General Infrastructure

DBM said:
This could be posted in a number of transportation threads currently ongoing, but it seems like this one is the most appropriate for now. Quite a dismissal/condemnation of Pollack's legacy, I suppose.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/02...portation-vision-leader-who-can-carry-it-out/
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I mean, I haven't read it, and likely won't until tomorrow, but Pollack was publicly weary of going to work under Baker, who pretty much held puppet strings on all the big calls and how much money transportation was getting. It's more-so that we need a governor more progressive on transit and infrastructure spending rather than letting shit hit the fan and then maybe hesitatingly fixing it, followed by "See? This is why we need more privatization!" I had a glimmer of hope that the tide was changing after the infamous Red Line derailment in 2019, and the subsequent expedited maintenance spending, much needed shutdowns, as much of a nuisance as they were, and adequate maintenance funding in new capital planning projects. That's probably all thrown out the window with the T trying to dramatically save every penny it can, while other transit systems are getting by pretty fine.

I'm looking forward to seeing what she does in her new role under Biden/Buttigeg.
 
stefal said:
I mean, I haven't read it, and likely won't until tomorrow, but Pollack was publicly weary of going to work under Baker, who pretty much held puppet strings on all the big calls and how much money transportation was getting. It's more-so that we need a governor more progressive on transit and infrastructure spending rather than letting shit hit the fan and then maybe hesitatingly fixing it, followed by "See? This is why we need more privatization!" I had a glimmer of hope that the tide was changing after the infamous Red Line derailment in 2019, and the subsequent expedited maintenance spending, much needed shutdowns, as much of a nuisance as they were, and adequate maintenance funding in new capital planning projects. That's probably all thrown out the window with the T trying to dramatically save every penny it can, while other transit systems are getting by pretty fine.

I'm looking forward to seeing what she does in her new role under Biden/Buttigeg.
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I tend to agree that this is really Charlie Baker's failure. He is the incrementalist who lacks big-picture planning and implementation will.
 
Exit renumbering is proceeding on 128, Waltham-north. As of right now it jumps from sequential at US 20 (currently Exit 26) to milepost next exit up at Totten Pond Rd. (now Exit 43). Both directions. Porta- warning signs placed intermittently further south warning of night work to re-number the rest.
 
MassHighway is wholesale replacing all lighting on the 8-lane portion of Route 2 throughout Arlington. Small pockets of new LED-mount poles sprinkled around, and feverish activity laying new spools of cable and pouring new fixture mounts on the rest. They're all finished in the deep rock cut portion where the fixtures are mounted off the concrete retaining wall (this explains why they were patching up portions of the walls for much of the last 6 months).

Some of the tallest single-fixture poles I have ever seen erected anywhere in the state. Ridiculously tall...like easily 3 stories off the ground. Taller than that where same-height poles are perched on the tippy-top of the retaining wall through the rock cut. Almost as high as no-foolin' high-mast fixtures that can light the area of an entire cloverleaf interchange...except they're standard one-fixture-per-stick hanging mounts. That's gonna royally suck for some of the houses abutting the frontage roads who are going to be getting glare from fixtures senselessly placed above their bedroom windows. It'll suck but more in tragicomedy fashion if the project limits end up extending past Vox in Cambridge, because nobody on the first 3 floors will ever get any sleep again if they continue with the same fixture replacements straight into the rotary.


I find the whole exercise somewhat laughable since the old fixtures on 2 have been 95% inoperable going on two decades now. Like...why start now? The road is so wide and straight that you can drive it at night with pitch-perfect sightlines framed by the soft glow from the frontage road street lights. It really only needs lighting between Route 60 and Alewife for the banking curve around Spy Pond, which was ironically the only stretch where the old lights ever seemed to work or get regular maintenance. Otherwise, that would be the one Metro Boston highway to completely sunset all the fixtures and just let natural night vision do its thing. Nope...guess it's getting pricey new glarebombs the whole way. And I shudder to think how overlit these fixtures are going to be at night given their ridiculously high positioning.
 
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F-Line to Dudley said:
MassHighway is wholesale replacing all lighting on the 8-lane portion of Route 2 throughout Arlington. Small pockets of new LED-mount poles sprinkled around, and feverish activity laying new spools of cable and pouring new fixture mounts on the rest. They're all finished in the deep rock cut portion where the fixtures are mounted off the concrete retaining wall (this explains why they were patching up portions of the walls for much of the last 6 months).

Some of the tallest single-fixture poles I have ever seen erected anywhere in the state. Ridiculously tall...like easily 3 stories off the ground. Taller than that where same-height poles are perched on the tippy-top of the retaining wall through the rock cut. Almost as high as no-foolin' high-mast fixtures that can light the area of an entire cloverleaf interchange...except they're standard one-fixture-per-stick hanging mounts. That's gonna royally suck for some of the houses abutting the frontage roads who are going to be getting glare from fixtures senselessly placed above their bedroom windows. It'll suck but more in tragicomedy fashion if the project limits end up extending past Vox in Cambridge, because nobody on the first 3 floors will ever get any sleep again if they continue with the same fixture replacements straight into the rotary.
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It's funny how public agencies are so scrupulous about gathering public input for construction/reconstruction projects (as required by SEPA and NEPA), but don't give a rip about public input on maintenance activities like this one, probably because they aren't required to by law, And it's not like Arlington is some politically powerless low-income area; it's upper middle class with, I would think, some clout. I guess it was just slipped in by the usual tone deaf bureaucrats before anyone had a chance to say anything about it.
 
Charlie_mta said:
It's funny how public agencies are so scrupulous about gathering public input for construction/reconstruction projects (as required by SEPA and NEPA), but don't give a rip about public input on maintenance activities like this one, probably because they aren't required to by law, And it's not like Arlington is some politically powerless low-income area; it's upper middle class with, I would think, some clout. I guess it was just slipped in by the usual tone deaf bureaucrats before anyone had a chance to say anything about it.
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$14M burning a hole in somebody's pocket for it all, too, per the project page. Again, maybe ⅛ of the project area nearest to the Lake St. exit is actually necessary to be artificially lit.

I was driving so wasn't able to snap pics...but trust me, the height of the new fixtures towering over the rock cut retaining wall is absurd! I'm not sure how this project could possibly be following any known lighting/anti-glare best practices. So it's going to be totally annoying/wasteful lighting profile for all its unnecessary cost.


EDIT: Same type as the right-side fixtures near Savin Hill on 93. Extremely tall, extremely close-spaced, and looks to be same maximally bright fixtures. Only instead of poles being chopped short where they're mounted on the retaining wall in the cut like the old ones, they just tower over all the two-story homes on the Frontage Road like toothpick skyscrapers. Just an obnoxiously bad design-layout.
 
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What is absolutely amazing is this project started with a purpose and need form in 2010 - granted near the end of 2010 , and the final bid documents were not finished until 2018. To top it all off construction is shown to go into 2024 , for Highway lighting! Either this project was not a priority and then became one or no one focused on moving the project forward. I wonder what the project would have cost if it was bid in 2012 or even 2013?

3B544CE9-F6DA-400C-8E5C-80524D170D28.jpeg
 
biosmoothie said:
What is absolutely amazing is this project started with a purpose and need form in 2010 - granted near the end of 2010 , and the final bid documents were not finished until 2018. To top it all off construction is shown to go into 2024 , for Highway lighting! Either this project was not a priority and then became one or no one focused on moving the project forward. I wonder what the project would have cost if it was bid in 2012 or even 2013?

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I deal with MassDOT projects for a living. The time difference between the 25% and 75% submissions is nowhere what normal scheduling and reviews usually take, so that tells me the project was temporarily shelved or reworked.
 
GPS (in some instances at least) haven't caught up with the renumbering. On 128 south in Waltham it was still using the old numbers.
 
Apple Maps hasn't registered the renumbering on I-95 (on the part I drove) between Danvers and Woburn.
 
I have gotten quite a bit of confusion on Google Maps (both it having the old and the new ones are up, and vice-versa).
 
Route 2 had been renumbered westbound from Alewife to Westminster. Eastbound was missing for most of the ride back.

Now that I've actually seen the signage set-up, the old exit number signs in yellow on the advance exit signs is kind of annoyingly placed away from where you would normally look.
 
Does anyone know what the project underlying the lane shift on Rt 2 from about Lake St to Alewife is? The lane shift is rather abrupt and I've seen a lot of people get caught out by it.
 
Well, its been exactly 10 years since the 93 fast 14 project replaced 14 bridges in 10 weekends in the Summer of 2011 in Medford. Now, MassDOT is ready to do it all over again, with the "Acceler-8" project. The project will replace 8 bridges in 8 weekends this Summer on the Mass Pike I-90 in Westborough & Southborough.

Acceler-8 | Mass.gov
 
matredsoxfan5 said:
Well, its been exactly 10 years since the 93 fast 14 project replaced 14 bridges in 10 weekends in the Summer of 2011 in Medford. Now, MassDOT is ready to do it all over again, with the "Acceler-8" project. The project will replace 8 bridges in 8 weekends this Summer on the Mass Pike I-90 in Westborough & Southborough.

Acceler-8 | Mass.gov
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That would explain all the lane-shifts for median reconstruction and extremely bright temporary roadway lighting I saw when driving through there last week.
 
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