I found your piece on the Casey bridge to be of great interest, not so much for what is revealed about the structure’s genesis, but by what is glaringly omitted concerning its recent history (“The Pastor and the Bridge,” Aug. 12). Specifically, I am referring to the 1990s, when it underwent extremely extensive, and costly, repairs. This work took months and months and months and was, by the way, a great inconvenience to many commuters as well as JP residents. The work involved resurfacing and structural reconstruction. I’m no expert, but when the work was “finished,” I could see that it was crap. The surface was left as corrugated concrete (think vibration), the paint was rusting over before it had dried (maybe the specs said something about using galvanized steel), and so on.
What a joke! And now to cover up their mess, the Transportation people have reduced it from a two-lane to a one-lane road. If the Big Dig wasn’t such a huge disaster, then this would have been Page One.
Your paper is not alone in this omission; the Boston Globe’s puff piece a few months ago suffered from the same sort of amnesia. It’s a shame no one, including myself, had the foresight to document this travesty as it was occurring. It would have made interesting news.
Peter Ureneck
Dorchester