Streetsblog Mass reports the MBTA is warning commuter-rail could come to a screeching halt "within weeks" if its parent agency, MassDOT, goes ahead with its plans to tear down the Grand Junction rail bridge under the BU Bridge as part of its plans to completely rebuild the turnpike where the Allston tolls used to be. Read more
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that MassDOT went too far in telling the owner of a small parcel between Cypher and B streets that it was just going to build tracks and facilities for testing new Red Line cars on the land with no compensation whatsoever. Read more.
MassDOT today announced a flurry of new names for its snow-plow and salting trucks, selected from entries by public-school kids across the state: Flurry Fighter, Luke Snowalker, Plower Ranger, Sherlock Snowmes, Snowdrop, Arctic Beast, Sled Zeppelin, Snow day No Way, Blizzard Wizard, Snow Big Deal, Snow Time to Lose, and Blizzard of Oz. Read more.
Seems MassDOT figured a right of way within 100 feet of Chelsea Housing Authority apartments was just the place to dump the remains of a project in Saugus and Lynn. City officials and a local environmental group are outraged and the state Department of Environmental Protection, which says nobody asked it about where ditch the stuff, is now trying to get it all removed.
Parcel 25; steam plant and Reggie Wong Park not included.
The MassDOT board today approved a 99-year lease for construction of a new building between Kneeland, Lincoln and Albany streets that would include a deck over a part of I-93. Read more.
WFXT reports state officials might have to push back a planned 2022 start for a ten-year program to replace the current Allston/Cambridge turnpike interchange because of mounting opposition to a proposal to build a bridge over the Charles while the work is being done.
People living near the "temporary" Forest Hills T bus depot could probably speak to how temporary "temporary" is around here.
State senators and representatives from either side of the Longfellow Bridge want the state to keep the "flex posts" that separate the Longfellow bike lanes from cars over the winter. Read more.
Saratoga Street, just past Brooks, this morning. From this 311 complaint.
More than a year ago, state transportation planners showed off their plans to ease congestion at the entrance to the Sumner Tunnel after the toll plaza was removed, and promised residents would soon see relief.
Whatever they did, didn't work, residents say. Read more.
Do you know what it takes to park a train? To create a place to park a train? Are you aware of the almost trivial simplicity of this task? Well, the MassDOT is quite aware that the public (including elected officials) have no clue, and are thus ripe for the type of manipulation which they (and other public transit agencies) have perfected over the last few decades.
Tuesday’s meeting hosted by WalkBoston and the Charles River Conservancy about how MassDOT’s reconstruction of the Mass Pike in Allston can Unchoke the Charles River Throat brought out 150 people and a renewed emphasis on the need for the project to prioritize removing barriers, creating connections and healthy transportation. Read more.
MassDOT and the freight railroad CSX are battling the owner of a vacant parcel next to a currently dormant rail line behind the South Boston convention center over his proposal to lease out the space for construction companies to park their trucks there. Read more.
Galen Mook with three years of meeting minutes - "make this not just a highway project"
Support for better bus and rail transit dominated last night's meeting hosted by MassDOT on the Mass Pike Allston reconstruction project.
State transportation officials tonight detailed their latest plans to ease the traffic woes that have beset East Boston since the Sumner Tunnel toll plaza came down in May and was replaced by a new configuration of roadways, but skeptical residents were having none of it. Read more.
Two MassDOT workers at the Zipper Lane building on the Expressway have been placed on leave while State Police investigate whether that was a real pot plant they had in a window there, WCVB reports.
State Rep. Adrian Madaro (D-East Boston) is pissed off at the way his neighborhood's roads have become gridlocked after MassDOT removed the Sumner Tunnel toll plaza and modified the approaches to it a couple weeks ago.
In a letter to state Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack, he writes that rather than the "safer, smoother and more efficient commute" promised by MassDOT: Read more.
Reporting live from a salt pile in Weston.
Channels 7 and 25 began exclusive reporting from a MassDOT salt pile in Weston yesterday evening, more than 30 hours before the anticipated arrival of what Channel 25 tells us "won't be a winter wallop."
Exhausted evening reporters who reassured us the state had plenty of salt were replaced this morning by fresh reporters, who reassured us the salt pile had not disappeared overnight and was ready to be put to use in the first winter storm of the season. Read more.
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