You can add
-make it easier to get to local businesses - oops
-improve air quality in Forest Hills - oops

You forgot to say the at-grade scheme will
- add more open space than you'd get with a brand spankin' new bridge - oops
- simplify the roadway network, a goal of the project - oops

Well said!

Way less of an oops than a new bridge would be.

And when you build a *highway bridge* like a new overpass would have been, you're stuck with it for 50 years unless you can come up with the funds to tear it down. A roadway, even a 6-lane one, can be reconfigured much more easily when future conditions merit.

You also left out the $15 million dollars in transit station, sidewalk, and bicycle path improvements to come along with the surface streets. Those, along with on longer having on- and off-ramps from a highway bridge, will in fact make it safer for pedestrians and bicyclists to cross, shorten bus travel times, provide traffic calming, removing a visual barrier, and reconnect the emerald necklace.

Also, you can't have traffic calming without also slowing commuter traffic. That's exactly what traffic calming is. Also, there will be zero net effect on *regional* delays, due to reduced traffic congestion at Murray Circle. By making cars spend a bit more time at Forest Hills, delays elsewhere are equivalently reduced.

Anyway, if you really want to agitate for something that will make even more of a difference across all of these areas, building yet another piece of car-only infrastructure is not it. Advocate distributing or splitting up future commercial development in Longwood. Advocate for affordable housing within a reasonable distance to work. Advocate for maximum possible bicycle and transit facilities to provide alternatives to car commuting.

Great comments!
Hopefully, we'll all be able to afford living in JP by the time the work's done - oops
Hopefully, we'll all be able to afford to live, period - oops

It's amazing to me that people who can see with their own eyes the benefits we gained when Gov. Sargent killed the idea of installing a real 6-lane elevated highway right through JP would fight so hard to keep a highway-like bridge in Forest Hills. In every single case around the country and around the world, local businesses benefit from bridge removal. There is no evidence at all to support any claim to the contrary.

When I lived in New York, I loved biking over the George Washington Bridge -- great views, fresh air. Also walking the Brooklyn Bridge. Also walking in Olmstead's Riverside Park where I could walk OVER the busy Transit way. A shame that MassDOT would not allow bikes and walkers onto the proposed bridge, but instead designed it to dedicated it solely to automobiles. A bigger shame was that all the clearly important bike-friendly and Forest Hills Station multimodal improvements were ONLY included in the "at-grade" solution. The fix was in to go with the solution that would be cheaper, but which a 21st century Olmstead would clearly recognize was not the proper answer for the Emerald Necklace and the multi-modal transportation needs of the area.

Damn right William. Well put!

I wish this article was more straight foward. All that oops business makes it confusing. Why don't you clearly articulate your point of view (is this where I add an oops? No clue).

Barbara and the commenters using oops are being sarcastic and per their belief the at grade solution will do none of the things that they are highlighting.

Re the bridge, it was never to be a 6-lane highway bridge. It was a 2- lane bridge. I think some people forget that the bridge that is part of Rt 203 is a major artery for commuters from Dorchester, Mattapan, Quincy, Milton, etc. I live in Forest Hills and don't want the extra 24, 000 vehicles that use the bridge down where I walk and drive and live.And if I were a commuter from Quincy trying to get to and from work I would not want to have the 5 sets of lights that come with at-grade added to my commute. Those cars won't go away,(especially with the T cuts!) but they will look for alternate routes: Walk Hill St, Forest Hills St, South St,Wash St, your street. I'm curious how many residents of Forest Hills prefer the at-grade; I personally have not spoken to one.