128 Widening

Compared to the project's history, this is moving at lightning speed...
 
The New University Ave exit from SB on 95 is the first phase of the big Canton interchange project. Once they're done with that, and it looks like they might be in the next month or so, they'll move onto the Dedham Street portion and the complete rebuild and expansion of the Dedham Street overpass on 95.

I feel like to complete the stretch from Great Plain Ave to Route 1 is going on 4 years now, that seems like a very long time to me. Moving at a snails pace.
 
Drove this stretch of 128 today, traffic has been shifted at Route 9. Northbound traffic has been split and shifted to the left to replace the existing bridge over Route 9. The high speed lane has been shifted to the Southbound side separated by a barrier. Work continues to widen the Central Avenue bridge. New steel bridge girders have been installed for the 1st half of the new Highland Avenue bridge. New steel bridge girders are in the process of being installed for the new on-ramp to I-95 North from Kendrick Street. The first half of the New Kendrick Street bridge has been finished and opened to 3-lanes of traffic. The new off-ramp from I-95 SB to Kendrick Street is being worked on. Traffic has been shifted toward the median in both directions to accommodate the interchange construction at Kendrick Street. Construction of the new widened lanes is taking place in the median from Kendrick Street to the end of the project in Needham.

The biggest thing I have seen is they have opened the 4th lane and finished final paving from just North of Great Plain Avenue to Route 109 meaning no more breakdown lane travel in this section.

I have to say Barletta has done a great job so far with the 1st year almost over. They also have a milestone that MassDOT threw into the contract that traffic must be using the Kendrick Street interchange by Fall 2016.
 
Any reason why they didn't/can't/won't make the new forth lane an hov only when it's all done. No need for new infrastructure just signs
, maybe a closer dashed line and enforcement by police on the roads. Seems like it would be good to support 128 buses and carpools from offices as opposed to just inducing more single car trips.
 
So just found out MassDOT has a incentive/disincentive on the project.

The Kendrick Street Bridge, I-95 NB off Ramp and I-95 SB on Ramp must be opened to traffic by September 26th, 2016 and the contractor will receive $11,000 a day for every day the contractor finishes ahead of schedule up until August 20th, 2016. The contractor will also be fined $11,000 a day for every day later then September 26th, 2016. Total the contractor can receive a $407,000 bonus or the contractor will have to pay the same as a penalty for a late completion.

Substantial Completion of the entire project must be achieved by February 24th, 2019. The contractor can receive a $30,000 a day bonus for a early completion up until October 13th, 2018. The contractor will be fined $30,000 a day after February 24th, 2019 for a late completion. The contractor can receive a total of $4,020,000 bonus or will have to pay the same in a penalty for late completion.

Final Project completion is scheduled for April 25th, 2019.
 
matredsoxfan said:
So just found out MassDOT has a incentive/disincentive on the project.

The Kendrick Street Bridge, I-95 NB off Ramp and I-95 SB on Ramp must be opened to traffic by September 26th, 2016 and the contractor will receive $11,000 a day for every day the contractor finishes ahead of schedule up until August 20th, 2016. The contractor will also be fined $11,000 a day for every day later then September 26th, 2016. Total the contractor can receive a $407,000 bonus or the contractor will have to pay the same as a penalty for a late completion.

Substantial Completion of the entire project must be achieved by February 24th, 2019. The contractor can receive a $30,000 a day bonus for a early completion up until October 13th, 2018. The contractor will be fined $30,000 a day after February 24th, 2019 for a late completion. The contractor can receive a total of $4,020,000 bonus or will have to pay the same in a penalty for late completion.

Final Project completion is scheduled for April 25th, 2019.
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This project started in January 2015. I have a hard time understanding how this stretch of 128 can take 4 plus years to complete and that's assuming there aren't any delays.

Just look at how long it took them to finish the stretch from 109 to Great Plain Ave and there still is a bit of cleanup to be done on a couple of areas near exits.

Speaking of highway projects, work is scheduled to start this Spring on the Dedham Street overpass in Canton over 95 which is the second phase of work for the University Ave/93/95 interchange project. If everything goes to plan, work should start on the rebuilt 93/95 interchange Spring of 2017. Over the last few months a lot of soil sampling has taken place.
 
Its the bridges. They take forever, especially when you need to maintain traffic so each bridge becomes multiple phases with multiple lane shifts.
 
Yes the Dedham Street reconstruction/widening project will be open to bids on January 20th. The $42 Million project will Widen Dedham Street to 4-lanes, Widen the bridges over the Neponset River & Amtrak and replace the bridge over I-95 widening it to 5-lanes. Also a off-ramp from I-95 SB will be constructed.
 
The Dedham-Needham stretch is where the bridges took for-fucking-ever. 3 weeks ago they were still doing touch-up work on the sides of the Route 109 overpass. By contrast this Needham-Wellesley stretch is moving at blistering pace. Kendrick Street's already been shifted onto the new span, meaning the old one will probably be demolished by Christmas. All girders are in place for the new Highland Ave. span. Final jersey barrier median's already in place from 9 to Kendrick where all the lane-shifting is taking place, and drainage + final grading should be in place the whole rest of the way this week...meaning they'll be done with that one before ground freeze. It's basically just the remaining half of the Kendrick overpass, and the Highland new overpass + demo of the old one, stuff they can work on all winter. The Route 9 and Central Ave. bridges are the only time-consuming structures, and grading work on the Kendrick ramps will have to wait until ground that. They may even be able to open another mile of 4th lane south of Kendrick by year's end if all goes well on the median finish-up. They'll beat that 9/26/16 date handily.


Ironically, though, they have yet to take down the "breakdown lane travel permitted signs" north of 109. Southbound has a flashing no breakdown lane travel porta-sign...followed about 200 feet later by the old permanent sign that still has the working LED message saying that it's open. Northbound is unchanged. I get the logic of leaving those open through the holiday week, but they were still up as of this morning. What's the holdup? They can't even throw a tarp over it???
 
Jeez...I just drove this stretch for the first time in 2 months, and they have accomplished absolute bupkis this summer. No progress on the new Highland Ave. overpass, no progress on the still un-graded median south of Kendrick that hasn't been touched since last November, little fussing-around progress at the new Kendrick interchange, no further sound wall assembly, nothing apparent at the Central Ave. bridge, Route 9 bridge only about 30% renewed, and the heaviest concentration of equipment is still fluffing the pillows at the rock cliff north of Central that they shaved back 4 months ago (despite it not being on the highway footprint in the first place).

This is starting to look like a repeat of the Dedham segment that ground to a near-halt for a full year. Isn't this Needham contractor on a tight time limit of this Fall for spending the fed stimulus contribution to this segment? 'Cause it looks like things are careening towards levying contract penalties at the rate they're not-going.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Jeez...I just drove this stretch for the first time in 2 months, and they have accomplished absolute bupkis this summer. No progress on the new Highland Ave. overpass, no progress on the still un-graded median south of Kendrick that hasn't been touched since last November, little fussing-around progress at the new Kendrick interchange, no further sound wall assembly, nothing apparent at the Central Ave. bridge, Route 9 bridge only about 30% renewed, and the heaviest concentration of equipment is still fluffing the pillows at the rock cliff north of Central that they shaved back 4 months ago (despite it not being on the highway footprint in the first place).

This is starting to look like a repeat of the Dedham segment that ground to a near-halt for a full year. Isn't this Needham contractor on a tight time limit of this Fall for spending the fed stimulus contribution to this segment? 'Cause it looks like things are careening towards levying contract penalties at the rate they're not-going.
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Sheesh dude...
http://www.gribblenation.net/mass21/i95photos.html#addalane
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Jeez...I just drove this stretch for the first time in 2 months, and they have accomplished absolute bupkis this summer. No progress on the new Highland Ave. overpass, no progress on the still un-graded median south of Kendrick that hasn't been touched since last November, little fussing-around progress at the new Kendrick interchange, no further sound wall assembly, nothing apparent at the Central Ave. bridge, Route 9 bridge only about 30% renewed, and the heaviest concentration of equipment is still fluffing the pillows at the rock cliff north of Central that they shaved back 4 months ago (despite it not being on the highway footprint in the first place).

This is starting to look like a repeat of the Dedham segment that ground to a near-halt for a full year. Isn't this Needham contractor on a tight time limit of this Fall for spending the fed stimulus contribution to this segment? 'Cause it looks like things are careening towards levying contract penalties at the rate they're not-going.
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They broke ground on the stretch from Great Plain Ave to Route 9 in January of 2015 and the entire stretch is not expected to be done until Spring of 2019 - over 4 years. I always thought that seemed a bit long. I get that there will be a stretch of 3-4 month where work will slow due to snow and the cold. But I would think from April 16 - the end of November they would be going gangbusters. Work is scheduled to start in September 2017 on rebuilding the 93/95 interchange in Canton. It's going to be a double whammy for those people that travel 95 to get to work for a year and a half at least.

They have opened the off and on ramp at Kendrick Street which should go a long way to taking traffic off of Highland Ave. B and large they have made a lot of progress on Kendrick Street, but that must be due to a bonus for the contractor if they get the exit opened by this Fall. It looks like they're going to open up the new portion of the Highland Ave overpass in the next 3-4 weeks to traffic going from Needham into Newton so they can demolish the existing span to rebuild it.
 
So when we're done making the southern half of 128 4 lanes, will attention return to the northern half, particularly at Rt 3 and at I-93? And when it does, what's the right solution?

Even if we provide Commuter Rail for radial work trips, Saturday traffic for dispersed leisure/shopping trips is a terrible waste.

The reality is (has been) that Northern 128 is more active a set of O&Ds.

I detest the economics of induced demand (I like dynamic tolling and congestion charges and similar pay-for-what-you-demand schemes) but what's to be done--the large-floor-plate lab and office space in the suburbs is an important component in the metro area's economy. We can't just let sprawl strangle itself, can we?
 
I agree. The 95/93 interchange in Woburn is by far the worst in the state. I have to believe some temporary fixes are available before they make a flyover 10 years from ow. If anyone wants to experience it, try doing it during rush hour for a week and you'll grow to hate the Burlington/Woburn 128 area.
 
falcon42 said:
I agree. The 95/93 interchange in Woburn is by far the worst in the state. I have to believe some temporary fixes are available before they make a flyover 10 years from ow. If anyone wants to experience it, try doing it during rush hour for a week and you'll grow to hate the Burlington/Woburn 128 area.
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I would rank the 93/95 interchange in Woburn as one of the worst anywhere. The 93/95 interchange in Canton is almost as bad. You also have situations where there are not proper acceleration and deceleration lanes which makes entering and exiting the highway a mess. You can add 24 to the list as well, in the evening those going onto 24 south from 93 south south and 93 north back up traffic on 93 in both directions simply because you have 4 lanes or merging traffic going into 3 lanes once you hit 24.

A lot of the problem lies with the fact that we have insufficient road infrastructure in a lot of places where you have large commercial buildings. Take for example the large business park in Needham where TripAdvisor and Coke are. They are just now going to finally make the needed upgrades to handle the massive flow of traffic but the fact that it took them this long is unfortunate. I am not saying we need to be like Dallas, or Houston where we have 12 lane highways and constant highway expansion, but there are several key areas within the Boston metro area that could really use some upgrades that allow for a smarter design and smoother traffic patterns.
 
falcon42 said:
I agree. The 95/93 interchange in Woburn is by far the worst in the state. I have to believe some temporary fixes are available before they make a flyover 10 years from ow. If anyone wants to experience it, try doing it during rush hour for a week and you'll grow to hate the Burlington/Woburn 128 area.
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Stopping cars from cutting in last second from I93N to 128S in the morning would be a start. I am not sure if they could eat the right lane for a separated zipper merge, or if that would just push the backup elsewhere.

Once in a blue moon the state police will sit at that exit and pull over people. It really does not help to relieve traffic but it brings a little joy to my morning commute. However, typically I just avoid that mess and go the backroads to avoid that mess. On average it is about the same time, but far less infuriating.
 
The land drop on 128 just north of the interchange really really does not help things at all. Wouldn't be totally crazy to add a 4th lane on 128 from rt 28 up to the 95 split in Peabody (and then continue with an additional third lane on 128 from the Peabody split to 114)


And for real, why are they closing both carriageways @highland ave all weekend in November? Isn't the standard play to shift traffic onto one side of the highway and do one span, then repeat on the other side? WTF I can't imagine what its gonna be like having the entire highway closed there for 48 hours.
 
CSTH said:
The land drop on 128 just north of the interchange really really does not help things at all. Wouldn't be totally crazy to add a 4th lane on 128 from rt 28 up to the 95 split in Peabody (and then continue with an additional third lane on 128 from the Peabody split to 114).
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They must be thinking of doing this, because every bridge on 128 between Reading and Peabody is already bulbed-out for the extra lanes. If they replace the Hopkins St. overpass just past 93 in Woburn and two Route 1 overpass in Peabody they're pretty much ready to start grading the right shoulders for the add-a-lane.

It would obviously make no sense to do so until after the Reading clusterfuck is fixed, but it looks like some engineer built the 93-to-95 section with a lot of foresight.
 
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