of good repair and at the same time support expansion, operational improvements and build for the future.”

Back in Dorchester, state Rep. Dan Hunt said he is pushing for weekday shutdowns, or another way to ensure the Savin Hill bridge work gets done in the summer and finished before the fall.

“It’s certainly an inconvenience for the neighborhood,” Hunt said. “But it’s my hope if there’s additional work done on the tracks somewhere else, we’re able to take care of this at the same time. I think they’re close to the finish line.”

Elizabeth Doyle, who heads up the Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association, said residents remain concerned with safety issues created by the temporary sidewalks. “People are just walking in the street. They come out of the train, they can cross the street where there’s a walkway on the other side, but very few people do that,” she said. “At night, it’s narrow, it’s dangerous.”

Material from State House News Service was used in this report.