NEWTON, MASS. (WHDH) - MassDOT announced lane closures to the Massachusetts Pike this weekend as crews prepare to demolish the I-90 bridge.
Traffic will be reduced to one lane in both directions between exits 123 and 125 in Newton and Weston. Officials are asking the public to avoid travel in the area over the weekend.
“This is going to be a very intense period, so again, this is — although short — a very intense period of construction and it will cause some traffic impacts,” said Jonathan Gulliver, MassDOT highway administrator.
“Two-thirds reduction on the turnpike with the kind of volumes that we get on this road, which is about 100,000 vehicles a day even on the weekends, are going to cause some major impact,” he continued.
The road closures are slated to begin at 9 p.m. on Friday. The lanes are expected to reopen at 5 a.m. on Monday. If all goes as planned, the project will be finished by Monday morning.
Drivers are urged to find alternative routes. Roughly 100,000 vehicles travel the stretch of the interstate each day. Officials hope to reduce that number by half.
“We expect that to be manageable but with delays. If you don’t get 50% you could see those delays expand quite a bit. Our modeling has indicated that with 100% of normal traffic you could see delays as much as 2-3 hours coming through this area. We don’t want that,” said Gulliver.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) commuter line from Worcester will end at Framingham over the weekend.
Shuttle routes will be used from Framingham to Riverside and from West Newton to Kenmore. Amtrak will also be forced to use shuttles.
“We strongly advise riders to plan for extra travel time, especially on weekends. We also expect increased volume at nearby Green Line D-Branch stations,” said Mike Muller of the MBTA.
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