Comm Ave Bridge Replacement.

Not sure if this has already been discussed, but why didn't they do the whole thing in one shot?
 
I don't have a reference handy to cite, but i recall hearing that they picked the 2 weeks of the year that had the least activity at BU and least traffic load...

As a brighton resident who commutes this stretch daily, I would rather just rip the bandage off and do 4 weeks straight rather than have to go through this again next summer.

And a general comment on the Peter Pan shuttles (ref. the discussion up-thread):
I have no political opinion about this, but I can say:
* They are 52-pax configured (more than a T-bus, I presume?)
* I have counted up to 16 of them in service simultaneously, between the queues at each terminus, in route, and circulating back to the start position. That's both a lot of busses and a lot of drivers...so it's not unreasonable to think it would have strained the T's existing staff + equipment.
* There have been MBTA staff present at each stop and termini...so this effort is certainly not entirely outsourced. It appears to be a joint effort.

So i guess I have no complaints about the shuttle service (which interestingly runs wayyy faster than the green line did on this stretch given that there's practically no traffic on Comm and most stoplights are flashing yellow). This has, ironically, shortened this stretch of my commute.

EDIT:
datadyne007 said:
Not quite sure what you are asking, but if it's why didn't they do both sides of the bridge, it's because they can't just close the entire Pike. They essentially are doing it all in one shot. One week on one side, another week on the other.
Click to expand...

^ I thought it was 2 weeks this summer + 2 weeks next summer...
 
datadyne007 said:
Not quite sure what you are asking, but if it's why didn't they do both sides of the bridge, it's because they can't just close the entire Pike. They essentially are doing it all in one shot. One week on one side, another week on the other. Whole thing is done Aug 14.
Click to expand...

I thought they are doing half the bridge this summer and the other half next summer? If so, I am wondering why they don't do both sides back to back? Or would the crews need too much time to get the barriers and lane closures moved?
 
They're doing the Comm Ave inbound side of the bridge this year, and the outbound side next year. I assume that's so they can maintain traffic over the bridge for pedestrians, cyclists and buses.
But in order to rebuild the inbound side of Comm Ave, they're closing down and diverting first the inbound side of the Mass. Pike, then the outbound. Remember the one crosses the other, so there's effectively 4 quadrants to rebuild one at a time.
 
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Data,

Cool video, but it seems to clearly show the WB lanes (northern side of the bridge) not being demo'd/replaced. My understanding is that the WB lanes will be replaced next summer.
 
ceo said:
They're doing the Comm Ave outbound side of the bridge this year, and the inbound side next year. I assume that's so they can maintain traffic over the bridge for pedestrians, cyclists and buses.
But in order to rebuild the outbound side of Comm Ave, they're closing down and diverting first the inbound side of the Mass. Pike, then the outbound. Remember the one crosses the other, so there's effectively 4 quadrants to rebuild one at a time.
Click to expand...

Well said, but just so everyone has it clear, you've got the comm ave inbound/outbound reversed...
 
My bad, I forgot how wide it actually is. Thanks for the correction. Posts removed.
 
For people wondering why they did not do both side in one year, sequentially, you are missing the massive scale of this effort.

The closure of one side of Comm. Ave. and actual direct construction is 18 days (not 2 weeks). But there was staging work underway for a solid 2 months before that closure. You could not do the staging for both sides in sequence, so the entire process needed to be split into two operations.

You can only do the rapid demolition and rebuild (18 days) if you have all the careful staging in place first.
 
JeffDowntown said:
For people wondering why they did not do both side in one year, sequentially, you are missing the massive scale of this effort.

The closure of one side of Comm. Ave. and actual direct construction is 18 days (not 2 weeks). But there was staging work underway for a solid 2 months before that closure. You could not do the staging for both sides in sequence, so the entire process needed to be split into two operations.

You can only do the rapid demolition and rebuild (18 days) if you have all the careful staging in place first.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the detailed explanation.
 
ceo said:
They're doing the Comm Ave outbound side of the bridge this year, and the inbound side next year. I assume that's so they can maintain traffic over the bridge for pedestrians, cyclists and buses.
But in order to rebuild the outbound side of Comm Ave, they're closing down and diverting first the inbound side of the Mass. Pike, then the outbound. Remember the one crosses the other, so there's effectively 4 quadrants to rebuild one at a time.
Click to expand...

They've also put a crane on the outbound side of Comm Ave during the second half of this week, so cyclists and buses are using the on and off ramps on the BU Bridge as a single lane.
 
They've also put a crane on the outbound side of Comm Ave during the second half of this week, so cyclists and buses are using the on and off ramps on the BU Bridge as a single lane.
Click to expand...

Yeah I noticed this yesterday when I went through on my bike. It was definitely a bit confusing as there weren't any markings or anything. The good thing is there are lots of police directing the bus, bike, and ped traffic.
 
mass88 said:
Not sure if this has already been discussed, but why didn't they do the whole thing in one shot?
Click to expand...

A few reasons. They wanted to maintain pedestrian, bike and transit traffic (buses) across the bridge and maintain a way for emergency vehicles to still get through. The other major reason is they decided to avoid unwanted and unneeded delays they would relocate all the utilities. All utilities are currently being carried under the Westbound lanes. This fall/winter and spring of 2018 all the utilities will be relocated from the Westbound side onto the new bridge on the Eastbound side.

Also has been discussed before but the DOT scheduled this work after 4th of July and before Labor Day when BU kids will return as well as most traffic. I don't think they thought they could get it done in that small amount of time.
 
Thanks matredsoxfan...the utilities relocation piece was the last missing factor for me. Now it makes sense.

I totally agree staging is hard in general, and that the work scope here is really complex.

But I see the utilities piece as the make-or-break....because where I used to live, I'd witnessed several large highway bridges on I-93 replaced quickly even though the deck was similar sized. The difference though is that there were probably zero significant utilities running through them (and no light rail!), whereas this bridge is the major utilities conduit for the entire adjoining neighborhood.
 
bigpicture7 said:
Thanks matredsoxfan...the utilities relocation piece was the last missing factor for me. Now it makes sense.

I totally agree staging is hard in general, and that the work scope here is really complex.

But I see the utilities piece as the make-or-break....because where I used to live, I'd witnessed several large highway bridges on I-93 replaced quickly even though the deck was similar sized. The difference though is that there were probably zero significant utilities running through them (and no light rail!), whereas this bridge is the major utilities conduit for the entire adjoining neighborhood.
Click to expand...

A lot of the run up (sort of invisible) staging was the utility relocation. And they do it again next year as mentioned above.
 
RE: Bus shuttles.

I believe the universities (especially BU) use transit-style buses for their internal services. Would have made more sense to lease those.
 
jass said:
RE: Bus shuttles.

I believe the universities (especially BU) use transit-style buses for their internal services. Would have made more sense to lease those.
Click to expand...

Peter Pan was the only bidder, no one had transit buses they wanted to make available.
 
winstonoboogie said:
Peter Pan was the only bidder, no one had transit buses they wanted to make available.
Click to expand...

So is Paul Revere not providing any of the service? Some of the T's tweets had Paul Revere transit-style buses in the background.
 
They should have at least mandated two entry/exit doors.

On that note, anyone know why nearly all European coach buses have rear doors?
 
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