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MassDOT outlines 25% design progress, environmental constraints for permanent Hall Whitaker and Kernwood bridges
Summary
At a Beverly City meeting, MassDOT and VHB described progress on 25% design, a Federal Highway Administration value-engineering review and environmental and right‑of‑way issues for permanent replacement bridges. Officials said permitting windows and marina data will shape vertical-clearance choices that affect boat openings.
MassDOT and the design consultant VHB presented the status of the 25% design for the permanent Hall Whitaker and Kernwood Avenue bridges and described environmental, navigation and right-of-way constraints the team is resolving.
Rob Antico, MassDOT project manager, said VHB submitted 25% highway and sketch plans along with geotechnical, hydraulic and early environmental coordination documents and that the project team is in a comment-resolution process. The department has engaged an independent firm to prepare an independent cost estimate and, as required by the Federal Highway Administration, performed a value-engineering study. Nick Shenna, design manager for VHB, said the VE study and independent cost estimate are being incorporated into a revised 25% submission.
Design parameters under consideration include channel clearances and roadway profile. Shenna said the Kernwood concept seeks to maintain existing horizontal clearance (50 feet) while increasing the mean-high-water underside-of-structure vertical clearance substantially — from about 8 feet today to roughly 29 feet under a 4.5% profile on the Beverly side — to reduce the number of required bridge openings. VHB noted that raising the profile reduces openings for marina customers but can increase right-of-way, environmental, and approach-grade impacts. At Bridge Street, available right-of-way and nearby properties limit the extent that the roadway profile can be raised; horizontal clearance there is expected to match the existing 40 feet with smaller vertical improvements.
Environmental permitting and time-of-year work windows are constraining elements. The design team identified fisheries and wildlife constraints that limit in-water work during parts of the year; MassDOT said the restrictions are significant at Kernwood because of species including American eel and winter flounder and that construction work windows imposed by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife will influence sequencing and schedule.
Right-of-way and public-land impacts were discussed. The project team noted Article 97 protected public land immediately northwest of the Hall Whitaker site and identified properties adjoining both bridges whose interests will be evaluated as design advances. Officials said the project is not yet at the stage to present final right-of-way plans or specific property takings. When design advances to right-of-way plans, affected property owners will be contacted as required by law and compensated for permanent or temporary takings, the presentation said.
Public-access details were raised by residents. VHB and MassDOT discussed Chapter 91 waterfront access obligations near the car-wash side of Bridge Street and said options include maintaining access on the opposite side with an ADA-accessible path or designing a more complex switchback ramp; the team said the value-engineering study considered these alternatives.
Schedule and next steps: MassDOT said it expects to revise the 25% submission after incorporating value-engineering recommendations and to hold a design public hearing in the 2026 design year. Shenna said the project team plans to pursue early permit coordination and draft permit applications once the sketch plans reach the needed level of detail; construction advertisement for the permanent bridges will follow later in the program sequencing after demolition and temporary-bridge work are completed.
Funding for the permanent-bridge work was summarized in the public Q&A: speakers at the meeting said the Federal Highway Administration would cover approximately 80% of permanent-bridge construction costs, with the state covering the remainder. MassDOT and VHB emphasized that the overall construction cost estimate is being refined by the independent cost estimate and that current concept-level construction values were discussed in the presentation as being on the order of several hundred million dollars.
No formal decisions or votes were taken during the presentation; the session was an update and public Q&A.
