Tobin Bridge work to cut lanes

Contractors set up lane restrictions just before the toll booth last week. The Tobin Bridge project will include numerous lane closures through October, but the overall project won’t finish until 2014.

A $44 million repair project on the Mystic Tobin Bridge is underway this month, and state highway officials said residents can expect lane blocks and other inconveniences all the way through October.

The last of a whole batch of barriers have been placed on both decks now and will be in place until the fall – though officials said the barriers would be shifted around as work progresses.

“The barriers are set up in lengths of approximately 500 feet and are located on both decks where work can be done simultaneously on the northbound and southbound areas,” said Michael Verseckes of the state Department of Transportation (DOT). “The intent of this is to have a concentrated effort on both decks at the same time. This is because the work will be of some inconvenience to neighbors, so we want to minimize that disturbance to the greatest extent we can. By staging construction in this manner, we will only have to be in the same area once; as opposed to doing one side of the entire bridge and coming back again to do the other side.”

The project involves repairing the bridge’s steel frame, cleaning it and painting it. The entire project won’t be finished until October 2014, and will cost $44 million.

The project began in April, but lane closures going into Boston and coming out to Chelsea have just begun to be in full effect.

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