Somerville and Cambridge are getting a very different McGrath Highway, but the first visible clue is arriving as a pair of bridge renderings. MassDOT has released updated designs for a rebuilt Squires Bridge and a second span over a relocated Somerville Avenue Extension, setting the stage for the long-promised conversion of the elevated corridor into McGrath Boulevard. The construction is still years away, but the shapes are finally starting to look less like a planning document and more like an actual neighborhood.
The centerpiece is a new 300-foot single-span beam bridge carrying Route 28 over the MBTA Green Line, commuter rail and other tracks. According to MassDOT meeting materials, the bridge would have no intermediate support pillars, two traffic lanes in each direction, sidewalks, buffers and raised, separated bike lanes. A seven-foot median would divide the roadways.
The second structure would carry Route 28 over a realigned Somerville Avenue Extension, a road locals have long nicknamed Scary Way. The extension would be shifted farther from the train tracks and meet Linwood Street at a T intersection, a change Chris Howard of the project team said is intended to make the roadway feel safer for drivers, as detailed by Boston.com’s bridge rundown.
From Elevated Highway To Ground-Level Boulevard
The bridges are one piece of a much larger rewrite of the corridor. The MassDOT project page says the McCarthy Overpass will eventually be demolished and replaced with a ground-level boulevard designed for people walking, biking, taking buses and driving. The project runs from Third Street in Cambridge to Broadway in Somerville and is intended to reconnect neighborhoods now separated by the elevated highway.
For drivers and transit riders, the bridge work will be staged carefully rather than dropping the entire corridor into an infrastructure blackout. The existing Squires Bridge is considered safe for now, despite deteriorating over roughly the past decade, and construction is expected to take place in two halves so the old structure can help maintain stability and traffic movement. MassDOT is refining the designs ahead of a required 25% design package due for review in fall 2026, with construction potentially beginning in 2030 and the bridge work estimated to take three to four years, according to Boston.com.
The new renderings are not the final word, particularly for people whose homes or property could be affected as the design advances. MassDOT says it will provide more information about property impacts, continue accepting public feedback and hold another design public hearing in early 2027, according to the agency’s project presentation. For a corridor that has spent years looming over Somerville, the first official look at its replacement is a reminder that McGrath Boulevard is moving from civic wish list to construction plan—slowly, but visibly.
