Beverly officials say Bridge Street project largely complete; Hall‑Whitaker temporary bridge work begins

Most construction on the Bridge Street Transportation Improvement Program project is finished, but downtown intersection work remains paused until National Grid's 115‑kilovolt line is removed, Beverly Mayor Cahill told the City Council on Oct. 20.

"The project itself in the contract, the construction team has until May 2027 to complete the project," Cahill said as he described work that is essentially complete from the Danvers line to Folger Avenue. He added the remaining downtown work — including tree planting and a new traffic signal — was delayed because the high‑transmission line is not yet out of the way.

MassDOT separately is moving ahead with a related set of bridge projects. Cahill said the state elected to build a temporary Hall‑Whitaker bridge first because a permanent replacement would take significantly longer. He told the council MassDOT crews have begun on‑site pruning and erosion control and that "they'll have on site in the next couple weeks the big crane they'll need to drive the piles" for the temporary bridge.

The mayor relayed the contractor's baseline schedule calling for a summer–fall 2027 completion for the temporary structure but said the city and state are working to accelerate the timeline.

City staff emphasized that the Bridge Street work and the bridge replacements involve multiple state and federal permits and agencies. Cahill and other councilors praised Councilor Rotundo and engineering staff for coordination during construction and urged continued attention to final downtown traffic signalization and paving tied to the transmission‑line work.

What happens next: the council and MassDOT will monitor National Grid's 115 kV removal so that the remaining intersection reconstruction and traffic‑signal work can proceed. The mayor said the city will continue to press state and utility partners to advance the schedule.