Quincy Sues Boston, State Agency, Over Bridge Project

Quincy officials sued Boston and state environmental regulators over a proposed bridge that would connect an island in Boston Harbor with a Quincy neighborhood.

The lawsuit filed last week seeks to overturn a decision by the Department of Environmental Protection in March, which said Quincy had no standing to object to the bridge to Long Island.

The lawsuit “is one piece of a broader argument that the city is making that this bridge plan is unsound and environmentally dangerous,” Chris Walker, Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch's chief of staff, told The Patriot Ledger on Monday.

The cities have been involved in a yearslong dispute over efforts to build a new bridge to the island to replace one demolished in 2015 after it was deemed unsafe.

Boston officials want to rebuild the bridge and open a substance use recovery center on the island. Long Island is part of Boston, but the only way to reach it by road is from the Quincy neighborhood of Squantum.

Quincy officials are opposed to the bridge over potential traffic problems, environmental issues and a fear that housing will be built on the island.

“Quincy has spent hundreds of thousands of its taxpayers’ dollars only to lose every appeal it has made with respect to this project,” Boston spokesperson Nick Martin said Monday. “The City of Boston fully expects to bid the reconstruction of the bridge this fall. We would welcome constructive conversations and not fruitless courtroom battles with the City of Quincy to advance our region’s shared recovery needs.”