BOSTON (WHDH) - As the nearly two-month shutdown of the Sumner Tunnel nears, first responders are mapping out what they’ll need to do to get to emergencies on time.
The shutdown will begin on July 5. With preparations underway, people living in East Boston and beyond recently shared their thoughts on the disruption and its impacts.
“It’s going to be a disaster,” said Julie Orozco. “I don’t know what they’re going to do.”
“Everybody is going to be scrambling,” said Joseph Farinella.
State Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver spoke to 7NEWS Traffic Anchor Polikseni Manxhari last week, promising safety remains a top priority throughout the Sumner shutdown.
“We have worked really closely with first responders now for months coming up with contingency plans adding to our tunnel emergency response plan,” he said.
Among preparations, Gulliver said the state is continuing to work closely with Boston EMS.
“The critical thing for them is, if there is somebody who is suffering a medical emergency, they want to get to that person as quickly as possible, so we are working with them to add extra ambulances in East Boston so that paramedics can get to those incidents quickly and get them to the hospital,” Gulliver said.
In a statement, Boston EMS also doubled down on its commitment to be there in the event of an emergency.
“In addition to the two ambulances assigned to East Boston, Boston EMS will deploy two more ambulances during the closure to provide enhanced coverage and to diminish the anticipated impacts of increased travel time to and from East Boston,” the organization said.
Together, officials are hopeful the addition of extra ambulances will help ease concerns.
“We want the public to feel assured that they will be safe during this project,” Gulliver said.
The Sumner Tunnel shutdown is scheduled to last through the end of August as crews work to rehab the historic tunnel’s the ceiling, pavement and lighting.
In addition to ongoing weekend closures this winter, the tunnel is scheduled to close again for two months next summer to make way for more work.
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