SOMERVILLE — How ugly is the McCarthy Overpass, the elevated highway dividing Union Square and East Somerville? Its steel is rusted and flaking, its concrete pockmarked and crumbling. The underside is a lunar landscape of concrete dust, litter, and pigeon droppings.
“It just repels you,” said Hayes Morrison, Somerville’s director of transportation and infrastructure, shuddering at the thought of walking beneath the eroding span, which carries the McGrath Highway (Route 28) over surface streets.
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Sullivan Square has been gridlocked since the overpass there was removed. I'm a bicyclist, but mind overpasses.
Per the article, "How ugly is the McCarthy Overpass, the elevated highway dividing Union Square and East Somerville? Its steel is rusted and flaking, its concrete pockmarked and crumbling. The underside is a lunar landscape of concrete dust, litter, and pigeon droppings." >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Sounds like rationalization for replacing something that is not aesthetically pleasing. If you did replace it for, what, hundreds of millions of dollars at least, and you never cleaned around the new one then you would also get "concrete dust, litter, and pigeon droppings". With today's unemployment you could easily hire some people at minimum wage to sweep and pressure wash away the dirt. Now, in case management forgot this, steel rusts. It's like the navy never painted it ships and then said they had to be replaced because they were ugly and rusting. There is NO information in the article about the structural soundness (or not) of the bridge. With all due respect to Eric Moskowitz, how about an honest discussion about the bridge?
that was supposed to be "DON'T mind overpasses". Sorry wife was barking at me while i was posting.
It's McGrath, not McCarthy!
Or is it? Is there such a thing as naming overpasses? I guess I was wrong, it looks like we are actually honoring 2 Mcs, sorry...