The closure of the Sumner Tunnel has given Boston drivers headaches for weeks.
Boston's Sumner Tunnel has been closed for three weeks now with crews moving to make repairs so it'll reopen before Labor Day.
The project's not even halfway done, but the work is apparently going well with very few surprises.
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"The work is pretty straightforward. It's just the amount of it," said John McInerney, District 6 Highway Director for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
Right now, crews are focused on lifting more than 700 precast concrete arches into place after the ceiling was stripped down.
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"Structurally, it made more sense. We believe it's quicker to install and get everything done and get the tunnel back open to the public again as quickly as possible," said Chris Blanchard of J.F. White Contracting.
The Sumner is nearly 90 years old, and the shutdown has created traffic problems in Greater Boston. MassDOT says congestion is about what it expected, maybe even a little better. This weekend's NAACP Convention could be another test.
"There's event every weekend. We're well aware of that convention. I believe they put in extra ferries from Logan across the harbor, so we're monitoring. We have traffic engineers monitoring the traffic every day," McInerney said.
State transportation officials say the project is on schedule with the Sumner still set to reopen Aug. 31.
