East Cambridge is on a roll. Information and tech giants Google and Microsoft have expanded operations in Kendall Square, with Microsoft adding its name to the top of One Cambridge Center. Just down the street, Akamai Technologies is adding space. Meanwhile, Biogen Idec, Novartis, The Broad Institute and Pfizer are all in the midst of facility projects that will add over 1 million square feet of new lab and office operations in Kendall Square. The mixed-use Alexandria Center project is in the early stages of transforming 11 acres of brownfields along Binney Street and MIT has its own plan for a million square feet of commercial space on Main Street.
The cranes are in full use in East Cambridge… as are the traffic cones. Kendall Square is becoming difficult to navigate. Reduced lanes and even road closures are now commonplace, accommodating some of the facility projects noted above. Bigger issues arise at water’s edge. The renovation of the Craigie Bridge has been completed, but work continues over at Harvard Square, as well as the Western Avenue Bridge and the Reid Overpass, which is currently closed, with west-east traffic diverted to the BU Bridge rotary. All of these projects, and the associated nuisance to drivers, hold barely a candle to the looming Longfellow Bridge project.
The Longfellow Bridge is one of the state’s most iconic structures. Known fondly as the “Salt and Pepper Shaker Bridge,” it plays a prominent role in the children’s book “Make Way for Ducklings,” finds its way into most aerials of Boston and Cambridge, and is the span upon which close to 30,000 cars cross per day. It was opened in 1906 and has seen no major reconstruction since. The result is that the steel structural support for the bridge deck system is seriously deteriorated and the impressive masonry is unreinforced and unstable. Later this month, the reconstruction of the Longfellow will begin. There is no doubt that the work needs to be done but one must wonder whether this bridge project will be “a bridge too far” (to borrow from Cornelius Ryan) for Cambridge. If anything will at least tap the brakes on the Kendall Square boom, it will be the closure of Cambridge-bound car traffic on the Longfellow – for three years.
Urban Jam
Developers and real estate brokers are understandably mum about the potential impact on the East Cambridge market. The primary lure of east Cambridge is the presence of MIT, close to 10 million square feet of commercial lab space, access to public transportation and the amazing number of biotech and IT companies located there. Ready access by car doesn’t rank as one of the area’s leading attributes. Nonetheless, the impending project and road closure does seem to add to the case made by those in the suburbs seeking the affections of industries based in east Cambridge.
“Companies that don’t need to be in Cambridge every day may choose a suburban location to avoid the daily traffic hassle,” states Dean Rizzo, president of the Quincy Chamber of Commerce. “Suburban communities with direct public transportation access to Cambridge, such as Quincy with its four Red Line MBTA stations, may experience an uptick in interest during the three-year construction period.” Quincy is itself in the beginning stages of the 3.5-million-square-foot “New Quincy Center” project, which has among its aims becoming a destination for biotech and other innovation industries.
Tim Cummings, who heads the Marlborough Economic Development Corp., also believes that the Longfellow project may compel some companies to give the suburbs that critical “second look.” “The more seasoned, highly-skilled worker tends to be situated a bit outside the inner core as it is,” states Cummings. “As suburban development adapts to be more village-like, the ‘work/live/play’ lifestyles of urban settings are being replicated outside of the inner core. Amenities around the corner are plentiful and business can see the value” of suburban settings.
The Longfellow project, as necessary as it is, will be disruptive. To be determined is whether the three-year project will prove to be only a speed bump for the race car that is Kendall Square’s development.
Peter Abair is director of economic development and global affairs at the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio).
