Longfellow Bridge reopening on May 31 after years of repairs

The Longfellow Bridge between Boston and Cambridge is expected to fully reopen at 5 a.m. on Thursday, May 31, following five years of repairs.

The repairs—the first substantial ones for the bridge since 1959—have meant severely limited access for vehicles and weekends upon weekends of shuttle buses for Red Line riders who normally would have trained it over the bridge.

Recall that the work was supposed to have finished in 2016, but was delayed for various reasons including a dearth of proper parts for a bridge that dates from 1907. Its May 2018 reopening has been anticipated for months.

And then the Massachusetts Department of Transportation announced on the evening of May 30 that the span was “expected to reach the full beneficial use milestone” the following morning. (Though work will continue for several more months.)

The Longfellow’s traffic configuration will be different than before, per the Globe’s Adam Vaccaro: One vehicle lane to Cambridge compared with two formerly. The Boston-bound route will still have two lanes. And the bridge will have protected bike lanes in both directions, though some bicycling advocates are lobbying for more room.

The 2,135-foot-long bridge handled 28,000 motor vehicles and 90,000 mass transit users per day before the repairs.

• After years of reconstruction, Longfellow Bridge will reopen at 5 a.m. Thursday [Globe]
• What Boston-area transportation projects would you most like to see finished? [Curbed Boston]