A long time coming: Planners are actively seeking solutions to the redevelopment of the McGrath Highway corridor question.

Study to de-elevate highway in motion

By Andrew Firestone

Representatives from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation have begun in earnest their search for a solution to the McGrath Highway question. Noting poor quality of lighting, disrepair of infrastructure, and an ultimately untenable situation for pedestrians and bikers, the beginning of the end of the elevated highway seems to be nigh.

The route 28 bridge was recently the sight of a major tragedy, when a teenaged driver crashed into the concrete barrier of the bridge. Underneath, pedestrians and bikers have long claimed that the dangerous network of intersections makes being anywhere near it an risky proposition. While MassDOT will spend $14 million dollars in repairing the bridge, which is classified as being in “poor” condition, they will also spend the next decade making sure that the problem of de-elevating the highway will be mitigated in terms of its impact on the heavy traffic which travels the area every day.

Aldermen and members of the Somerville Chamber of Commerce have said that the de-elevation of the highway would serve as a useful tool in opening up the Brickbottom and Inner Belt neighborhoods of Somerville.