MassDOT is hosting a public meeting to provide updates and receive public comments on the planned structural cleaning and painting, and the steel and concrete repairs on the Tobin Bridge on Wednesday, June 28.
The meeting will take place at the Williams School at 180 Walnut St. at 6:30 p.m.
The meeting comes as city officials and community organizations continue to raise concerns about lead paint chip contamination from the bridge and its clean up.
Last week, GreenRoots Executive Director Roseann Bongiovanni sent an email to state Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver outlining concerns with the cleanup and outreach over the lead paint on the Tobin Bridge.
In the email, Bongiovanni stated that there were concerns about the speed in getting the underlayment set up to help contain lead paint chips from the bridge.
“We appreciate the work you and your team are putting forth to install a temporary underlayment to catch falling paint chips,” she wrote. “We understand this underlayment needs to be engineered, but … this underlayment has been installed in the past; and therefore, engineering should not take three months. These efforts need to be expedited as rapidly as possible.
“Chelsea families are at increased risk each and every day those paint chips are falling into backyards, on sidewalks and streets and other places where our residents interact.”
Bongiovanni also requested that GreenRoots be included on all weekly updates from MassDOT and the highway department on the bridge clean up and reconstruction.
“We remain deeply offended and concerned that GreenRoots was the organization that sounded the alarm on the concerns related to lead paint chips falling from the bridge, but we have been excluded from all direct communication from MA DOT on weekly updates, recent soil testing and findings, immediate and long term plans to resolve concerns and scheduling public meetings, deleading and structural repairs,” Bongiovanni state. “The only updates we have received were in response to our formal letters and as a result of our prodding for a response.”
She also stated that a number of other Chelsea community organizations need to be regularly updated as part of the process.
In addition, Bogiovanni also stated that there needed to be greater language access, and that all information and updates communicated in English need to be relayed in a multilingual format. She also stated that there needs to be increased soil testing and blood lead level testing for Chelsea residents and children, although she noted that the state’s Department of Public Health may need to be involved in the testing.
Bongiovanni stated that the current state administration has been more responsive that the previous administration when it comes to dealing with environmental issues in Chelsea, but that GreenRoots and other community organizations continue to be dismayed that it has been three months since they first alerted the MassDOT to the issues, and that Chelsea residents continue to be impacted daily with no immediate solution aside from piecemeal paint chip clean-up
“We, in conjunction with the Conservation Law Foundation, GreenRoots, and other partners, have submitted a follow-up letter and recently received a response,” said Chelsea Housing and Economic Development Director Alex Train on Wednesday. “However, we are still in dialogue with MassDOT relative to mitigation as well as some of the public health measures that we requested in that letter, including maintaining and providing ongoing care for our youth that may have elevated blood lead levels.”