Councilor calls for citywide inspections after woman hit by light pole on bridge

By WCVB Staff

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    BOSTON (WCVB) — The president of the Boston City Council is calling for a citywide inspection of bridges and light poles after a woman was struck by a falling pole Tuesday while walking across a bridge in the Seaport District, an incident first reported by 5 Investigates.

The pedestrian was struck at about 3 p.m. on the Evelyn Moakley Bridge, which connects Atlantic Avenue and Sleeper Street.

“The woman was laying on the sidewalk between the lamppost and the guardrail, sort of, and she wasn’t moving for a while,” said Michael Kriley, who saw the pole strike the woman.

A source told 5 Investigates the woman was taken to a nearby hospital with serious injuries. Boston police said the injuries to the woman in her 30s were not life-threatening.

“Her head was on the concrete, pushed against the railing — the metal railing,” Kriley said. “I don’t know if she was with friends or family, but, eventually, somebody started to help her sit up.”

The city said “out of an abundance of caution,” 23 poles of the same age from the bridge were removed.

“The city of Boston prioritizes the safety of its residents and visitors, and in the interest of safety, the sidewalks and bike path were closed and vehicular traffic reduced to one lane in each direction until Public Works crews could evaluate all street lights,” a city spokesperson said Wednesday.

A photograph of the scene taken earlier in the day, which was obtained by 5 Investigates’ Karen Anderson, shows a light post lying down across the sidewalk on one side of the bridge.

Another photo shows the base of another light post on the bridge in a clearly deteriorated state.

“You can physically see through some of the base of these poles and they’re heavy, right? They’re hundreds of pounds. So being on a bridge and not having structural integrity anymore, you think at that point … these are just hazardous,” said Nick Kriley, a hardware engineer.

“And at least four of them were so rusted through with the rest — lines of holes that you could look through one side of the bottom lamppost and see out the other side of the bottom of the lamppost,” Michael Kriley said. “It was very obvious that something should have been done a long time ago.”

The sidewalks on the Evelyn Moakley Bridge were closed to pedestrian traffic in both directions but have since reopened.

At midday Wednesday, Boston Public Works Street Lighting crews were seen inspecting poles on the nearby Summer Street bridge as an added precaution. Boston Public Works crews are responsible for street light maintenance throughout the city.

Temporary lighting will be installed on the Moakley Bridge to ensure adequate lighting levels until a permanent replacement can be installed, the city said.

The Evelyn Moakley Bridge, named after the late wife of former Congressman Joe Moakley, and street lights were built in the 1990s by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) as part of the “Big Dig” project.

City officials said all bridges in Massachusetts are subject to a federally-mandated, bi-annual inspection, and that the Moakley Bridge was most recently inspected in January.

As part of the inspection process in January, the condition of the light poles — also known as lighting standards — and their attachment points were reviewed. Boston officials said the street light poles were rated as a “5” on a 9-point scale, a rating that corresponds with “fair” condition, which is defined as “all primary structural elements are sound but may have minor section loss, cracking, spalling or scour.”

The MassDOT report on the Moakley Bridge inspection did mention some lighting standards had heavy rust and holes in the steel poles.

There were no bridge elements which inspectors deemed “critical” or at risk of imminent failure, according to city officials.

When the city received the inspection report on Aug. 1, officials said it was provided to a bridge consulting firm two days later in order to develop a work plan based on that report. As of Wednesday, that work plan is still in development.

Boston City Council President Ed Flynn announced Wednesday evening that he is requesting a full audit of bridges and light poles in the city to ensure the safety of residents and visitors alike.

“Moreover, due to the corrosion and deterioration caused by salt water and sea air, it would be appropriate to place an emphasis on all light poles located on bridges, as well as prioritizing those in close proximity to the ocean,” Flynn said in a statement. “In the interest of public safety, I ask that the City of Boston continue to work closely with our state and federal partners to prevent an incident like this from occurring again.”

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