Painting on the Tobin Memorial Bridge will resume in June when work of the Everett Avenue on-ramp gets underway. This will be the fourth phase in Massport=s nine phase painting project that began in 1992. Repainting is essential to preserving the structural integrity of the Tobin Bridge and maintaining a safe environment for its neighbors.

This season, Massport announced that it will use a new system of paint removal and resurfacing known as abrasive cleaning. This system will be employed in response to a paint system failure during the previous phase. Results indicate that some areas of repainted bridge have chipped away carrying old paint and leaving large areas of exposed steel on the bridge as well as paint remnants on the ground.

Using a recoverable abrasive agent, the improved method is performed in a negative pressure environment, or a tightly sealed vacuum-like containment. Abrasive cleaning safely removes the old paint by thoroughly stripping the surface to ensure that new paint may be applied easily and with greater life expectancy. Abrasive cleaning has a proven record of successful bridge surface preparation and was recently used on New York's Williamsburg Bridge which connects congested neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

"As technology advances, paint systems for the Tobin Bridge have improved," said Mary Jane O'Meara, Massport's director of the Tobin Bridge. AAt this juncture, we will employ removal techniques and high grade containment systems which offer increased protection and safety to our neighboring residents and to the bridge itself.

While abrasive cleaning is not new, the containment methods to be used during this process represent the most advanced methods currently available. Ensuring both public and environmental protection, the abrasive agent is recaptured, sanitized and reused in an encapsulated area. Paint chips are contained from the time they come off the steel to the time they are sealed in containers.

Massport's procedures for this project include a stringent set of controls based on guidelines from the Steel Structures Painting Council, now known as the Society for Protective Coatings, considered the industry standard for protection of public health and the environment.

Massport recently met with environmental regulators from federal, state and local agencies for briefings on the project. Similar meetings were also held for elected state officials, city councillors, department heads and members of the community.

With 24 hour ambient as well as regular on-site environmental consultants using hand held monitors to test air quality emissions, Massport's air quality monitoring program surpasses all city, state or federal guidelines.

Because painting will take place on the underside of the Everett Avenue on-ramp, traffic impacts will be minimal. Painting crews will be scheduled to work weekdays, M- F from 7:30 a.m.- 3:30. p.m.

The Tobin bridge, like most bridges must be painted on a continual basis. Protective coatings shield it from exposure to the elements which cause rust, a deteriorating agent of steel. The Tobin Memorial Bridge by virtue of its location is extremely vulnerable to damaging elements such as the harsh New England weather and ocean salt, a known corrosive.

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