Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

School street bridge been on construction 2 years and Medford street bridge 3 years, Taking too long, traffic is bad in the morning in this area
 
There is a whole Gilman Square SomerVision process, that is separate from the GLX. I think the GLX contractors are working to reopen the bridge in “the next few weeks.”

it's been so long, i no longer will be able to auto-pilot to twin city plaza via either school or medford -- gonna be weird! (looking forward to that weirdness though).

mostly unrelated: anyone know where they're planning on putting the old lion's head from the homann building (and where)? i know it's supposed to be somewhere in/near the new station, but no clue what context or exact location.
 
School street bridge been on construction 2 years and Medford street bridge 3 years, Taking too long, traffic is bad in the morning in this area
Really? I live in Magoun and besides the lack of streets beyond Lowell and Central that go from Medford St to Highland+, I don't miss these bridges in any way. IMO the lack of these bridges simplifies traffic patterns.

edit: My kid has gone to multiple day cares in the vicinity so I was driving/walking/etc for pickup and dropoff and never noticed any egregious traffic.
 
They could have demolished and rebuilt both bridges from scratch in less time. However, the back spans were considered cheaper and faster.
 
Yes Really!! I drive through that area in the morning heading to work
 
Medford st bridge making good progress finally
6A099D9F-11DB-48A0-B61E-D323542CAE8E.jpeg
 
The T only says “in the next few weeks” now. They have recently made a bunch of progress with the duct banks on both sides of the bridge, after months of leaving open trenches.

Not to go too off-topic, but I've always been curious about these duct banks. There are a ton still throughout Somerville and elsewhere with MBTA, MTA, or BERy manhole covers. I've always guessed they were leftover from the streetcar era. Anyone know if those are still owned or used by the T for anything these days?
 
I think all this electric posts and wires on railway are ugly!
 
Still think they are ugly!
That is a subjective take, and to each his own. I personally think overhead wires for transit look great, whether they're for HRT (Blue Line), for LRT, or for trackless trolleys (which unfortunately the few remaining are going away soon). I probably like the overhead transit wires because I grew up with them in North Cambridge, with first the trolley cars on Mass Ave (until 1958), and then the trackless trolleys, plus the countless other trackless trolley lines that were all over the metro area at the time. I'm not fond of overhead power and phone lines strung on utility poles in urban neighborhoods, but I do like the transit overhead wires.
 
Are there any plans to route the 96 bus onto the College Ave bridge over the GLX? Decades ago it used to take this straighter route, but was rerouted because of weight limitations on the College Ave bridge.
 
You can check out the static map for the T's proposal for BNR here. The new take on the 96 would be a game changer for Medford - much more of the city would get really good service connecting it to the rest of the system - OL (Malden Center), GL (Tufts / College Ave) and RL (Davis and Porter).
 
You can check out the static map for the T's proposal for BNR here. The new take on the 96 would be a game changer for Medford - much more of the city would get really good service connecting it to the rest of the system - OL (Malden Center), GL (Tufts / College Ave) and RL (Davis and Porter).

It's wild because the route 96 gets quite a bit of boardings on the Winthrop/George area because that's where everyone lives. The College Ave corridor has mostly the institutional uses, which will be well served by the new GLX station, but, of all the areas of South Medford, skipping Hillside --- after deciding not to build a station in the current iteration of the project, seems like rubbing salt in the wound from that battle.

For reference, the 2018 route profile from the Better Bus Project. Note how diminished the ridership is once you get to the stops around Tufts' facilities.

1653535011647.png
 
You can check out the static map for the T's proposal for BNR here. The new take on the 96 would be a game changer for Medford - much more of the city would get really good service connecting it to the rest of the system - OL (Malden Center), GL (Tufts / College Ave) and RL (Davis and Porter).
That draft map is really great. Thank you!
 

Back
Top