WESTBORO, MASS. (WHDH) - Part of the Mass Pike in Westboro was shut down Friday morning due to damage to the road, causing serious backups.
I-90 westbound at the I-495 interchange was closed for emergency repair operations after a trench settlement formed on the road due to nearby construction, MassDOT said. Traffic was detoured onto Route 9 at Exit 111 in Framingham. All travel lanes on I-90 westbound at I-495 interchange have reopened.
At around 7 a.m., a worker noticed some unusual pavement cracking at the construction site, according to Jonathan Gulliver, MassDOT highway administrator.
“An inspection was subsequently done and determined that there was some settlement going on. In particular, there was the risk of a major sinkhole opening up. It’s something that we obviously didn’t want to put traffic onto, so our team acted quickly, closed the roadway, and started emergency repairs,” Gulliver said.
To compact and stabilize the embankment next to the road, crews brought in dump trucks full of “structural fill,” Gulliver said. Crews were also beginning to fill in some of the voids that formed on the roadway surface, he said.
“We hope to have most of this completed by early evening, but expect that the full amount of the turnpike won’t be opened up until somewhere around 8 p.m.,” Gulliver said.
Gulliver ordered a pause on this portion a $400 million interchange project along the Mass Pike.
“We’re going to stop work on this until we know exactly how to approach it in a way that won’t have a reoccurrence of that,” he said.
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WATCH: MassDOT officials host news conference on I-90 road damage
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SKY7-HD was over the packed highway Friday, where cars, SUVs, trucks, and tractor-trailers inched their way toward their destinations.
“It’s totally jammed up. It’s all blocked off. All the traffic is going into one lane. It’s an absolute nightmare,” said Isaac Lacount, who was stuck in the traffic chaos Friday.
“I’m trying to help someone over there with a bathroom remodel and we’re late, so it’s not great,” he continued. “About an hour.”
Radio host Ramiro Torres watched as the highway narrowed from three lanes down to one.
“I got things to do today. I can’t be sitting here waiting,” he said. “I just got off the air, but I have to ring announce for an MMA event tonight. You know? I got to go home, take a nap, get dressed, and then get back on the Pike and get struck in traffic again.”
Workers at New York Bagel Factory in Southboro said many drivers who stopped at the shop were not happy.
“They were very frustrated, they were all asking to use the bathroom, or to grab a cup of coffee or a bagel to go, because they’d been waiting there for two hours, on the road, so it’s awful,” said employee Victoria Zimmer.
John Vitagliano, former Boston Transportation Commissioner and former Mass. Pike official, said he believed the road damage could have been prevented.
“It sounds to me, from what I’ve heard so far, that there was a major failure by MassDOT to properly analyze this site before construction started, and that’s an oversight that needs to be corrected,” he said.
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WATCH: Former Boston Transportation Commissioner John Vitagliano speaks on road damage
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MassDot says the sitting and waiting was a necessary setback for needed repairs.
“It’s not like a bridge that you’re gonna fall through its, if a pothole would’ve formed, and in this case, a pretty sizeable sinkhole is what we were worried about,” said Gulliver.
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