A SPOKESWOMAN FOR Boston Mayor Marty Walsh issued a statement saying the city is doing a cost-benefit analysis on rebuilding the Long Island Bridge, which is a shift from the mayor’s earlier stance that the city would definitely rebuild the span.
Walsh’s statement came in the wake of a CommonWealth story reporting that the mayor appeared to have quietly shelved plans to rebuild the bridge, which allowed land access to homeless shelters and treatment and recovery services that had been housed on the city-owned island off of Quincy. For that story, the mayor’s spokeswoman said she had no updates on the bridge.
“The City of Boston is currently doing a cost-benefit analysis on rebuilding the Long Island Bridge,” according to an emailed statement Friday from Nicole Caravella, Walsh’s press secretary. “No decision has been made yet.”
When the state abruptly condemned the nearly 65-year-old, two-lane bridge in 2014 and forced a sudden evacuation of the people and programs on the island, Walsh was adamant that the city would put up a new bridge and move the programs back onto the site. He pegged the cost at $80 million and said the city would put up $35 million with the remainder coming from state and federal grants.
In 2015, the state only agreed to fund half the $9 million design costs but has only paid slightly more than $735,000 to the city. Massachusetts Department of Transportation officials told CommonWealth there was little likelihood of the state contributing funds for the project because of the stiff opposition from Quincy residents and officials, a decision that appears to have triggered Walsh’s reconsideration because it would have forced Boston to foot the entire bill.
The bridge has been a sore spot between Boston and Quincy because to gain access to Long Island, cars, trucks, and buses had to drive through the streets of Quincy’s Squantum neighborhood, triggering opposition from residents.
The Walsh administration also doesn’t feel the pressure to relocate the programs back on the island. Walsh has stated all the beds and many of the programs have been absorbed on the mainland between public and private agencies.
