MassDOT reports engineers have concluded the spot repairs done over the weekend are good enough that the garage at the Alewife T stop can re-open for business at 5 a.m. on Monday. The state began a rolling shutdown of 500 spaces at a time in the garage after concrete plunged onto a car Wednesday.
During the weekend closure, crews were able to address additional areas of deteriorated concrete, inspect and cover expansion joints where appropriate, and secure the paths of travel for pedestrian and vehicular access to the garage. Following completion of the work, an engineering and safety assessment of the garage’s condition determined that the garage is safe for use. Both MBTA personnel and an independent engineering consultant conducted the assessment.
Still, just in case, the state will be "implementing further measures to enhance monitoring of the garage’s condition." These include shutting the garage overnight every day so that engineers can do nightly inspections.
In September, a contract is scheduled to begin a $5.7-million job to fix up the garage. The T had awarded the contract before the falling concrete made it realize there might be more pressing issues in the garage.
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Comments
Adorable!
By Alewife
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 6:37am
Adorable alewife fishies!
Nothing to joke about. This is becoming ALEWIFE-GATE
By anon
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 1:33pm
The FMCB just revealed they were NOT TOLD about the 2017 Alewife Report. The current transportation secretary, Stephanie Pollack, has had a propensity to conceal data from the FMCB and even the Governor. This is becoming: What did Pollack know and when did she know it.
It sounds like the MassDOT
By anon
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 7:45am
It sounds like the MassDOT traffic sign out on the street is still (Monday morning) announcing the garage is closed when it is open, causing some confusion.
The 'Jaws' effect
By anon
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 7:58am
The MBTA saying it's safe to go back in the garage reminds me of the Mayor of Amity Island overruling the chief of police decision to close the beaches because of shark attacks.
If you say "isolated spalling"
By roadman
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 1:02pm
most people will go "Huh, what?"
But if you say "concrete failing", you've got yourselves a panic on the 13th of August.
Nothing makes me feel all warm and fuzzy
By polarbare
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 8:08am
than an engineer telling me something is "good enough."
[img]https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/adventuretimew...
"The duct tape is holding
By anon
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 8:14am
"The duct tape is holding firm at this time. Situation normal."
I get what you're saying
By erik g
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 9:19am
but that's pretty much all engineers do, by definition. You can build things to whatever tolerance you want. If you build it to infinite tolerance, it will cost infinite money and take infinite time. If you build it to no tolerance, it will collapse under its own weight. Engineering is the fine art of finding the middle ground between the two.
That said, I'm more than a little nervous at the sequence and timing by the engineering folks here. "Yeah, the place has been deteriorating for years, and we finally spun up the machine to get things properly fixed. That job will take years and cost millions, but in the meantime, me and three buddies checked 20,000 square feet of high-ceilings and steel girders, in 3 days, and made all the fixes we needed to make to keep it safe. Yeah, I know I said it would take millions of dollars and years of work to actually fix it, but you can totally trust us that THIS time our quick fix worked and it won't rain deadly concrete on anyone in the next two months."
I trust the engineers
By Waquiot
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 9:24am
They're not like accountants, who are basically paid to spin numbers. If there were any dangers in the parking garage, no engineer worth their salt would sign off on anything saying it is safe. I mean, if they are wrong, they'd be in a ton of trouble.
My gut is that when whatever previous inspections took place and engineers found out the structure was in rough safe, the contract was advertised. When everything went down last week, they needed to find out what kind of quick fixes will allow use of the structure until permanent repairs are made. Everything seems above board.
Yeah but
By Scratchie
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 10:04am
I thought we were talking about MassDOT here.
Thanks Dukakis PR Dept
By anon
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 12:34pm
Sure. A poorly built Dukakis garage is fixed in two days. I can smell the BS from JP
Is that same level of trust...
By Subway Rob
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 1:55pm
the level that we were repeatedly told to have upon "completion" of the Big Dig, prior to the ceiling collapse that killed a person?
That involved a slew of politicians, suppliers & engineers who had their name behind it...and it cost someone's life, because of epoxy. "All's safe here", and then it wasn't.
My counterpoint is
By Waquiot
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 3:08pm
When were the ceiling panels inspected before they failed?
Judging from the inspections of other panels post failure, they were probably overdue for inspection. The issue with that failure was in the design and execution, and the firms that screwed up were charged with screwing up. Again, would you want to be the engineer that signed off on the structure being safe if you weren't sure it was?
Engineering failures happen all the time. Watch this quick video about just that. But as of today, I would feel much safe leaving my car in the Alewife parking garage than I would have on Friday.
As far as inspections...
By Subway Rob
Tue, 08/14/2018 - 1:40pm
they obviously did not occur. But you're inferring that had inspections occurred, the Big Dig collapse wouldn't have occurred at all.
It certainly would've helped in trying to intercept that collapse, but had there been inspection protocols already present & actively followed, you can't assume the requirements automatically would have been robust enough to catch the problem beforehand...that all depends on what we think should've been in place already vs what might've been put in place by the DOT (though ultimately, nothing was up to this point).
Again, ALL parties, from the epoxy manufacturer to the contractors to the DOT essentially "signed-off" on its safety by continuing work with questionable epoxy & not establishing some long-term monitoring program to observe anchor performance. Trust was put into these entities to get it right from the get-go, and there were failures across the board.
I'm not saying the garage isn't safe to a degree...I'm just saying, take the reassurance with a grain of salt.
Don't say "salt"!
By Rob
Tue, 08/14/2018 - 9:02am
Don't say "salt"!
Safe until it isn't
By BostonDog
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 9:55am
The Long Island bridge was deemed "good enough" (with restrictions) until suddenly it wasn't.
Alewife is not the Long Island Bridge and it isn't going to collapse. But reading between the lines on the Engineer/MBTA statement it leaves open the possibility they might suddenly shut the entire garage again.
The "millions of dollars and
By anon
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 4:28pm
The "millions of dollars and years of work to actually fix it" fix is the one that's good for 20-50 years.
The "me and three buddies checked 20,000 square feet of high-ceilings and steel girders, in 3 days, and made all the fixes we needed to make to keep it safe" is the one that'll hold for a month or two.
I don't see any dissonance between these two.
How Much
By anon
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 10:13am
Would you pay?
If you want something to last eons, it costs money that you probably don't want to spend.
"shutting the garage overnight"
By lbb
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 8:21am
"shutting the garage overnight" means what? No in and out? Or all the cars have to be out?
No overnight parking
By Ron Newman
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 12:31pm
Cars must be removed after the last Red Line train arrives for the night.
Hmmm
By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 1:14pm
I wonder if there are any cars in there that were abandoned some time ago, or how they prevent that from happening?
I guess this is a test. I assume that they towed any vehicles that are left in there. Would totally suck if you,say, drove in from Littleton and left your car there for the week while flying somewhere else far away.
They towed carts last week to
By anon
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 4:13pm
They towed carts last week to start the work. No cars were removed, they were relocated to a less crumbly portion of the same floor
This is a paid parking garage
By anon
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 4:33pm
This is a paid parking garage; they'd figure out fairly quickly if a car was simply abandoned there.
I like the Jaws effect comment
By O-FISH-L
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 9:19am
I like the Jaws effect comment. Very accurate.
I will also ask again if the MBTA has its own building inspectors or any preventive maintenance for garages? Most seem to be crumbling, even with all of the high six figure salaries. I don't see private cement garages crumbling as much, even with the same road salt, proximity to ocean etc.
My experience is city/town building inspectors avoid state property, see UMass Boston garage and many T garages falling apart. Maybe cut out a couple of the upper level management jobs and hire a few engineers to check these sites weekly. Only a matter of time before a catastrophe happens.
Why doesn't OSHA go after the
By Siaphti
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 9:41am
Why doesn't OSHA go after the MBTA for unsafe working conditions? Crumbling stations, garages, tunnels, poor ventilation, noise, toxic coatings, dust, oils, and chemicals would get private businesses heavily fined or shut down. Why isn't a state owned entity subject to the same level of scrutiny?
OSHA does not have any jurisdiction over the MBTA
By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 1:16pm
OSHA protections do not extend to public employees.
https://m.afscme.org/news/publications/workplace-h...
Yes they do
By ElizaLeila
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 2:50pm
Starting September 1
and
and
From: https://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/0...
Thanks!
By SwirlyGrrl
Tue, 08/14/2018 - 12:14am
I haven't worked with occupational health in a while - I somehow missed that.
Makes sense, but still requires individual states to act.
You're welcome
By ElizaLeila
Tue, 08/14/2018 - 8:35am
My place of business pushes OSHA with or without the State's action, thus my knowledge of the changes.
Oh, I know how this plays out
By tofu
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 10:06am
Oh, I know how this plays out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXSxnw
As an engineer, electrical,
By anon
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 12:08pm
As an engineer, electrical, who works for the T, I am constantly told to put equipment back into service against my recommendation. I always make sure there is a paper trail or am told to over a recorded phone line. If we did not make certain oversights, the trains would not run.
This is my surprised face
By Scratchie
Tue, 08/14/2018 - 10:33am
Thanks, at least, for trying to do the right thing, and for leaving an audit trail.
"Safe enough" is how my mom
By baustin
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 1:59pm
"Safe enough" is how my mom described my uncle Marty.
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