I-93 Southbound Lanes To Close Friday Night: Patch PM

WILMINGTON, MA — It's Friday, Feb. 19. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• Two Interstate 93 travel lanes in Wilmington will be closed for bridge repairs tonight.
• Some … good news? The state said its coronavirus shipment arrived from the federal government — three days earlier than expected after a delay — potentially saving vaccination appointments that otherwise would have been canceled.
• State lawmakers have questions, and they want Gov. Charlie Baker to be the one who gives the answers.

Scroll down for those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Friday's Top Story

Two Interstate 93 travel lanes will be closed overnight Friday in Wilmington for repairs, MassDOT Said.

The two right lanes on I-93 Southbound near Exit 41 (Route 125) in Wilmington will be closed from 7 p.m. Friday to 9 a.m. Saturday.

The closure will allow crews to begin repairs on the bridge carrying Route 125 over the interstate. Additional work to complete the repairs will be needed at a later date.

The damage is the result of a Feb. 10 accident when a too-high trash truck hit a beam on the bridge. Since then, both the on-ramp from Route 126 to I-93 Southbound and the right lane of Route 126 Westbound on the bridge have been closed.

ONLY ON PATCH: President Joe Biden penned an op-ed exclusive to Patch about the president’s plan to end the pandemic.

Nearby News

• Woburn Council Approves Mayor's Library Bill, More Trustees Resign
• North Andover Town Manager Proposes 0.95% Budget Hike
• $27K Raised For Wilmington Barber Hurt In Freak Accident
• Andover Selectman Dan Koh To Rejoin Marty Walsh: Reports

Today’s Other Top Stories In Massachusetts

Close call: Coronavirus vaccination appointments will continue as scheduled after the state received its shipment of doses from the federal government, a supply that was not thought to arrive until next week. The COVID-19 Command Center said Friday afternoon a shipment of 135,025 doses of the vaccine arrived, just one day after warning it would not get here until Monday due to winter weather. As a result, providers will not have to cancel appointments due to lack of supply, the state said.

They want Baker: There's no shortage of questions about how the Baker administration has approached its effort to vaccinate more than 4 million people. Legislators have critiqued everything from the governor's decision to allow healthy young people to get vaccinated alongside at-risk seniors to the delay in having a call center set up for people unable to book appointments online. And after Thursday, both Democrats and Republicans want answers as to why the state's appointment website crashed, despite the predictable surge in traffic as people aged 65 and older were allowed to try to sign up for the first time. (By State House News Service)

‘It’s torture’: Anger and frustration over the choppy state coronavirus vaccination rollout hit a new peak of exasperation on Thursday when the state's website crashed the day more than 1 million residents were newly eligible for the shot. North Shore residents expressed irritation not only about the crash — one day after Gov. Charlie Baker assured it would be able to withstand the crush of clicks — but also with the system that forced some to go through a long application process only to find out at the end there were no longer shots available at the Danvers mass vaccination site.

Maybe later?: This year's Boston Pride Parade and Festival will not be held in June due to the pandemic, the organization and city announced Friday morning. The Pride Parade and Festival may be held in the fall if possible. Boston Pride will instead be virtually celebrating its 50th anniversary. There will be a Pride Flag raising at City Hall Plaza and the Pride Lights ceremony honoring those affected by HIV/AIDS.