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Comments
Harvard aka Mass Ave Bridge is suspended girder
By roadman
Fri, 10/27/2017 - 10:29am
design, But actual geometry and layout of girders is much different than Mianus bridge. Mianus span that collapsed was on superelevated curve, adding stresses not accounted for by designers. Also, drain ports had been paved over, causing water overrun that prematurely corroded attachment hardware in a way that could not be easily detected during routine inspections.
Is? Or was?
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 10/27/2017 - 10:57am
The old design had a number of commonalities that nearly immediately led to inspection and restrictions.
Like the Maine Turnpike.
By dmcboston
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 11:45am
Maine Turnpike was built before the Eisenhower Highway system so they can charge tolls. The Maine Turnpike Authority is totally self-funded, taking no money from the state or federal taxpayers.
The Canton to Peabody section of highway
By roadman
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 9:50am
cannot be tolled without the approval of FHWA, as it is part of Interstate 95.
And if you think that's easy to attain, just ask Pennsylvania - who tried three times to toll I-80 and were denied all three times.
Yes, Mass Pike is an Interstate (I-90). However, tolls existed before road got the Interstate designation, so they were grandfathered in.
I was just about to comment ...
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 10:17am
"Roadman would know the answer to this ..."
I couldn't find whether there was any final resolution to various Obama Administration and now Trump Administration initiatives to allow states to toll these roads. Maybe not yet.
What has changed this whole game is electronic tolling without toll booths to snarl traffic and cause accidents, coupled with shrinking Federal Highway funding.
UPDATE: recent article - program is limited - http://www.ttnews.com/articles/states-can-apply-in...
Trump Administration has hinted at
By roadman
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 10:09am
relaxing the current federal restrictions on tolling Interstate highways. However, as of yet, there have been no firm proposals from either the administration or Congress.
Failing Federal action to allow the practice, tolling Interstates in Massachusetts is a very risky gamble, as we could suddenly find ourselves losing a lot of Federal highway funds.
Pilot program
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 10:18am
There is a three state pilot program - just published in the Federal Register on October 20: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ipd/fact_sheets/tolling_p...
This is just this years version of a program
By roadman
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 10:27am
that has been around for awhile. And the requirements to qualify are fairly restrictive - see my post above.
Is it I-95 or 128 ?
By GregSE
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 11:04am
Some roads were built with Federal Highway Trust Fund money and states cannot impose tolls without waivers from the US DOT. For example, I95 south of Canton and north of Peabody.
Other roads built with state funding only - such as 128 - can become toll roads.
I90, aka the Pike, is another example.
The designation of 128 as I95 was pro forma and meant to help drivers from Florida who couldn't figure out how to get to Maine.
Every improvement made on "128" between Canton
By roadman
Fri, 10/27/2017 - 8:27am
and Peabody since 1974, with the exception of the sound walls between Reading and Lynnfield, have been Federally funded. That was part of the agreement when I-95 was canceled through Boaton and assigned to 128 instead.
The only things FHWA grandfathered in when the I-95 designation was assigned to 128 in late 1974 were the service plazas northbound in Lexington and the southbound in Newton.
The designation of 128 as I95
By Rob
Fri, 10/27/2017 - 9:38am
It was probably necessary and best to post 95 west/around Boston for sake of diverting traffic that didn't need to go through downtown - best to continuing numbering.
Thanks to the belting and crossing highways, it goes against the usual numbering convention for interstates, since you end up with a lower-numbered north-south interstate being east of a higher-numbered north-south interstate (for 30+ miles)
Technically, it could have been 93 to the west and 95 to the east (but the follow-the-number traffic would've run right through downtown),
Probably best and most technically accurate would've been 95 around to the west (as was done), designate the 30+ miles via Canton-Braintree-Milton-Boston-Somerville-Stoneham a three-digit interstate (probably I-193, since it's more accurately a spur than a belt) and "begin" I-93 in Stoneham/Woburn.
I wonder how many people supporting this
By UHub-fan
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 11:06am
have both jobs that require driving their own cars and are struggling to pay their bills.
You think this is bad?
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 11:31am
Take a look at how Indiana is actually accepting bids to toll an enormous amount of interstate without any clear mandate for this from the Federal government.
Much higher percentage of car-dependent folks in IN relative to MA.
Remember that Indiana was the state
By roadman
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 4:35pm
that also gave away their very profitable and generally well maintained toll road to a foreign entity in exchange for a one time cash payment.
Road is now in horrible shape as the current owner is pocketing funds, and the state is now in bad shape as they've lost a revenue stream.
Senator McGee
By roadman
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 11:19am
Wasn't he the same person who once filed a bill to change the name of Lynn to Ocean Park? The rationale behind the bill was that all the "Lynn Lynn City of Sin" rhymes were hurting the local economy.
Not that Ocean Park would have solved the problem.
Ocean Park, Ocean Park
As dangerous by day
As it is in the dark
Disclaimer- Grew up in Lynn, but escaped in 1990)
Fine…
By Jeff B
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 11:30am
But it should go to the roads. Tolls and congestion pricing are much better than fuel taxes (though fuel should have some tax to handle pollution). Still, the MBTA needs to pay its own weight too. Its incredibly cheap, and most of the funding goes into absurd union pensions.
Both systems should sustain themselves independent of one another, cars should not be a piggy bank for the T which doesn't serve most people who use routes like this anyway (or does so poorly) The T is also too cheap as it is relative to transit systems in other cities, and long overdue to be fully privatized and run at a slight surplus so it can handle maintenance like the transit in countries like Japan and Hong Kong.
So I'm all for this, but those who just want to throw money into the T are incapable of self-assessing what a joke that entire agency has been for too long because discussing running public services efficiently apparently has to come with a trigger warning for people who don't understand the benefits public-private partnerships tend to bring to municipalities.
Tolling is the least
By dm12
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 11:31am
Tolling is the least efficient manner with which to generate revenue for the roads.
Eliminate the tolls, increase the gas tax to cover, generate new use tax to cover electrics, call it a day.
Works for the Maine Turnpike.
By dmcboston
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 11:49am
They seem to have a very good maintenance and construction program.
Just raise the damn gas tax
By Russ
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 12:05pm
The gas tax is the fairest way to ensure everybody pays. Sure, drivers with cars which get worse gas mileage will pay more, but since they are also hurting the environment more, it's still fair.
Tax us Twice - fuel tax and tolls on the same miles
By anon
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 2:25pm
State law allows refund of fuel excise tax for miles traveled on the Pike rather than get taxed twice. Does the Senator plan to extend it or doubly tax drivers?
http://www.mass.gov/dor/individuals/taxpayer-help-...
Most polls show drivers willing to pay more if the money actually went to repairing and expanding roads. We can't trust them to not spend it on MBTA union pork and taking more shared travel lanes from drivers and giving them to cyclists who pay nothing.
If the bill claims to make things more fair and equitable, start by making bicycle traffic tickets cost as much as those for motor vehicles, have car insurance surcharges, and license/car suspensions if not paid. That would be fair, along with actual police enforcement. I've never seen a cop stop a cyclist at night for no headlight or running a red light.
Yawn
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 5:50pm
You aren't taxed twice. You are being charged a sum total of less than 100% for your chosen mode of transport with two different charge formats. You aren't "taxed twice" if you pay sales tax and income tax, either.
Although I would love it if gas tax and tolls went away and we just paid by the mile instead. Check the odo at the yearly inspection and pay the bill.
The reason bike fines don't cost much is simple: CYCLISTS DON'T KILL PEOPLE LIKE DRIVERS IN CARS DO! Talking tens of thousands of deaths versus tens of deaths. Making your manhood shrink because you saw a guy on a bike moving faster than you isn't a valid public health outcome.
If you've never seen a cop stop a cyclist for lacking a headlight, you need to get out more. If they let you.
Remedial math and finance courses are available at your community college - but I doubt that will help you learn to have a sense of proportion.
Not exactly news
By Mark-
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 7:25pm
I was wondering why the Globe wasn't in on this major breaking story. So I searched their website and discovered they had reported on it already...last April 4.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/04/03/mo...
No Surprise
By George Dickel
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 9:57pm
With the states push to get cars to have Easy Pass it was only a matter of time before more roads became toll roads.
Can't pass up free (unearned) money
By Cleary Squared
Sun, 11/05/2017 - 4:44pm
I'm betting that because of the all-electronic tolling on the Mass Turnpike - where they can levy a heavier toll on cars without EZPass transponders - the legislators are seeing this as a golden opportunity to toll heavily congested roads and bridges - or even city streets.
It's unearned money that the legislature doesn't have to lift a finger for. If the legislators had their way, they would charge $2.50 at the BU Bridge, put transponder trees all over the Longwood Medical Area, and even charge $5 regardless of plate or transponder during Sox games or snowstorms - and with that new captive audience, that general fund (which is where this money usually ends up) gets filled up pretty quickly.
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