BU bridge

[jass]

So apparently there's not a thread for the BU bridge.

At least I couldn't find it.

Four years of construction, and no discussion? What is this?

Anyway, pictures from Monday. It's almost done.



First of all, the trees on Comm Ave, part of that project, grew really fast. They look great.

We enter the bridge

The stairs to nowhere are looking better than ever. So inviting.

Can't see the water below your feet anymore.

New color

The geese ha their habitat destroyed, but they live on

We arrive at the rotary tunnel of doom

Not quite done

Landing area has been widened considerably

Previous life

Apparently hundreds of millions don't buy you new traffic lights or compliant pedestrian buttons.

Doesnt everyone love random project boundaries? Lets end the sidewalk widening at the project border and not coordinate with anyone about that.

Anyway, across the bridge then

These lights arent to code, the traffic lights need to be beyond, not at the stop bar. Although personally I prefer them there.

Not done

Hadnt realized that the bridge above the bridge actually goes above yet another bridge

More stairs to nowhere

New light meets old light

Oh lovely, another arbitrary project boundary.

Yeah, no work was needed over here.

Everything looks fantastic

You dont see too many of these anymore.

FIN

 

[Ron Newman]

I expect the "Bicycles May Use Full Lane" signs will be taken down when the project is actually complete (and the bike lanes have been painted and the orange barrels removed)

 

[atlantaden]

Jass, thanks for the pictorial and accompanying dialogue; so appreciated for someone like me who rarely get's over to that part of town when I'm in town except for driving by on the Pike! Real nice, thanks! I couldn't help but notice the new graffiti on the "new color", photo!

 

[whighlander]

Jass, thanks for the pictorial and accompanying dialogue; so appreciated for someone like me who rarely get's over to that part of town when I'm in town except for driving by on the Pike! Real nice, thanks! I couldn't help but notice the new graffiti on the "new color", photo!

Excelent update -- by the way the wierd underpass complex (BU bridge & Rail Bridge at an angle) on Soldiers Field / Storrow (never sure where the transition occurs between them) now looks very nice as you wizz along in light traffic -- haven't been in heavy enogh traffic to study it in detail

 

[mass88]

Nice pictures. Would have been better if they used brighter street lights for the bridge. These remind me of the ones they put on the Neponset Bridge in Quincy.

 

[dshoost88]

Hadnt realized that the bridge above the bridge actually goes above yet another bridge

This is actually a very unique point. I don't recall if I read it on wikipedia or somewhere more official, but this point right here is the only place in the world where somebody can fly on an airplane over a car driving on a bridge over a train chugging along a train track over a guy riding his bicycle over a person rowing a boat on a river. Allegedly this is the only place in the world where that happens.

 

[HenryAlan]

I've read that line, but without the bike part. I don't think there is room for a boat under the bike bridge, so it's either a plane over a car over a train over a boat (or bicycle), but not 5 means of conveyance.

Although, a small submarine might work

 

[JohnAKeith]

So will pedestrians be able to walk down stairs to Storrow Drive bike path now?

 

[whighlander]

I've read that line, but without the bike part. I don't think there is room for a boat under the bike bridge, so it's either a plane over a car over a train over a boat (or bicycle), but not 5 means of conveyance.

Although, a small submarine might work

Henry -- if you've a Kyak and can perfotm the Eskimo Roll at the right time you could still meet the criteria as a rolled kyak doesn't need much clearance

Then you could have a scuba diver pass under the kyak and someone in a one person submarine pass under the diver and the Pièce de Résistance:

someone in a tunnel boring machine could dig their way under the bottom of the Charles

Above the BU Bridge you might stack: a hang glider; Blimp; airplane; orbital space craft

I think we've just created a chef d'œuvre des artes conceptual!

AKA "Thinking above and below the Bridge" -- Penser au-dessus et en dessous du pont

 

[BostonUrbEx]

This is actually a very unique point. I don't recall if I read it on wikipedia or somewhere more official, but this point right here is the only place in the world where somebody can fly on an airplane over a car driving on a bridge over a train chugging along a train track over a guy riding his bicycle over a person rowing a boat on a river. Allegedly this is the only place in the world where that happens.

If I recall correctly, it says that on WikiMapia (Mapia, not Pedia). I don't remember the bike part though.

 

[jass]

So will pedestrians be able to walk down stairs to Storrow Drive bike path now?

No.

 

[Ron Newman]

That is definitely needed, but was unfortunately beyond the scope of this project.

 

[jass]

That is definitely needed, but was unfortunately beyond the scope of this project.

Repainting the crosswalk wouldnt exactly have been costly.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

That is definitely needed, but was unfortunately beyond the scope of this project.

Umm just add those little metal ramp things they have all over Europe (and I've seen them on some bridges here too). Not rocket science, not expensive.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Drove it the other day when they finished the center pavement. Right shoulder was still coned off, but it was way better not hugging perilously close to the jersey barriers. They had a neat way of doing the deck work. The jersey barriers had toothed "tracks" over them like a rack railway, and they suspended machinery between the two barriers to put in the rebar and concrete. Never saw it in action, but they had the machine parked there last month when they were finishing the deck. Wonder if they're going to use that again for the Longfellow.

Sidewalks are WAAAAAY better. Widened enough that you don't risk getting flattened from behind by some BU undergrad who doesn't know that sidewalks aren't for bikes going 25 MPH. Lighting much better; was very dark and dank before. And no terrifying views of the Charles water through the deck big enough to swallow a baby! And it's so...gleaming white. The Storrow rail bridge, too...everything got a full sandblasting and paint job. Excellent restoration job; if this is setting the bar for the Longfellow restoration and the 3 bridges upstream we're going to have some absolutely gorgeous river crossings in 7 years when they're all done.

Wish they'd do something with the stairs to nowhere, like putting a fence-separated sidewalk under the overpass and better sidewalk overall to University Rd. It works on the other side where the Esplanade bike path hugs Storrow with no separation; bewildering that they've never done between the stairs. Still time for that...the stair paint job was very recent.

The park (such that it is) will get re-landscaped when they pull out the staging area. Underside of the bridge is still covered in tarp and has quite a bit of project work to do. They were prioritizing the deck. Of course, they re-landscaped the park barely 12 years ago and it disintegrated back into barren, trash-strewn, goose shit-contaminated wasteland in 4 years flat. I don't think that's changing until DCR gets its act together restoring the soil erosion disaster area on that whole side of the Charles between bridges. But try getting any improvements there without the Friends of the Charles Geese strapping a bomb to their chests and taking hostages (those people are insane).


The Comm Ave. crosswalk is on the Pike bridge, which is Pike property. It needs rehab because the deck is shit and every spring the B line gets slapped with a 10 MPH speed restriction because of potholes in the trackbed, but the Pike ownership means nobody can do anything to it until there's a MassHighway project with a Pike-specific line item. That's why the Comm Ave. makeover ends so abruptly right there.

 

[statler]

And it's so...gleaming white.

If I were a materials scientist I would spend all my off hours working on a way to keep concrete looking new permanently. It's so pretty when new but ages so, so terribly.

 

[whighlander]

The Comm Ave. crosswalk is on the Pike bridge, which is Pike property. It needs rehab because the deck is shit and every spring the B line gets slapped with a 10 MPH speed restriction because of potholes in the trackbed, but the Pike ownership means nobody can do anything to it until there's a MassHighway project with a Pike-specific line item. That's why the Comm Ave. makeover ends so abruptly right there.

F-Line -- I don't think Pike property relative to a bridge is operative -- the legislation which absorbed the Pike into the DOT did away with everything except the bonded indebtedness

i.e. Pike property is Commonwealth Property and the DOT can do as it pleases -- these days it's all up to the Div of Capital Management, as authorized by the Legislature, to buy, sell, lease, etc. any property which used to be controlled by the Mass Tunpike Authority

BOSTON‐CAMBRIDGE: DECK REPLACEMENT, B‐16‐007=C‐01‐004, ROUTE 2 OVER SOLDIERS FIELD ROAD & CHARLES RIVER (BU BRIDGE)

The project is scheduled to be completed in January 2012

the fulls schedulle of Charles River Bridge projects is at:
http://app1.massdot.state.ma.us/CharlesRiverBridges/downloads/Barchart_CRB Projects_080211.pdf

 

[whighlander]

So apparently there's not a thread for the BU bridge.

At least I couldn't find it.

Four years of construction, and no discussion? What is this?

The stairs to nowhere are looking better than ever. So inviting.

Can't see the water below your feet anymore.

More stairs to nowhere

FIN

Nos correspondants de français wil really appreciate the existential aspect of the "Stairs to Nowhere" having been refurbished as part of the reconstruction of the BU Bridge

 

[BostonUrbEx]

IT'S A HINT! They're ready for the removal of the Storrow.


</Wishful thinking.>

 

[Charlie_mta]

Photo from 1931 shows why the stairs were originally constructed. It also shows what Storrow Drive would look like as a boulevard rather than the current expressway: