Finally! State begins repaving Route 9 in Newton
Long-awaited repairs to the badly deteriorated pavement on Route 9 in Newton are underway and will continue throughout the fall, state transportation officials said this week.
The $4.5 million project started in August and stretches from the Dudley Road intersection to the Newton-Wellesley line. The project is being completed at night to avoid traffic congestion on the heavily used east-west route during the day.
“Due to the extent of the deterioration to the existing pavement, which resulted in numerous pothole repairs/patching operations over the past several years, our goal is to complete the pavement milling and installation of the first new layer of pavement throughout the project limits prior to the winter shutdown,” said Colin Durrant, director of Public Affairs for Massachusetts Department of Transportation, in an e-mail.
Pavement milling started in mid-October, after National Grid and other contractors prepared the road by utility maintenance.
In 2008, the state resurfaced a 2.75-mile stretch of the route in Brookline, from High Street to the Newton line, at a cost of about $6 million. But the project stopped before extending much further into Newton.
At the time, none other than former Gov. Michael Dukakis expressed amazement at the slow pace of the Route construction.
"The Newton portion of it is just a mess. I've been watching that road and the bridges there deteriorate for years," Dukakis, who drives along the stretch of road often, told the Globe in 2008. "We've got to be able to repave the highway more than once in 22 years."
He said he didn't understand why it couldn't just be milled and repaved, as Storrow Drive and other roadways are. "I'm baffled at why it's taking so long and costing so much."
Caitlin Castello can be reached at caitlincastello@gmail.com.
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