At Monday night’s Jeffries Point Neighborhood Association (JPNA) meeting, MassDOT’s Steve McLaughlin said the MBTA has not made a decision whether or not to make the Blue Line free for East Boston residents during the planned four-month closure of the tunnel in 2023.
Since MassDOT began the community process for the project to completely overhaul the decaying Sumner Tunnel, residents have been lobbying for the T to be free throughout the duration of the tunnel’s closure. Residents have argued that the inconvenience posed by such a closure, planned between May 2023 to September 2023, will have a significant impact on commuters and lead to more traffic and gridlock during the commute.
In order to attract more people to ride public transportation during the tunnel’s closure and cut down the number of cars driving through neighborhood streets, residents have asked McLaughlin to advocate for the community and pressure the MBTA to make the Blue Line free.
“No, they don’t have a decision (on making the T free) but it’s something that we are looking at,” said McLaughlin.
McLaughlin said MassDOT is anticipating significant traffic impacts that come with shutting down a tunnel that was handling 39,000 vehicles per day pre-COVID.
“We are working with the MBTA and due to COVID they’re doing their own planning on how to forecast for this (tunnel closure),” said McLaughlin. “We are working with them directly and they know this is coming.”
McLaughlin said the MBTA has agreed to hold off any routine or scheduled maintenance for any of the systems that would be impacted as a result of the Sumner Closure.
“When we shut down for a weekend it will be 11 o’clock at night on a Friday night to five o’clock Monday morning and that shouldn’t impact any of the MBTA bus or train operations during the week,” he said. “However, when we shut down for 16 weeks rush hour will be affected and those will be the weeks where we will be working with the MBTA to see what we can do to reach out and provide a better service for people and encourage them to take the T.”
McLaughlin said through some traffic modeling conducted by MassDOT the department projects that 45% of motorists will use the Ted William Tunnel during the closure; 34% will use the Tobin Bridge; and 19 percent will go the Bell Circle route to Route 16 and down towards Rutherford Avenue in Charlestown. However, at past meetings McLaughlin said about 2% of the 39,000 vehicles during the morning commute will ‘get lost in the mix” and go elsewhere. This could translate into around 800 vehicles per day ending up on Eastie streets and adding to the congestion residents have come to expect each morning before the pandemic.
“This is the morning peak,” he said. “When the tunnel is closed for the weekends or for that longer stretch we’re going to have real time traffic management with traffic signals along the detour routes. We will be able to control remotely to adjust the red and green time to make sure that they’re most efficient. We’ll be able to monitor this all over the neighborhood and try to get traffic moving as efficiently as we can. We’ll also have video monitoring and signs out on the 128/95 Beltway to let people know about the closure.”
The proposed Sumner Tunnel Centennial Project consists of resurfacing the tunnel roadway including pavement and lane markings; rehabilitating the overhead arch and ceiling, including deteriorating suspended ceiling supports; restoring the historic portal facades and addressing the functional system deficiencies of the Sumner Tunnel. Once the project has been completed, the Sumner Tunnel will meet modern fire and life safety codes with fireproofing, fire standpipe, fire alarm and CCTV upgrades. The tunnel will feature new LED lighting and security systems; new utility conduits and cables under the roadway deck which will improve cell phone, GPS, and radio service inside the tunnel.