Bill Russell Bridge | North Washington St.

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From today's Capital Programs meeting
 
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It'll be a shame to see the last elevated bents in Boston go.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
You're right. With the Green Line being ripped down there is nothing left from the original els.
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Not quite. 1912 Charles Circle El is still going strong. And concrete Lechmere Viaduct isn't going anywhere.

That's an extreme-small pittance compared to just 16 years ago, but still not a total zero-out.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Not quite. 1912 Charles Circle El is still going strong. And concrete Lechmere Viaduct isn't going anywhere.

That's an extreme-small pittance compared to just 16 years ago, but still not a total zero-out.
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I knew someone was going to bring up the Charles Circle bit. I consider that more of a viaduct. And either one isn't the same as the old fashioned street shading els of yore.
 
It's interesting that Chicago could keep it's els, but Boston couldn't. Better maintenance?
 
Chicago would have had to totally rebuild it's downtown system unlike NYC and Boston where the els could either be removed and not replaced or removed and more easily replaced with subway or surface level lines. I don't know about maintenance though and that may have been a factor too.
 
They wanted to remove their els. But they proved too popular and useful, not to mention the city never got funding to build replacement subways through the Loop. So they were kind of stuck rehabbing them.
 
That's really weird about the bike lane being inbound only and super wide. It almost looks wide enough for a 2 direction bike lane on that one side. That bicyclist in your picture with the 2 cars coming up behind them is going to feel super pinched in a few seconds.
 
C-Town_Jeff said:
That's really weird about the bike lane being inbound only and super wide. It almost looks wide enough for a 2 direction bike lane on that one side. That bicyclist in your picture with the 2 cars coming up behind them is going to feel super pinched in a few seconds.
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The markings look like "sharrows" vs a bike lane indicator. I think this temp bridge is two lanes inbound, 1 outbound with bike and cars sharing that lane inbound and presumably sharing the one outbound lane.
 
cburns said:
The markings look like "sharrows" vs a bike lane indicator. I think this temp bridge is two lanes inbound, 1 outbound with bike and cars sharing that lane inbound and presumably sharing the one outbound lane.
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You're right. So why no sharrow markings outbound?
 
I like that they put the freedom trail red line down on the temp bridge.
 
The striping needs to be redone for one traffic lane each direction, flanked by dedicated bike lanes.
 
Charlie_mta said:
The striping needs to be redone for one traffic lane each direction, flanked by dedicated bike lanes.
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The 2 in and 1 out design was demanded by the community who was scared of a traffic apocalypse. Little did they know there would be a pandemic I guess. There's also the need to move buses through the bridge, several vital bus routes rely on it.
 
HelloBostonHi said:
I believe MUTCD or NACTO says no sharrows allowed on narrow, single lane roads. Also no purpose really, they're proven to do nothing.
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There is no such prohibition about Sharrow use. And yes they meaningless anyways. Wasn't that second SB lane supposed to be bus only?
 
Bike lane or not, this is still a vast improvement for cyclists compared to that nightmare inducing open grate bridge deck. Back before WFH I used to ride down the shoulders of Rutherford Ave and Gillmore Bridge no sweat, but drew the line at pedaling over that death trap.
 
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