Cambridge overpass slab falls

A slab from the William J. Reid Overpass in Cambridge crashed onto the road below yesterday, heightening concern that the condition of the overpass is putting drivers at risk.

No one was injured and no cars were struck by chunks that fell at 2 p.m. and that forced the closure of one lane of traffic coming off the Boston University Bridge, as well as a portion of a rotary beneath the overpass, said a State Police trooper, Kara England.

''This is a high-traffic road. It's not an exaggeration that this could have killed somebody," a Cambridge city councilor, Henrietta Davis, said last night in a telephone interview.

The overpass goes to the Cambridge side of the BU bridge. The state Department of Conservation and Recreation is responsible for maintaining it.

State Police said that Department of Conservation and Recreation officials were at the scene. A spokesman for the department could not be reached last night.

Davis said she was driving by when she noticed police lights and stopped. She said it appeared that a 10-foot decorative section of the overpass, made of granite or cement, had fallen from below the eastbound lane.

Davis said she had complained to state officials about the overpass at least twice after seeing smaller chunks of it near the roadway. Yesterday, she took pictures to document the problems.

State Representative Marty Walz, a Democrat who represents the Back Bay, said that she has also been concerned about the condition of the bridge, but that she has been told funding is scarce for improvement projects.

Until yesterday, she said she was more concerned about the safety of bridges.

''This is another instance where the state is . . . putting citizens of the community at risk for doing something as ordinary as driving a car," she said.

Megan Woolhouse can be reached at woolhouse@globe.com.