The region might need to wait at least five more years for one of its highest-priority infrastructure projects to become a reality.
A new statewide capital budget for fiscal years 2026 through 2030 indicates that construction on the long-awaited Mystic River bike and pedestrian bridge between Somerville and Everett won't begin until late 2026 or 2027, and that MassDOT doesn't expect to complete the project until the early 2030s.
The proposed bridge would fix a major gap in the regional walking and biking network. The bridge would extend the Northern Strand Trail from where it currently ends next to the Encore Casino in Everett by bringing it across the river to the Assembly Square district and its Orange Line station in Somerville.
The project was originally conceived as a way to connect the casino, which opened in June 2019, to the Orange Line, whose Assembly station is directly across the river, but more than a mile away by the fastest currently-available walking route over the Alford Street Bridge.
MassDOT's latest 5-year capital plan, released in May, includes $69.8 million for the project. But the plan also indicates that the agency doesn't plan to spend any of that money until fiscal year 2027.
The plan also suggests that spending on the project will continue after fiscal year 2030 ends on June 30, 2031.
On Monday, a MassDOT spokesperson confirmed for StreetsblogMASS that "construction is not scheduled to be completed until after 2030."
MassDOT is accepting public comment on its proposed 5-year capital plan until June 12.
Mystic timelines
Jay Monty, the City of Everett's Director of Transportation and Mobility, expressed some hope that MassDOT could get the project built on a faster timeline.
But he also stressed that the city's plans to help address the regional housing shortage are extremely reliant on ambitious public transit and infrastructure improvements, including the bridge.
"If the Kraft Group starts permitting (a new soccer stadium) tomorrow, that's going to be three years out. The tank farm redevelopment is still three to five years out. So I the timelines are not drastically far apart from MassDOT's, but as we know, timelines often slip, and there's a need for some assurance that that won't continue happening," Monty told StreetsblogMASS on Tuesday afternoon.
In 2023, officials from the state's Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), which had been managing the project at the time, told StreetsblogMASS that the bridge would be under contract "at the end of the calendar year."
And just one month ago, MassDOT, which had subsequently taken over the long-delayed project's management from DCR, abruptly cancelled and postponed a public hearing for the project.
That hearing has since been rescheduled for Tuesday, June 24, at 6:30 p.m. at Somerville High School.
