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Flippered state workers brave melting ice to remove Charles River cones
By adamg on Fri, 02/11/2022 - 2:34pm
Conemen at work on the Charles. Photo by Caroline Reeves.
Caroline Reeves of the Muddy Water Initiative reports that MassDOT divers (of course MassDOT has divers) today retrieved 131 traffic cones that some bike-lane hater had tossed over the side of the Mass. Ave. Bridge onto the iced-over Charles River last month.
Reeves reports her group - and others - had been pressing MassDOT for a couple weeks now to remove the cones before they became 1,500 pounds of plastic trash. A couple weeks ago, a couple of volunteers tried to retrieve the cones but were ordered off the ice by State Police.
Jane took video showing workers on the bridge hauling up the cones:
Only in Boston…. @universalhub pic.twitter.com/vAM7uWJqaH
— Jane (@croft_jane) February 11, 2022
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Comments
If they catch the one(s) doing it
I hope they catch whoever is doing this and the penalty includes paying the state back for the labor and equipment costs of the entire crew here for this operation.
Yes, but …
The MassDOT personnel on the bridge are probably not too overtaxed these days compared to construction season. And this is probably a decent training exercise for the divers (who I assume are State Police).
Bridges
MassDOT divers can inspect underwater bridge piers in waterways
This is where I point out
That a private citizen sought to do this for free two weeks ago when it was much colder and the ice was much more solid, but armed agents of the state unilaterally bullied him.
No, seriously (not you, OP, anyone in general), defend the existence of the Massachusetts State Police to me. I'll wait.
Would this private citizen sign a contract and agree to pay
all rescue costs if they indeed did fall through the ice? Or perhaps you're imagining that they would simply say in advance "no, I don't need rescuing even if I fall through".
Basically, I'm wondering how you think this should work instead.
I don't know
Because nobody bothered to ask him, he was merely shooed away from the scene by meatheads too stupid to think independently and/or work anywhere else.
Can we have another viral infection outbreak, please? We didn't as a people sufficiently learn how to leave everyone else the (expletive) alone the first time.
Sounds like you don't have a plan
It's all well and good to say "he offered, we should let him!" but it seems like you haven't really thought through the details.
If you think there are ways it could work out well, I'd like to hear them. If you don't actually have any concrete ideas but just don't like the idea of government, then you should just say that instead.
I like the idea of government
Because they do mail for cheap, and sometimes they own things like beaches and forests so that private entities can't take enjoyment of them away from everyone else.
I don't like when government gives someone $125K a year and a gun to pick fights with citizens. Whatever intervention you felt the ice-striding volunteer required wasn't worth it under those terms.
Said private citizen
Was massively underdressed for the task.
Not only monetary costs
Those people could be seriously injured doing that
MassDOT divers?
If I had to guess, I'd guess that those are MassDOT personnel on the bridge and State Police divers on the ice.
They have divers!
MassDOT Underwater Operations Inspection Team.
https://blog.mass.gov/transportation/massdot-highway/massdot-dive-team-i...
I didn't know they existed before now either but it makes sense, plenty of bridges have components in water that need to be maintained and inspected.
Cool
This actually does make sense but I am surprised that they don't contract it out. Still, I have learned something new today.
Now, I do wonder what they've been doing for the past two weeks, but maybe they figured today it would be easier to pry the cones out of the ice?
...past two weeks...
I'd imagine - two storms, a lot of salting & cleanup, and then pothole duty.
Cherry shaved ice cone,
Cherry shaved ice cone, please.
Shaved ice?
Might as well call it water ice around here, though that could be slush, Richie's isn't salty but sweet and salty might be good.
Snow cone.
Call 'em what you want
Just please explain to me why the damn things aren't common as mice around here.
Nice work!
I am just so glad that they were able to do this, successfully and safely.
50 degrees and sunny
Perfect day to walk on river ice.
In a drysuit.
In a drysuit.
Actually, that would be hot and sweaty.
I'm sure we never thought we
I'm sure we never thought we'd have to pay for this but we are because of asshole humans. These guys shouldn't have to risk their lives over shit like this.
Really?
How do we know it’s a bike lane hater?
Hard to imagine otherwise
Someone was dedicated enough to throw an entire bridge's worth of cones over the side and then come back and do it again when new cones were put down. That's not just someone who happened past and thought it might be fun to chuck a few cones. That's someone with a grudge, and I don't think it's a grudge against orange and white stripes.
All so stupid, too
The bridge empties into a single lane on one side, and smacks into a major intersection going the other way.
There is no need to have two lanes of cars. None.
People who whine about road narrowing don't understand the concept of "rate limiting factor". The rate limiter is the intersection capacity, not the number of lanes.
Yes, and …
Here's a blog post from some NEU students who analyzed the intersection and show that the issues are from poor traffic timing, not volume.