By Adam Swift
The Tobin Bridge is not going to disappear any time soon, but MassDOT has begun the process of studying potential future replacement options for the bridge.
Last week, MassDOT and its team of consultants held its second working group meeting at the Charlestown Library on its plans for the Maurice J. Tobin Bridge Long-Term Strategic Planning Study.
The study aims to develop and analyze options for the eventual replacement of the Tobin Bridge, while also exploring alternatives for the bridge, according to MassDOT officials. The study will focus on ways to reconnect surrounding communities in Chelsea and Charlestown.
Public and working group meetings on the long-term study are expected to take place over the next 18 months, with the draft and final reports anticipated to be released in the summer of 2026.
During the working group meeting, MassDOT officials and consultants reviewed the current conditions of the Tobin Bridge, as well as discussed the goals of the study.
“We are taking a holistic point of view with this study, and I want to emphasize that equity is an overarching focus of the study as well … as we consider long-term potential changes to the Tobin Bridge to reconnect communities and consider how these elements of the transportation network itself tie into the surrounding community,” said MassDOT project manager Patrick Snyder.
Mike Regan, the project manager for the study from engineering firm VHB said nine evaluation criteria have been selected to measure the effectiveness of any recommendations that come as a result of the study. Those criteria include social equity, mobility and accessibility for transportation modes, safety for roadway users, economic and land use impacts, climate change resilience and mitigation, health and environmental effects, cost and cost effectiveness, and feasibility of construction.
A detailed assessment of the existing conditions has been completed to help set the stage for a future conditions analysis, said Regan.
“We’ve completed a really detailed and exhaustive existing details assessment, especially for transportation and mobility that includes traffic patterns, traffic operation, safety, … and transit conditions, locally and regionally,” said Regan.
A study of the current land use in the areas near the bridge shows that there is a critical need for housing, along with a pandemic-weakend office market, an oversupply of lab space, and urban development around transit hubs, said Jon Trementozzi, and land use and economic development consultant.
Niki Hastings of VHB said the study of the existing transportation conditions of the Tobin Bridge and Chelsea and Charlestown show that active transportation facilities do not extend into neighboring communities. She also noted that the existing Tobin Bridge lacks sidewalk and bicycle facilities, creating a significant gap in the regional pedestrian and bicycle networks.
Hastings said the Tobin Bridge is a vital regional corridor and part of a larger system that serves commuter populations between the North Shore and Boston. The majority of the vehicle trips are from or to Route 1 North of Route 16, Hastings added.
There are congestion and travel time reliability issues, especially southbound, where 43 percent of trips from the Tobin Bridge are destined for I-93, according to the analysis. In addition, much of the local study area in Chelsea experiences higher crash rates in comparison to the region.
Charlestown State Representative Dan Ryan noted that the lack of a direct connection to Rte. 93 North on the Tobin has been a major issue in his district for decades.
“It doesn’t matter what signs you put on the other side of the North Washington Bridge, human nature is that people will not drive south to go north,” said Ryan. “You can put all the signs in the world you want, people are just not going to do that.”
Ryan said any alternative needs to have an option to get people who are on the other side of the North Washington Bridge to have access to 93 North and South.
As a long-term strategic planning study, the consultants said the key next step is to project the existing conditions to a 2050 future condition, with alternatives for the bridge replacement being evaluated using those conditions. Part of those conditions include determining major planned infrastructure projects and transit service improvements in place by 2050 based on available documentation.
Those potential projects will then set the baseline for the alternatives that are considered, according to the consultants.
Revere City Councilor Ira Novoselsky questioned why the study area for the existing conditions did not extend north to Copeland Circle in Revere. He stated that the noise level and environmental factors from the traffic affect residents in the city.
Regan stated that there are both local and regional study areas for the project, with the local study area focusing on Chelsea and Charlestown, and the regional area extending out into Revere and other communities.
“The reason we didn’t do the in-depth existing conditions analysis … for the entire regional study area is because our likely Tobin Bridge alternative will likely not extend that far north,” said Regan. “We are talking about what to do about future replacement of the bridge and extending that type of infrastructure that far north is not anticipated, so we did not do that analysis up to that area.”
The future analysis also includes looking at demographic growth and environmental factors, Snyder said.
One of the goals of the working group, Snyder said, is to discuss options for four key future considerations, including future roadway and transit conditions, the future travel demand forecast, future land use and demographic projects, and future climate change and sea level rise forecast.
Chelsea Deputy Director of Housing and Community Development Emily Granoff said she would like to have further conversations about the initial future housing demand demographic analysis. She added that the city is working on a comprehensive planning process that will also touch upon some of the analysis within the Tobin Bridge study.
When it comes to future sea level rise and climate change, the consultants stated that the future preliminary design will determine exact bridge height based on a combination of sea level rise, storm surge, and required marine vessel height clearances.
“We’re establishing baselines, future baselines for analysis and comparison,” said Regan. “The next step is really brainstorming and coming up with alternatives and building those with the working group and really refining that.”
The next working group and public meeting on the study is anticipated for the late spring/early summer, Snyder said.
“We are anticipating that this study is going to run into the summer of 2026, when we hope to present our results and findings and recommendations as well as the summary,” he said.