Word from the Somerville Bicycle Committee is "two more construction seasons" Clearly they're still doing subsurface utilities right now (at the top/Porter Sq end). Not sure what comes next, but a full-depth reconstruction is going to mean there's a whole lotta tearing up down-to-the-dirt that's going to happen next (2015) before smooth surfaces go in (2016).Has there been any update on when the Beacon St reconstruction project will begin? The utility work seems to have died down; I was hoping that they would have started the meat of the project by now.
Word from the Somerville Bicycle Committee is "two more construction seasons" Clearly they're still doing subsurface utilities right now (at the top/Porter Sq end). Not sure what comes next, but a full-depth reconstruction is going to mean there's a whole lotta tearing up down-to-the-dirt that's going to happen next (2015) before smooth surfaces go in (2016).
Thanks for the update. Certain portions of the street are becoming almost entirely unrideable; I've been avoiding some or all of it by taking Park St or going through Union, as I'm sure are hundreds of others. Can't wait for the new design to be completed.
Anyone know where I can rent a bakfiets/cargo bike in this weekend?
Adding "Beacon Street Bike Detour" signage, flipping the one way on Calvin , removing the temporal one-way on Concord, plus a couple stop sign tweaks like so could help.
#DCR Reconstruction of MVP path @ Boston Ave on Medford/Somerville/Arlington lines has progressed quickly, from unusable:
Yes, the Medford-side bank of the Mystic between Winchester and Somerville (and the stretch Matthew has documented, from the Rt 60 Arlington/Medford double rotary to the Boston@MVP) is tragically badly laid out:
- Lots of unused asphalt that could become a hardtop bikeway with just striping
- a Riverfront footpath that could become a permeable surface trail
- a crazy pile of parking (in a no-parking zone) and discarded granite curbs
- Harvard Ave being over-wide (perfect for a protected bike lane) as it crosses to/from Medford-Arlington
Soooo much potential there all almost-perfectly frustrated. Partly it is that nobody has done anything here since inner US 3 expressway from U-Haul through Winchester to US3@128 was cancelled (it was to run through exactly the places that are scruffiest)
I'm not exactly sure what's going on where the path joins the ancient stone bridge (originally carried the Middlesex Canal over the Mystic)--it is unclear to me what happened:
- Did the public ROW erode into the river?
- Is the homeowner attempting Adverse Possession while nobody's looking?
- Or did some over-enthusiastic Google Maps contributor draw a line that wasn't really there?
Brilliant work! Thanks so much for doing it and sharing! I read it as you do: that there is, today, a narrow dirt path on the river-side of the Stone Marker.It's just the state's own ill-placed guardrail that is blocking access to the river path. As for adverse possession, it can't be claimed against public lands so there's no danger of that.
Went out and rode the Northern Strand from Everett to Adams Ave. in Saugus yesterday. As previous posters have stated, the Malden section is now complete right up to the Revere town line. The Revere section is pretty rough- graded, yes, but especially south of Route 1 most of the surface is ballast. Signs are still up saying that the section will be completed in "Spring 2015" so hopefully they'll start surfacing soon. Saugus is at least surfaced, but the stone dust is very coarse and makes for rough/slow riding, even on a mountain bike.
For nearly five years, Renata von Tscharner has been advocating for the installation of underpasses at several bridges that connect Boston to Cambridge along the Charles River, so runners, pedestrians, and cyclists could enjoy a continuous path without having to stop at intersections and wait for cars to pass.
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Davey said in his letter to the Conservancy that if building an underpass into the Anderson Memorial Bridge is feasible, the state would also support a move to include similar tunnels as part of the River Street and Western Avenue Bridge reconstruction plans.
Those plans, however, remain up in the air, since Davey’s tenure as MassDOT Secretary could come to an end as Governor Deval Patrick leaves office. The construction timetable for both River Street and Western Avenue have also been pushed back to 2019.
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