Pike to Logan: Ready to go
I-90 extension to open this weekend
By Mac Daniel, Globe Staff, 1/17/2003
When the first car zips from the Massachusetts Turnpike under the Fort Point Channel to Logan Airport sometime this holiday weekend, it will carry more than a relieved traveler: It will bear the hopes of an entire region that the opening of the new channel tunnel will mark the beginning of the end of the Big Dig.
The largest public works project in US history, the $14.6 billion Big Dig has wrapped up the region's traffic and played havoc with the city's quality of life for two decades, while offering a glimmer of hope that things will get better.
According to traffic analysts both inside and outside the Big Dig, the tunnel opening will bring positive change to this city's traffic nightmare, if not an overnight solution.
The underground and underwater link -- the first of three major Big Dig openings expected over the coming year -- will be like nothing seen in Boston before, analysts say.
Anthony G. Lopes, 62, a retired teacher from Brookline, can't wait for the opening, though he walks everywhere and really doesn't plan to use this new local wonder all too much.
"I have watched it grow from underneath Boston since it started, and I've gone to every opportunity I've had to get inside it," he said yesterday. "It's probably the most fascinating thing I've seen happen in this city."
Will he attend today's ceremonial opening at 11 a.m.? "No," he said. "I'll probably watch it on TV."
With fingers crossed, traffic analysts expect the 3 1/2-mile, $6.5 billion tunnel and road to ease congestion on the Central Artery, the Southeast Expressway, and especially on the Massachusetts Turnpike. But while the changes will be obvious to some commuters, they will be nearly invisible to others.
Residents from the western suburbs and anyone else who uses the new Interstate 90 extension for a direct link to South Boston or Logan Airport will see a 30-40 minute trip drop down to an amazing seven-minute trip, traffic permitting.
Residents of South Boston will be able to use new on-ramps by D Street to head east or west on the extension. From South Boston's Broadway Bridge, there will be another new on-ramp to either Interstate 93 north or I-90 west.
Analysts admit that vehicles headed south on the Central Artery will have no direct benefit from the new extension. However, even here the new roadway is expected to give back in a subtle fashion: Because Callahan and Sumner tunnel traffic should see a drop of 25,000 vehicles per day because of the new I-90 access, trips from the north to Logan and East Boston are expected to be a little speedier.
Best of all, analysts said, the opening will allow Big Dig officials to begin evaluating whether the State Police detail at Dock Square on I-93 south, which closes off an entire lane of Central Artery traffic to help Sumner Tunnel vehicles with their morning merge, is still necessary.
"If it means that they take off the Dock Square lane restriction, then it's extremely important," said Steve Kleineder, who heads into town from Malden and admitted yesterday that the new extension won't serve a direct purpose in his traveling life -- unless they get rid of that detail. "If that were gone, it would just be an amazing difference for people coming from the north."
Glen A. Berkowitz, traffic milestone manager for the Central Artery project, breaks down the raw numbers: There are 90,000 vehicles a day currently using the Sumner and Callahan tunnels. There are 25,000 vehicles a day currently using the Ted Williams Tunnel. But with the opening of the I-90 extension and the new open-to-everyone status of the Williams Tunnel, an estimated 25,000 vehicles per day are expected to switch from the Sumner-Callahan route to the Williams tunnel, reducing northbound traffic throughout the artery.
"We immediately expect in the next few weeks that traffic volume [in the Williams] will double from 25,000 vehicles a day to 50,000, and the Sumner-Callahan tunnels will drop from a combined total of 90,000 to 65,000 vehicles per day," he said.
In 2004 and beyond, when additional connections are opened from the I-90 extension to I-93 southbound, Ted Williams Tunnel traffic is expected to jump to around 80,000 vehicles a day, further freeing traffic on the artery.
In the meantime, however, traffic trying to get onto I-93 southbound from Logan and East Boston must continue to use the Sumner for at least the next year.
Overall, though, officials expect help for some of the area's most challenging commutes: In a week, if all goes well, South Shore drivers will be able to avoid the artery completely by using a new Exit 20 off I-93 north, an exit that will swing them directly into the new I-90 extension to the airport and beyond.
For people working or visiting the South Boston waterfront, there will no longer be a need to crawl over surface streets to get to I-90 -- a new ramp from D Street will speed the connection.
And the trip from South Boston to the Allston-Brighton tolls, now about a half hour, should drop to about 10 minutes, Berkowitz said.
Still, Berkowitz said, the tunnel is no panacea.
"We should not expect we can drive away Boston's historic traffic congestion overnight," he said.
This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 1/17/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
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