Reid Overpass

The way this beautiful bridge has been allowed to deteriorate is a crying shame! The Reid Overpass carries Memorial Drive over the rotary that forms it’s intersection with Brookline Street and the approach to the BU Bridge
Featuring a beautiful red brick facing with classic stone accents, a total lack of simple maintenance is allowing the Reid Overpass literally to fall apart. Over time the mortar between the bricks and stonework has deteriorated, causing many of them to hang loose or fall off completely, either onto the roadways or occasionally striking a vehicle traveling underneath.
It is a very simple and inexpensive maintenance task to routinely «re-​point» this type of masonry and extend it’s lifetime. The Elliot Bridge, further up the Charles, has a similar brick facing and also is suffering the same despicable negligence. The wintertime «freeze-​thaw» cycles accelerate the damage when water gets into the ever widening cracks and masonry joints.
Without the Reid Overpass, traffic on Memorial Drive would be as miserable as it is across the river at the Commonwealth Avenue intersection with the BU Bridge. Eventually, structures like this get so bad that they must be rebuilt at great expense (if not closed and torn down, as happened to the gorgeous Sullivan Square Overpass!). Not spending the small amount to perform routine pointing and other simple maintenance ought to be criminally negligent!
The Reid Overpass rates three of my stars because of it’s beauty and efficiency. (I can’t penalize the bridge itself too much because it’s custodians fail to properly care for it.)