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Turn around, don't drown at the Star Market
By adamg on Wed, 06/26/2024 - 9:59pm
At least three drivers got stuck in the raging floodwaters, well, deeper-than-it-looks lake that formed on Spring Street in front of the Star Market plaza in West Roxbury tonight.
The junior-grade Morrissey Boulevard always floods in heavy rains.
It's not a natural dip, though. It was dug at the turn of the 20th century so that trolleys could fit under the bridge built as part of a state program to reduce the number of railroad at-grade crossings, in this case for the train tracks that used to run between Dedham Center and what is now the Needham Line.
Both the trolleys and the commuter trains stopped running long ago, and the bridge was removed more than 50 years ago, yet the dip persists, never filled in.
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Comments
Ah, the Dedham Branch
Before 1906, when the line was built from West Roxbury to Needham Junction, all trains on the line went to Dedham. If memory serves, the New Haven Railroad refused permission for trolley companies to cross its tracks at grade. I believe that is why to this day the 59 bus in Needham, instead of crossing the track via Webster Street and taking a right onto Highland Avenue, takes a right a block earlier onto Hillside, then a left onto Hunnewell Street, which crosses over the track on a bridge. The 59 bus was once a streetcar, one of two that used to serve Needham.
Correct
The 59 bus was once the Middlesex & Boston trolley between Watertown Square and Needham. When the MBTA took over the M&B, the route number was originally 532, and then became 59 in 1982.
A separate trolley company, Needham & Boston Street Railway, was the other Needham trolley line that ran from the Charles River Loop. That was replaced by Dedham-Needham Transit, and that entity became defunct in 1979.
Morton Street...
Morton Street from Blue Hill Avenue to Circuit Drive had epic puddles last night.
Usually as I'm riding the but to work during storms the puddles on that stretch of the road heading towards Forest Hills cause a large fantail splash on one side of the bus or the other. Tonight the fantails were forming on both sides of the bus. It made it look and feel like I was riding in a speedboat!
Thankfully the bus never stalled and I made it to work on time.
I lived right across the
I lived right across the street from the supermarket, and it was always entertaining to sit on the porch and watch people try and drive through the floodwaters. I do remember a 36 bus screeching to a halt, banging a U-turn and going in the other direction is if to say, “not me, not today”.
Oh, good times… Good times
That first line of storms was worse than the main line
At least the main line went through pretty quickly - it was loud (at least Boston wasn't in the tornado warning that briefly popped up in Bristol and Plymouth counties) and wet but it was over in about 20 minutes.
The smaller first line was a train that just kept coming and coming for almost two hours - it ran more reliably than the T.
I've lived in the immediate
I've lived in the immediate area 20 years and never seen so much water in my yard and basement. It wasn't forecasted to be that bad and wow, it does make you think if that went on for a few days how screwed we'd be.
Spring Street
Sounds like an appropriate name - although Lake Street would work here, too.