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Our crumbling infrastructure: The hole that shut the Green Line on the Comm. Ave. bridge didn't just appear
By adamg on Fri, 07/10/2015 - 7:26pm
On July 6, Jason Glasgow posted about an alarming pothole in the bridge that carries Commonwealth Avenue over the turnpike.
Anybody else afraid that this huge piece of concrete from route 20 is going to fall on to the mass pike below? Called Mass DOT. Let's hope they do something. It seems to be falling a little bit each day.
Today the T suspended service because of the hole.
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Comments
They got right on it
after some debris fell on workers below today.
Google Plus, really?
Lol at warning people via Google Plus, but sad face at our state & nation's literally crumbling infrastructure. The condition of the deck on this bridge is alarming, especially between the tracks, which is why they've shut service. They know that more will crumble with trains passing through.
I always ask this question,
I always ask this question, how have we come to the point in this great nation where we cant afford to build or fix our infrastructure. I was driving through the masspike connector (tunnel between fort-point channel and ted Williams) and there are massive cracks in the concrete and the tunnel is only what, about 15 years old. It bothers me that infrastructure projects during the industrial revolution were done on the norm and now a days it's financially impossible. NYC is trying to build an 8.5 mile subway on 2nd ave and the price tag is about 17 billion dollars with a completion date of 2029. They only have funding for the 1st phase out of 4. NYC has over 750 miles of track. What i'm trying to get at is this is a direct result of massive inflation where our money is basically worthless. Furthermore these videos below can better explain my point(second one is hilarious).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFDe5kUUyT0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExBE651_vOY
Administrative costs have
Administrative costs have made construction exponentially expensive since the 1970s. More and more money is spent getting less and less actual work done. Most of the construction money is going to pushing paper instead of pushing dirt.
true but it's not sexy.
As per usual. Jon Stewart pointed out that repairs are not sexy. You build something new and a politician can put their name on it but maintenance never gets funded because there is no political reward. I wish we could vote someone out of office for letting the roads deteriorate but there are bigger priorities that get all of the attention.
Wrong John?
John Oliver did a show on infrastructure earlier this season.
As I mentioned in the other
As I mentioned in the other thread, MassDOT was already planning to replace this bridge starting in August 2016.
see http://brookline.wickedlocal.com/article/20150225/News/150227943/?Start=1
War
the answer is endless war going on 70 years. Carrying troops and bombing people on the other side of the planet is expensive. Like, REALLY fucking expensive. On the plus side like 12 people got filthy rich off of it.
Hokay ...
Yeah, Google+, the social network that some people still do use. He also sent me e-mail yesterday, which, I, in the fog that comes from anesthesia/sedative for one of those medical procedures us People of a Certain Age are supposed to get every 10 years, did not post, because, well, sleep beckoned more than e-mail. Had I been awake, you probably would've known about this 24 hours earlier.
Did you read the whole thing?
He said that he had reported it to DOT early in the description.
Might as well augment that with a general warning via social media.
you tell me
OK, fine. It's bad. We've got a limited budget. From which fund/agency do we take away money from to fix this?
Did anyone else read the
Did anyone else read the banana comment on the original google plus post
If It Was On Google Plus, Then Probably Not
I use G+ extensively.
It's not an American thing as they prefer closed platforms like Facebook and Twit.
I have more than 3000 followers and a lot of page views.
3,298 followers|5,657,752 views
It's great if you are comfortable making friends with strangers. Most of my friends think facebook sux. I was just getting advice about colitis from a wonderful Lao woman who lives in North Central Thailand and I've been consoling a Chamorro friend in Guam who just lost his wife.
It's valuable if you are a web content maker as it's a seamless layer with the rest of Google's suite such as You Tube, Blogger, search, maps and so on, while with Facefuck you get empty numbers.It's efficacy is slipping.
Massachusetts Tourism uses it and I promote the Commonwealth on their behalf. I also like the photo system much more than Flickr, where I have a ghost account I stopped using.
That aside, given American proclivities and social habits, it isn't that useful for letting locals know something unless you have a fat regional circle built.The absence of such Americans is one of its best features and the ones who do show up are pretty cool.
Banana for scale
Not sure what you mean by this comment but on the off chance this could be a fun learning opportunity, banana for scale is a fairly common meme in other corners of the internet (that aren't Google Plus).
I heard...
the bridge replacement is in design.
yikes
Every time I ride the B Line, I look at all the crumbling cement alongside the tracks, and feel incredibly nervous. Even when I walk down Comm Ave, and cross Essex St, I look at the rusted and crumbling metal pieces (no idea what they're called or what their function might be, but I assume they're some sort of joint to hold the bridge together), and feel distinctly uneasy.
Does anyone know how long it will take them to fix this? Can they even fix it without, like, rebuilding everything?
They are expansion joints to
They are expansion joints to absorb/isolate vibration and allow for seismic movement without catastrophic failure. They also accommodate natural expansion and contraction of the deck due to heat by isolating the bridge segment from the fixed road on land.
Two years
Design-build contract was awarded last month.
A separate project to rebuild the substructure has been on-going since last fall. That's why there's two lanes shut down on the Pike right now.
Beyond that, bridge deck replacement will require two major shutdowns of Comm Ave and partial shutdowns of the Mass Pike / commuter rail.
From the public hearing in February:
During shutdowns of Comm Ave only buses (57 and GL shuttle), emergency vehicles, people walking and biking will be allowed to pass through the project area above the overpass. All other vehicles will be directed on detours.
First shutdown will be about two weeks in August 2016, to replace 2 of the 3 bridge decks spanning the Pike. Second shutdown will be about two weeks (maybe shorter) in August 2017 to replace the final deck. During those shutdowns, commuter rail may be canceled or shuttle-bused during some weekends based on the contractor's determination. Mass Pike lanes will be reduced to 2 in each direction during peak commute periods, and further restricted off-hours.
In other words: Make some vacation plans for those months.
One wonders
Does that timetable get accelerated if the whole thing collapses in a cloud of dust?
thank you!
I shudder to think how those shutdowns will actually work out - but I won't be driving, so I won't care. Bwahaha.
It will also affect people
It will also affect people riding the Green Line, Commuter Rail, and 57 bus. And walkers and bikers. In other words, everyone.
After Years Of Rebuilding, Won't It Still Be Exactly The Same?!!
A couple 2 week shutdowns,
A couple 2 week shutdowns, that's nothing, government center station is being closed for 2 years. And riding the already reduced blue line from state street to Suffolk downs today went like this: they told us at state to cross over to the other side of the tracks and take the train back towards bowdoin. At bowdoin it turned back and headed towards wonderland, but stopped at maverick. Bus replacement to Suffolk downs, once enough buses came so we could get on. So 4 weeks total, sounds like the state really speeds things up when it comes to inconveniencing drivers.
"In other words: Make some
"In other words: Make some vacation plans for those months."
Gotta love how public works construction works in Boston. Just ... abandon the city for a couple months while it goes on.
Mass Dot
Reporting something to Mass Dot is like reporting it via telegraph wire. I have reported visible problems plain to see and yet 2-3 months nothing has been done to correct the issue.. Govenor Baker should take a good look at this state agency.
Feedback broken
Sometimes they hear and just don't respond the all the people notifying them. Its horrible customer service, but telling each caller why fixing anything takes so long would be a big drain on resources.
For example, the streetlights along Rt. 2 west of Alewife in Cambridge are usually not working. Its not just one or two but whole strings of them. For months or years at a time. Now, after many years of this, I see repair projects have made it on to the TIP sheets for scheduled/funded Boston MPO to repair the wiring. Its getting fixed, but took years.
It's been fixed
It was fixed yesterday -- maybe earlier, dunno.