Casey Overpass

[datadyne007]

LET THERE BE LIGHT

My thoughts exactly.

Pixels, great pix, but pleeeeeease resize them. The 5000x3400 resolution is brutal on page load times.

 

[Matthew]

I've finally figured out the meaning of Stonehenge.

It was an overpass in partial demolition...

 

[clayville]

...Since these Casey girders aren't covered with silver sealing paint or have any cloth wrap underneath to catch paint chips, they are guaranteed to not have any lead paint on them and MassDOT can just blitz away on the demo. If there was lead originally on the structure at all, it with certainty was scraped/blasted off during a previous repainting project and is 'clean' today.

Barletta is operating under the assumption that there IS lead paint on the main steel elements from sometime during their 60 year history. They're snipping girder steel rather than torching where they can, cutting it into truckable lengths and carting it offsite for "processing".

Or so they've said.

 

[GeneseeJunction]

Things are moving along, some pictures from this evening. Trying using these links from my Google Photos album. Apologies if they break as I've not used them before.

Former South St on ramp widened to 3 lanes to serve as the Arborway detour:

Washington Street finally back in the daylight:

The entire area already feels so much more open:

Pier M nearly nibbled away.

Heavy timber matts protect the commuter rail lines below:

Piers A-J remain to be removed:

Many bridge bearings are strewn able, finally set free:

 

[Randomgear]

Thanks for today's pics GeneseeJunction, I forgot my camera this evening.

Amazing how fast the demo is going.
From last night, a bit of torch work:

 

[pixelsand8]

Pier demolition from last night;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBNF-yU6UQg

 

[clayville]

Outstanding video! I'm perpetually astounded by how good these drivers are at what they do. And as a local: grateful they're doing the work as fast as they can.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

This thing's really gonna be all the way gone by 4th of July weekend, isn't it?

 

[clayville]

This thing's really gonna be all the way gone by 4th of July weekend, isn't it?

No such luck. The two piers west of Washington have now been demolished, and more decking and overhead girders than that... but it's a long Overpass and a complex site.

They're trying, though.

 

[GeneseeJunction]

Are they doing any sort of blasting? Last night between 11p and midnight I heard at least 4 very loud booms from the site, and I live a mile away. I wouldn't think they'd be doing that, or even dropping very heavy objects, given they're above the Orange Line and Commuter/NEC tracks, but the noises have been going on the last few nights and I initially thought they were thunder.

Also, will they be cutting into the Orange Line platforms? You can see the bridge pier arches down there too, or will they be leveling them off and leaving them in place? I assume those arches are down there because the causeway predates the actual station tunnels and headhouse.

 

[pixelsand8]

No such luck. The two piers west of Washington have now been demolished, and more decking and overhead girders than that... but it's a long Overpass and a complex site.

They're trying, though.

About a month ago when I was filming stuff on the site I talked to a superintendent who told me the whole project would take about four months. I'm unsure if he meant from that date (May 21) or the entire demolition, which had been underway for few weeks at this point. My guess is this means there will be major demo work for the duration of the summer. Then of course comes the new Arborway construction which is going to take much longer.

 

[clayville]

There has been and will be no blasting required.

I'm not positive if they'll be taking the piers all the way down beneath the platform - there was a significant grade change when the current station and New Washington Street was built, causing the roadway hump at Washington Street - but the current head house goes, the Orange line platform gets extended northward, and a a new head house with entrance/exit/elevator gets built north of the new Arborway.

On timelines: they've been fairly circumspect except for the "substantial completion" by 9/30/16 date, and they've said demolition will continue all summer. I've been told that the second full eastbound surface through-lane west of South Street won't come until September, after they've relocated a water main beneath the western abutment. That should immediately relieve some of the evening rush hour Arborway traffic.

 

[pixelsand8]

Outstanding video! I'm perpetually astounded by how good these drivers are at what they do. And as a local: grateful they're doing the work as fast as they can.

What impresses me the most isn't the drilling but picking up the wreckage afterwards to clean up the mess. The machines look like they are moving slow but they are actually being incredibly efficient - so much so that I'm having a hard time getting good video of it as they move too quick. The drilling looks easy by comparison, they just pick a spot on the massive target (these piers are huge) and blast away. It's much easier to film, here is a sample of the demolition from last night;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnkJMM89TTg

 

[clayville]

Here's a link to a Flickr album of phone pics showing Casey Overpass demolition to date. The most recent shots are first and show the effect of the removal of the last piers east of Washington/Hyde Park Ave, the opening up of views to the Courthouse, to the Ukrainian Church and to the Franklin Park Wilderness from the T station over the last few weeks.

Casey demo Flickr album

Night work is scheduled to begin Sunday 7/26 to remove the overhead girders above the #39 bus terminus at the station and above South Street - expected to last about a week, perhaps less.

For what it's worth in this neighbor's view, the traffic has not lived up to the "horrible disaster" billing - especially since commuters are driving through a major construction zone. Clearly. we're nowhere near the finished product for traffic patterns. But the effect of all the blue sky and open vistas make for a pretty remarkable change for the better.

 

[Schorschico]

Sorry if this has been answered before, but, looking at the images posted in this tread I don't understand how the 39 bus route is going to work at Forest Hills in the future. Any ideas?

 

[George_Apley]

Sorry if this has been answered before, but, looking at the images posted in this tread I don't understand how the 39 bus route is going to work at Forest Hills in the future. Any ideas?

Full disclosure: I've never taken the 39 bus.

Looking at the route, how would it change? Presumably it will cross the new square that realigns Washington Street's merge with South Street, and then turn onto the busway as it does now. Is that not possible for reasons I'm missing?

 

[clayville]

The #39 terminus at Forest Hills has been moved to the Upper Busway on the western side of the station which will be it's permanent home. That upper busway is to be expanded towards Ukraine Way to the south in the coming months.

Where the 39 used to turn around on the north side of the station under the overpass is to become a revamped plaza. The taxi stand will be relocated along that northern side of the plaza and there will be sidewalks and off-street bike paths in between the taxis and station. There will no longer be a mid-block crosswalk there.

I've detailed all this (and more) here:
A closer look at the southern portion

 

[Schorschico]

The #39 terminus at Forest Hills has been moved to the Upper Busway on the western side of the station which will be it's permanent home. That upper busway is to be expanded towards Ukraine Way to the south in the coming months.

Where the 39 used to turn around on the north side of the station under the overpass is to become a revamped plaza. The taxi stand will be relocated along that northern side of the plaza and there will be sidewalks and off-street bike paths in between the taxis and station. There will no longer be a mid-block crosswalk there.

I've detailed all this (and more) here:
A closer look at the southern portion

Thanks for the link! Nice blog.

I take from this sentence "Buses will enter from the south and exit to the north." that the 39 will do as the 38 does now: Turn left (East) coming from the North. The issue I have is that there is no light there (as far as I can see in the digram) and the 39 will come very often so I'm not sure if there will be problems with that. Also, from a practical point of view, it is great to be able to say "Take any bus there and it will take you to Roslindale Village. Wait! Except the 38... Wait! Except the 39 (that comes all the time)..." Oh well, nothing major lost.

 

[Scipio]

The DCR is working on three projects along the roads to the north of Casey, one at Perkins Street, one along Centre Street and one along the Arborway from Forest Hills to Jamaica Pond. More details here, the DCR is 2/3 of the way through the public meetings. It sounds like some of the designs will be finalized once the Casey project is finished.

The Centre Street meeting was earlier this week, and here’s a look at the DCR’s long-term vision for Murray Circle:

Does this remind anyone of anything? Cough cough Alewife?

 

[clayville]

I thought that closing image for the presentation on Wednesday was really misleading and unfortunate. In February this year, DCR held two large meetings and smaller charettes with stakeholders and the Toole Design Group concerning a plan to improve access and facilities on the Arborway between Jamaica Pond and Forest Hills. I wrote up the following about the presentation of their Starter Idea after those meetings:
Arborway Facilities

The traffic engineers who floated that spaghetti bowl above this week were not part of the February meetings and are not, I don't believe, part of next week's meeting either. Because of all that, I don't think this image should be considered either a preview of next week or an outcome of the work that has already been done.