MBTA Construction Projects

[Beton Brut]

Re: T construction news

Like I said, you can live in a fantasy

Is there something you find particularly fantastical about taking issue vocally with an elected official who is willfully selling out his constituents?

(N)othing is going to get between DeLeo and his baby...ever since he got into power he has had nothing but this casino in his sights even if it eventually puts him in the slammer like his predecessors.

A baby to some, but to abutters, it's an abortion. You may be onto something, but I think Speaker DeLeo may be more comfortable in Bridgewater State Hospital.

No, I'm grounded in reality. It was going to happen no matter what I thought, I am not going to live in denial that my vote or my voice of opposition was going to change it.

I find your reality dispiriting. Are you any relation to Neville Chamberlain?

 

[EdFindlay]

Re: T construction news

Is there something you find particularly fantastical about taking issue vocally with an elected official who is willfully selling out his constituents?

A baby to some, but to abutters, it's an abortion. You may be onto something, but I think Speaker DeLeo may be more comfortable in Bridgewater State Hospital.

No. I strongly believe that it is fantastical to believe that something so far along that every politician in the state is trying to get a piece of the action is going to die because you say no.

Once you reach a certain level in the hierachy of Beacon Hill your consituents are secondary, your goals are primary and Mr. DeLeo has shown it too often to count that he could care less about the voters and what they want as long as his plans get moved forward the voters don't matter.

And it is more likely Fort Devens Hospital...where the federal felons end up. He ain't gonna settle on cheap state laws, he'll be like the others and break federal ones.

I find your reality dispiriting. Are you any relation to Neville Chamberlain

No.

 

[Boston02124]

Re: T construction news

today science park station

 

[datadyne007]

Re: T construction news

Woohoo!

 

[ant8904]

Re: T construction news

Hey Ed, just one thing I want to point out. While this board doesn't have much in terms of successful advocacy or even much advocacy in general. We have complained and seen many who stopped projects with great success. Not all, obviously, but the acronym NIMBY didn't reach mainstream recognition by failing every opposition attempt.

 

[mass88]

Re: T construction news

When is the elevator at Part Street due to be completed? Have they even made any serious progress? I could see through some of the boards and it didn't look much had been done yet.

 

[omaja]

Re: T construction news

I'm not sure but the glacial pace they seem to be implementing these elevator changes (the lawsuit that mandated the changes was back in 2006, right?) has me increasingly worried whenever they do decide to start work on Government Center. That will be an ongoing clusterfuck construction zone until the end of time.

 

[whighlander]

Re: T construction news

Best bet is to do the Science Park thing Close Gov't Center station to customers for 1+ years and fiish the job properly

 

[omaja]

Re: T construction news

That's easy to do with a station like Science Park that has less than a tenth of the traffic Government Centers sees. Putting a timeline and building in early-completion incentives would help, I think. Not sure that the MBTA has done that before and if they have, clearly they needed to budget more for it.

 

[whighlander]

Re: T construction news

That's easy to do with a station like Science Park that has less than a tenth of the traffic Government Centers sees. Putting a timeline and building in early-completion incentives would help, I think. Not sure that the MBTA has done that before and if they have, clearly they needed to budget more for it.

Good points -- but the reason that Science Park can be closed is that the T structured a very workable bus loop to replace it

I think that the same can be done by looping buses every 5 minutes from Park Street (Red/Green & by walking Orange) to Gov't Center (for local on/off traffic) to Haymarket (Green / Orange) to State (Blue / Orange) and then back to Park St.

This would also really highlight to the user the T's lack of an easy Red/Blue connection and also the incomplete walkabity linking the 4 core stations or at least all 4 lines

Note that a simple short pedestrian tunnel from DTX to State would almost remove the need for the bus

 

[mass88]

Re: T construction news

I'm not sure but the glacial pace they seem to be implementing these elevator changes (the lawsuit that mandated the changes was back in 2006, right?) has me increasingly worried whenever they do decide to start work on Government Center. That will be an ongoing clusterfuck construction zone until the end of time.

I have zero confidence that Government Center will come close to finishing on time and on budget. If they say it will take 2 years, I am going to double it. Same goes for cost.

 

[EdFindlay]

Re: T construction news

Good points -- but the reason that Science Park can be closed is that the T structured a very workable bus loop to replace it

I think that the same can be done by looping buses every 5 minutes from Park Street (Red/Green & by walking Orange) to Gov't Center (for local on/off traffic) to Haymarket (Green / Orange) to State (Blue / Orange) and then back to Park St.

This would also really highlight to the user the T's lack of an easy Red/Blue connection and also the incomplete walkabity linking the 4 core stations or at least all 4 lines

Note that a simple short pedestrian tunnel from DTX to State would almost remove the need for the bus

They are not going to close the station during the renovations, they will not close down one of their most important transfer stations let alone one of their busiest stations. And the bus service for Science Park has been such a problem to the point that the T is even saying "don't bother" asking people to walk instead of taking the shuttle buses.

 

[bbfen]

Re: T construction news

They are not going to close the station during the renovations, they will not close down one of their most important transfer stations let alone one of their busiest stations.

Care to place a healthy wager on your claim of not closing Government Center?

 

[EdFindlay]

Re: T construction news

Care to place a healthy wager on your claim of not closing Government Center?

They didn't close Arlington, Copley, Kenmore, Charles/MGH/, Maverick, State, Haymarket, North Station etc. for renovations and they kept it open for the 1960s renovation and relocation.

 

[datadyne007]

Re: T construction news

They didn't close Arlington, Copley, Kenmore, Charles/MGH/, Maverick, State, Haymarket, North Station etc. for renovations and they kept it open for the 1960s renovation and relocation.

Copley and friends took how many years? They're trying not to repeat the Copley/Arlington/Kenmore fiasco this time.

 

[Ron Newman]

Re: T construction news

Aquarium was closed for a year during platform extension and renovation, but that's hardly an essential station (it's a very short walk from State). Closing a transfer station would be a chaotic mess.

 

[armpitsOFmight]

Re: T construction news

 

[EdFindlay]

Re: T construction news

Copley and friends took how many years? They're trying not to repeat the Copley/Arlington/Kenmore fiasco this time.

Longer to build over a major daily nightmare that the closure will bring...longer will always win out there.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Re: T construction news

They're really hauling ass on Science Park. I'm starting to warm to this close-it-and-work-round-the-clock method, especially with how well it's working to date on the I-93 Medford bridges project. As long as there are no major debacles getting it over with, ripping the band-aid off fast seems like a better plan than years of disruption. They're actually incentivized to get it done within projections or face intense pressure. Time seems to become the enemy of too many bloated projects where budgets soar, less work gets done, and more people groan the less they get done. If inertia's going to be the death of every project, attack the inertia problem first instead of treating it as a constant.

Not to say trusting the T to finish GC cleanly doesn't scare the living bejeezus out of me, but I'd rather they try something different that has worked somewhere in dysfunctional MA public works than keep the station renovation losing streak going out of familiarity.

 

[omaja]

Re: T construction news

Isn't the solution as easy as building bigger incentives for on-time and early completion into the Government Center schedule? Closing it down entirely seems like a non-starter for just about everyone (the people who actually use the T, mostly) except the morons who proposed it in the first place. Taking out a fourth of the crucial downtown interchange stations for two years or more is simply crazy.

On time and early completion work can be done. It has to be incentivized and compensated for properly.