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Downtown street shut for removal of icicles of doom
By adamg on Thu, 02/05/2015 - 9:22am
The Boston Fire Department ordered Purchase Street between Congress and Summer shut around 9:15 a.m. so workers could remove large icicles from buildings before they fall and impale somebody.
UPDATE: In removing icicles from 51 High St., which also fronts Purchase, firefighters discovered loose parapets. ISD requested to the scene.
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Comments
I've got an icicle like that
I've got an icicle like that that forms above my kitchen door. I call it the Icicle of Damocles.
I was near the corner of Arch
I was near the corner of Arch and Franklin about 5 years ago on a windy day when a parapet came down about 12 stories and crashed on the sidewalk about 10 feet in front of me. The thing must have weighed at least 20 pounds. Not a great way to die. Those roofs need to be inspected more often.
Totally agree...
I am paranoid about situations like that ... having seen all the movies in the "Final Destination" series doesn't help, too.
Winthrop Place
Last year, a bunch of ice dropped off of a fire escape. a couple people hid under the mini-Dunks awning, but I plastered myself to the wall until it was over.
Nobody hurt, but some of those chunks were very heavy, even after they hit and broke.
No surprise here
I had to call more than once to get a building inspected. The broken masonry on the sidewalk was clearly falling from the top of the building on Huntington ave. The clues were all there, but no one was paying attention. Only after I mentioned the pedestrian fatality from my old neighborhood was any action taken.
Maybe if there was a smartphone app that could warn you about falling projectiles, we wouldn't need to rely on the city to inspect basic infrastructure. That way everyone could keep there eyes down as they walk the streets AND we could 'shrink government' too.
A bit less elegant, but...
...if I were worried about imminent falling object, I'd probably try to drag a newspaper vending box or some other object onto the sidewalk and put a sign on it. It's a crude solution, but this strikes me as the sort of immediate problem that calls for an immediate warning.
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I've seen signs outside buildings downtown, and in Manhattan as well, warning of falling ice. But what are you going to do? Try to dodge it like you're in Galaga? I guess you just need to rely on luck or walk out in the street when you see such signs [and get hit by a car instead].
I'd take my chances with the
I'd take my chances with the car over being impaled by falling ice. That really freaks me out, for some reason.
Not walk down that sidewalk
No brainer really. That stuff will kill you.
"Falling rocks"
I've always wondered what good that road sign does. You can't exactly dodge the rocks if they start falling towards you and your car.
That's why they don't say
"Falling Rocks" anymore. The correct text is now "Fallen Rocks". From the 2009 MUTCD:
Note that this is a "may' condition. In other words, there is no requirement for agencies to use the sign.
To get back on the subject, I've found the "Caution Falling Ice" sandwich signs they put at the exit to the TD Garden an interesting irony. If they didn't have the big illuminated 'TD Garden" sign (which IMO is totally unnecessary and wasteful) on the side of the building in the first place, there'd be no place for the ice to form and eventually fall from.
51 High Street has been
51 High Street has been vacant for years and is crumbling everywhere. There are usually bricks on the sidewalk that have fallen out from around the door. It used to be a hardware store.
Indeed. Look at the Street
Indeed. Look at the Street View shot.
http://goo.gl/maps/kwUst