DCR to close Storrow Drive tunnel at night for repairs

BOSTON -- Drivers who frequent Storrow Drive at night will have to seek an alternate route for the coming week, possibly for longer. 

The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) plans to close both lanes of the Storrow Drive Tunnel from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. for the week of Saturday, Sept. 13 through Monday, Sept. 22, to facilitate repairs inside the tunnel.

The closure also will serve as an experiment to see if it would be possible to use full night-time closure for the duration of the repairs to hasten the end of the work.

Engineers estimate that closing the tunnel each night could allow work to be finished three months earlier. Without the night closure, repairs are expected to be completed in summer 2009.

DCR officials have scheduled a public meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25, in the Boston Public Library mezzanine, to discuss the idea of a full, night closure for the duration of the repairs.

Vehicles approaching the tunnel eastbound will be detoured across the Western Avenue and River Street bridges to Memorial Drive in Cambridge. Westbound traffic will not be affected.

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