A Bridge Over Troubled Waters

An attorney representing a Lynn business near the site of the state’s bridge replacement project threatens to seek a judge’s order to stop the project over a marina building he alleges was damaged by the bridge work

By Mark E. Vogler

A Saugus attorney seeks to have the Lynn-Saugus Belden Bly Bridge project halted until an unsafe marina building that his client owns on the Saugus River has been stabilized by MassDOT. Peter E. Flynn, who represents the Pike family – owners of the building at 1147 Western Ave. in Lynn – blames the ongoing construction work by MassDOT’s contractor, SPS New England, Inc., with the building’s deterioration. The City of Lynn recently declared the building “uninhabitable.”

Flynn has served lawyers at MassDOT, SPS New England and the Lynn City Solicitor with a motion he planned to file this week in Essex County Superior Court for a preliminary injunction “to pause construction pending stabilization of the plaintiff’s building” while noting “it could be about to fall into the Saugus River.”

Flynn’s motion claimed the reason for the building being declared “uninhabitable” by the city is “due to structural problems caused by the construction project for which the eminent domain takings were made on the property in 2018 and 2023.”

“Such a collapse into the river impacts all parties, as the plaintiffs lose their building, an environmental disaster is caused to the public, and the Commonwealth’s bridge project is put on an indefinite hold,” the motion claimed.

The Pike Family requests that a Superior Court judge “issue an Order enjoining the defendant from performing any further construction in the vicinity of the property until SPS, at the Commonwealth’s cost, repairs the plaintiffs’ building to the extent that the City of Lynn Building Inspector deems it safe for habitation,” according to the 12-page document obtained by The Saugus Advocate.

“Alternatively, should this Honorable Court not be inclined to stop the project altogether, the relief requested would be ordering SPS, at the Commonwealth’s expense and in conjunction with its ongoing project, repair the plaintiffs’ building to the extent that the City of Lynn Building Inspector deems it safe for habitation,” it said.

Lynn, Saugus, Revere and surrounding communities are anxiously awaiting the construction of the replacement bridge. A judge’s order for an indefinite holdup of the project could prove costly and inconvenient and prolong traffic congestion.

The Saugus Advocate sought comment from lawyers representing MassDOT, SPS New England and the City of Lynn. SPS New England, Inc. issued the following company response to the Flynn motion, maintaining that it had not done anything wrong:

“SPS New England, Inc. has performed all work on the Route 107 / Beldon-Bly Drawbridge in a professional and safe manner and has adhered to all contract requirements including performing a survey of the existing condition of the 1147 Western Ave structure and foundations prior to construction, and extensive vibration and crack monitoring during construction activities. The structure was built in 1959 and per our structural expert – GZA – the deterioration of the structure is due to decades of tidal activity and not to the last two to three years of construction activity. The City of Lynn’s 2021 Hazard Mitigation Update Plan confirms that the Lynn coastline has been subject to significant coastal flooding since the erection of the 1147 Western Ave structure in 1959. As a result of the massive flooding events from 2006 to 2017, the City of Lynn had no choice but to condemn the building and order that it be vacated.

“SPS New England, Inc. remains committed to working with all parties involved to identify a solution and finishing the construction of the Belden-Bly Drawbridge.

“Hazard Mitigation Plan 2021 Update …Local data for previous coastal flooding occurrences are not collected by the City of Lynn. The best available local data is for Essex County through the National Climatic Data Center. As noted in the SHMCAP, Eastern Essex County, which includes the City of Lynn, reported 27 coastal flooding events between 2006 and 2017. Essex County also experienced the most FEMA flood disaster declarations in the state between 1954 and 2017; total property damage assessed at approximately $7 million.”

Meanwhile, in an interview this week, Flynn warned that “an environmental disaster” caused by the marina building blowing out and falling into the Saugus River could lead to an indefinite shutdown that would impact the “the general public, including Lynn and Saugus taxpayers, abutters and commuters.”

“Since everyone involved denies responsibility and buries their heads in the sand, we are headed to court with a strong request for an injunction to stop the project,” Flynn told The Saugus Advocate.

“We have served the interested parties. It will be filed with Essex County Superior Court in the next few days,” he said.

“Never a problem until this project”

As part of the bridge replacement project connecting Saugus and Lynn, MassDOT took a 19,000-square-foot, five-year easement in 2018 and then renewed the easement in 2023 for another four years.

“For 6+ years now, there has been heavy construction with massive equipment right up against our building,” Flynn said. “MassDOT has the right to do this until at least 2027, which will be nine years!!”

“MassDOT’s contractor is SPS New England. Look at the equipment they have been pounding away with. Our primary building has housed a marina for over 30 years,” the attorney said.

“It was built about 70 years ago. Never a problem until this project, and now the building is unstable and has been deemed by the City of Lynn to be uninhabitable. SPS and MassDOT say their project is a non-issue and has nothing to do with our land/building structural problems, not even a 1% factor,” he said.

“They say the normal changing tide did this and has nothing to do with the vibrations, soil removal and dredging by SPS. Totally absurd! My clients had to recently vacate the marina building and may be put out of business,” he said.

“Even the SPS project manager acknowledged that Western Avenue at the bridge site flooded two weeks ago and the water was directed under the foundation of the Marina Building,” he said. “We have the 30 year Marina tenant and photos from the 1990s showing the building and the land after almost 50 years with no tidal erosion. DOT/SPS arrive and start working and then the 10′ to 12′ of erosion commenced and the building destabilized from just normal tides? During the decades of time the same tides prior to the takings the property had almost zero erosion until the enormous 2 Bridge Project arrived. SPS is now dredging the Saugus River abutting our property with 6′ to 8′ trenches impacting the tide and removing soil support for our building.”

Here are some highlights of Flynn’s motion:

• It alleges that heavy construction equipment used by SPS New England, Inc. resulted in significant structural damage. “The SPS construction activities during the entirety of this project have involved various massive pieces of heavy construction equipment, which has been set up right against the plaintiff’s building,” according to the motion.

“This includes piledrivers and other huge machinery used for intrusive, heavy construction that causes significant vibrations on a daily basis. Attached as Exhibit C are just a few of many photos taken over the past couple of years illustrating the very close proximity of the heavy equipment and the plaintiff’s building.

“The building at issue is a 125 ft x 25 ft steel-frame building, which has for decades been occupied by the plaintiffs’ longtime tenant, a fully operational marina. Inside the building is a retail business, areas for boat repairs and storage, and other similar marina-related equipment and Operations.”

• At a recent meeting involving all parties, MassDOT and SPS formally took the position that the structural issues were caused exclusively by the tide and have nothing whatsoever to do with the massive construction occurring for years only inches from the building. “This is truly absurd. Before MassDOT and SPS came along, the building stood without issue for approximately 75 years,” the motion stated. “Further, MassDOT relies on a 250-page structural analysis, which is almost entirely photographs and which fails to even mention that MassDOT and SPS have been controlling the site and running massive construction for years.”
• SPS sent representatives into the office of the City of Lynn’s Inspectional Services to file a complaint that the marina building was unsafe, and this complaint prompted the City to issue an Order dated December 12, 2024, which commanded that the plaintiff “make safe and secure the building.”

“It bears repeating that the plaintiff is the bystander and the landowner whose property was taken by eminent domain, and SPS is the general contractor performing MassDOT’s construction on the areas of the property which the Commonwealth took and controls,” Flynn wrote in his motion. “It is unconscionable and disingenuous, at best, for SPS or any other MassDOT agent or contractor to unilaterally file a formal complaint with the city about the condition of the property they have taken over, control, and have extensively damaged over the past six years.”

• Carmine Guarracino, P.E., of Roome & Guarracino Structural Engineers, produced a report for the marina in which a rough estimate of the cost to repair the damages would be approximately $750,000 – $850,000. The structural engineer expressed the view that “this problem will continue to worsen as the bridge project advances. From past, current, and future construction there will be negative impacts to the property.”

“The repairs recommended in this restricted letter report describe only the general nature and scope of the work required to bring the building towards pre-existing conditions pre 2022 – 2023 where the building was safe as part of the marina/retail operation,” that report stated.

“The continuing nature of the project will make remediation for the landowner a catch 22. Even if it is repaired now the construction and dredging could undermine those efforts two or three years from now.”

“MassDOT/SPS has unrestricted use of almost 18,000 sf of the owner’s property for construction purposes until November 2027.”