If you live anywhere near Ball Square, or drive through it, get ready for a year of traffic nightmares starting Nov. 2018. As part of the Green Line Extension (GLX) project, the Ball Square Broadway Bridge will be completely closed for a year. No pedestrian or bike crossing either. The GLX Team is working with Somerville and Medford City officials on detour routes.
You can see the proposed detour routes here: https://www.somervillema.gov/sites/default/files/broadway-detours.pdf In my opinion, they are awful. The ped/bike detour is over a mile long & the motor vehicle detour goes through densely populated Somerville neighborhoods. If you are concerned or interested, you may want to attend the GLX General Public Meeting this Wed, July 18, 6:30 to 8:00 PM at Medford City Hall – Council Chambers, 85 George P. Hassett Drive. There is usually a public comment period at the end of the meeting so you can share your concerns with the GLX powers that be.
I am sorry to inform you that the impacts of this bridge closure will be extremely painful. I am doing everything I can to make a terrible situation the least bad possible. I am working with Somerville City officials and our state legislators advocating for adjustments to the detour routes & to set things up so the Ball Square neighborhood is not flooded with traffic. I am particularly concerned about Morrison & Lexington Aves.
If you live in the Ball Square neighborhood between Cedar St, Morrison Ave & Willow Ave, you should be concerned too. Please get in touch with me via email or phone if you are concerned or want to help advocate for steps that the GLX Team & the Somerville City government can take to minimize the negative impacts. If you want more information, the City has set up an excellent webpage, go to https://www.somervillema.gov/glx
It would be nice if the officials from Somerville and Medford got together to protect the Medford and Somerville residents that will be directly impacted by this bridge closure!
Whatever the GLX sets up to inform you or solicit your opinions, it’s a done deal. The Ball Square Bridge will close for a year thanks to Mayor Joe approving it before any of the city’s emergency departments had any say. Police, Fire and EMS will now take twice as long perhaps three times as long to get to the 30+ thousand that live west of Willow Ave.
A loved one experiencing a heart attack, your child choking or your house is on fire, it will seem like forever until you hear the sirens coming. The brain starts to die just over 4 minutes…A small one room fire will consume your house in under 5 minutes…ever do CPR on your child before?
Mayor Joe has sold the community out to benefit his future and career, to leave a legacy. Good for him, but who is going to suffer???
Over 28,000 cars use the Ball Square Bridge daily. Take a fourth of them, or even a fifth of them, in excess of 5000 cars and trucks being re-routed down Cedar St, Morrison Ave/Highland Ave to Willow Ave.
Take a look at the traffic now how it backs up through the Powerhouse rotary. Do you think there is enough room to get a fire truck down Willow ave with traffic backed up.
How about that guy breaking in? Will he run away when you confront him?? Will he?? Picture someone giving your child CPR and the ambulance is stuck in traffic. Your mom or dad suffers a heart attack and slips away, that same ambulance sits in traffic.
This is not a scare tactic, it’s the truth. Sadly, this bridge closure will present a severe life safety issue for many west of Willow Ave. If you use the 89 from Clarendon Hill you will now have to leave perhaps 45 minutes earlier because of the re-routed bus line. What time will you get home? All for one man’s legacy. Yes when it’s done it will benefit the city. But did you know there were alternatives to all of this…
Closing one commuter rail line under the Ball Square bridge to keep an emergency lane open for the MBTA and emergency services. But hey, why inconvenience the commuters who only pass through the city.
Speak out, voice your concerns now!!!