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Noise Mitigation Promised As I-91 Deck Demolition Begins

ramp closed sign leading to elevated interstate highway
WAMC
/

MassDOT is warning of traffic delays on Interstate 91 as contractors begin to demolish the elevated highway deck in Springfield.

Work to tear down the reinforced concrete bridge deck on the 2.5 mile long I-91 viaduct is scheduled to start on February 10.

       MassDOT said the contractor will put noise-reducing curtains in place and take other mitigation steps.  The demolition is scheduled to take place during both daytime and nighttime work shifts.                  

MassDOT secretary Stephanie Pollock  told reporters earlier this week  there is optimism the big highway reconstruction project will be finished by late 2017.

" My understanding is that project is actually running a bit ahead of schedule." she said.

The contractor on the $185 million project can earn up to a $9 million bonus by finishing the job ahead of schedule.

Paul Tuthill is WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief. He’s been covering news, everything from politics and government corruption to natural disasters and the arts, in western Massachusetts since 2007. Before joining WAMC, Paul was a reporter and anchor at WRKO in Boston. He was news director for more than a decade at WTAG in Worcester. Paul has won more than two dozen Associated Press Broadcast Awards. He won an Edward R. Murrow award for reporting on veterans’ healthcare for WAMC in 2011. Born and raised in western New York, Paul did his first radio reporting while he was a student at the University of Rochester.