The Mass. Department of Transportation posted this photo of the raging sinkhole that erupted under Green Line tracks between Chestnut Hill and Newton Center this morning, forcing commuters onto shuttle buses until the T can repair the damage.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!
Ad:
Comments
Nits to pick
By rsybuchanan
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 12:55pm
I believe that may have exceeded the spec for a sinkhole, and moved into "ravine" territory.
Simple description
By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 12:56pm
FAIL!
Why do you think the call it
By anon
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 1:20pm
Why do you think the call it Riverside?
Agree
By Eighthman
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 1:25pm
Yeah... sinkholes are by definition "holes," not gullies.
Another view of the sinkhole/ravine
By adamg
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 1:22pm
From the MBTA.
Wonder how deep those catenary supports go.
By roadman
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 1:25pm
It almost looks like the one on the left side of the photo is close to being completely undermined.
Does a tiny babbling brook....
By Michael Kerpan
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 1:31pm
... usually run under the tracks here?
Yeah, basically
By Kaz
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 2:29pm
Basically, this is the pass-through for water from a peat bog north of the tracks to drain down to Hammond Pond...which is almost ALWAYS very STILL water. The amount of water draining down there right now looks like 100x more than normal. The pond must be close to overrunning its banks by now. Its average depth is usually FOUR feet...I wish I knew how deep it was running now. It doesn't have very steep banks at all.
Holy Hannah!
By Lecil
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 2:20pm
And yes, I admit that isn't what I though when I first saw this picture, but I am at work after all.
And yes, this does look like it'll involve a lengthy and pricy fix. While waiting for my Boston College train for the next little while I will be casting sympathetic looks towards my Riverside bretheren.
You know...
By rsybuchanan
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 2:36pm
If they got up enough steam, they could probably clear the jump.
And now I have the theme music to the Dukes of Hazard stuck in my head. :P
The scene today
By adamg
Tue, 03/16/2010 - 9:57am
Here.
This could take WEEKS to repair!
By jinzilla20
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 1:47pm
What is the MBTA going to do for Riverside commuters from Newton? This could take WEEKS to repair!
I know the track between Newton Center and Newton Highlands runs by a lake, which can only exacerbate the sinkhole. In addition, the roads in Newton can become a parking lot during morning rush hour (thanks to all the school traffic), so shuttle buses are not an ideal long-term solution.
Is this by Hammond Pond
By EM Painter
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 2:16pm
This looks like it's near the Webster Conservation area, which is connected by Hammond Pond to the back of the Chestnut Hill Mall.
It does.
By Pete Nice
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 2:19pm
In fact, I think I recognize those fences in the back as those where the reindeer are held at the back of the conservation area. I think they are reindeer anyway.
sinkhole
By jperkins
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 2:33pm
The photos, based on the overhead lines does look like the Chestnut Hill reservation area. There is a very low wet area - to the left and to the right - before you get to the break in the fence were the train slows down for the trail. Doesn't take too much for that saturation to take old infrastructure away. BTW: that area is absolutely beautiful and wonderful to watch as the seasons change.
ETA for repairs?
By jinzilla20
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 2:38pm
I realize now that particular stream runs into Hammond Pond and not Crystal Lake, but it still could take awhile to repair.
What is the MBTA's plan for dealing with a prolonged service outage on the Riverside line? Again, shuttle buses may not be ideal during rush hour, especially if they result in 30+ minute delays on a regular (daily) basis.
"Several days"
By adamg
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 2:44pm
Was the estimate they just gave on TV, in the news conference where Patrick announced a state of emergency.
What are the other options
By anon
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 3:06pm
What are the other options beyond buses until it is fixed?
Run special commuter trains to Riverside station?
By Ron Newman
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 4:10pm
That's what the T did for a few days after the 1996 flood. But it doesn't much help anyone in between Riverside and Reservoir.
heliocopters
By anon
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 8:49pm
heliocopters
This can't be good. I don't
By anon
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 2:05pm
This can't be good. I don't expect that this will be fixed very quickly.
It also looks like there is a house just a little downstream. If it had a basement, it's probably an indoor pool now.
Drainage
By Anon
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 2:14pm
I do believe that they ought to do something about that drainage problem.
Preventative maintenance and good design: that's the MBTA's motto!
Part of the Problem??
By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 2:48pm
Could part of this problem be that some city/town or the DCR has responsibility for the drainage and culvert, while the MBTA has the tracks?
That sort of balkanization of responsibilities contributes a great deal to Massbackwardness when it comes to proper maintenance and effective design.
location
By anon
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 2:29pm
The house in the background of the first photo is east of Newton Centre. There is a small brook that usually begins there as an open watercourse, but this is obviously what feeds that. It is not near Crystal Lake, which is between Newton Centre and Newton Highlands. I am surprised that this is so large, because the street drainage in this area is mostly parallel to the tracks. There is a large woodland south of the tracks along here, and parhaps the ground is saturated back in there, so surface runoff is just overwhelming the normal drainage courses.
I think there is a small culvert here. Or was.
Newton Center guy
Large culvert
By Anon
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 3:15pm
The small culvert is now a large culvert.
Whoa!!
By jules
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 3:01pm
And here I was getting pissed off that they were shuttling us. Good god!
D Line now 2 trains and 2 buses?
By Anon
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 3:17pm
Do I know understand this correctly?
If you are at Riverside and want to get downtown on the Green Line, you have to:
Can't they just run some "express" shuttles from Riverside to Kenmore?
What a pain. A better
By Rachel
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 4:23pm
What a pain. A better option, though, is to walk a couple minutes from Reservoir to Cleveland Circle and just take the C line downtown. (Still annoying, I know.)
The T has re-opened the section of the D line between
By roadman
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 4:34pm
Fenway and Kenmore. So it's now a bus from Riverside to Reservoir, and a train from there all the way into Downtown Boston.
It's a no-win situation.
By anon
Tue, 03/16/2010 - 5:12am
(shakes head)
If you're heading downtown,
By Aleks
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 4:27pm
If you're heading downtown, I'd recommend you take the C line from Cleveland Circle instead of the D line at Reservoir. That way it's just one bus and one train.
Express bus route from Riverside
By Sarcastic Sam
Tue, 03/16/2010 - 9:51am
There's an express bus route from Riverside to Downtown. Doesn't stop at Kenmore though. I imagine that's a popular route lately.
Here's the spot
By Eighthman
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 4:05pm
NECN said the break was near Glen Ave. in Newton, so I looked it up. Here's the spot matching the scene:
Green Line washout.
Confusing
By Kaz
Mon, 03/15/2010 - 4:38pm
Why would it try to undercut the tracks there?
"Downhill" is still down track to the east towards the bog and Hammond Pond. Sure, the south side of the track is lower than the north side, but the tracks are raised and there should have been drainage down the north side of the tracks to some sort of passage underneath further down...
Did those private houses north of the tracks on the hillside put in some sort of gully that is pressurizing the flow off the hill and straight into the side of the track bed?? It looks like the combination of the property line and the looooong downhill driveway for the closest house have made a funnel for all of the rain water coming off of that hill. Nice work, fellas. Nice work.