General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

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Second entrance to Mass Ave station too

I like how the new elevator projects are being expanded to also include new lighting, fixtures, wayfinding and entrances. They're basically little station remodels now: https://www.mbta.com/projects/elevator-accessibility-upgrades
 
I never knew about this!! Glad to see that the MBTA is stepping up its game with new & replacement elevators!! :)
 
Re: Charlie_MTA's post #7,257:

"This one caught my eye:
" 8. Hynes Station Scope: MassDOT has designated a private developer to construct an air rights development over Hynes Station and the MassPike I-90 at the northeast corner of Boylston St. and Massachusetts Ave. The design will provide a renovated and fully accessible station with a reopened Boylston St. entrance incorporated into the new air rights development. Update: The MBTA is meeting with the developer on a biweekly basis to define the station’s external dimensions, structural constraints, and utility upgrades. A design consultant began working in March 2020. Full design is expected to be complete in June 2022 (contingent on the developer also completing its design). Pending funding availability, construction would begin shortly thereafter and is projected to take approximately 3 years. "


To be under/within the Viola right?


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Brattle Loop said:
That's the parcel the station's under, so whatever winds up getting built there is what they're talking about. That design's pretty nice, so I do expect it not to end up looking like that 😞
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If you've lived in Boston since birth, depression is second nature. Sox and Pats used to never win, grand plans fell through, architectural vaporware was a constant, NIMBYs chiseled good buildings down to featureless econoboxes. I've been here since '95 and I often feel the same way. But honestly, the last decade of development has really served as a tangerine-sized anti-depressant.
A LOT of things are getting built. Attitudes are changing. And many buildings actually LOOK like the renderings now!
Even through dot-bomb, 2008 GFC and Covid's Great Reset, I think we've turned a corner.
BrattleLoop, when it's done in a couple years, I'll buy you a beer in that hotel lounge!
Unless... 😁
 
Jahvon09 said:
That DOES look ugly & uselaess. Stupid, also!!!!
:unsure:
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I’m not one to root for the bare minimum but would you rather have what is there now? This isn’t the Tube and it’s at least an attempt. I can think of so many other Midwest cities that would kill to have these renders.
 
kingofsheeba said:
I’m not one to root for the bare minimum but would you rather have what is there now? This isn’t the Tube and it’s at least an attempt. I can think of so many other Midwest cities that would kill to have these renders.
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It's better than what's there now but we should be building shelters that are at least somewhat resistant to the elements. They are using a similar canopy design for GLX. If rain or snow are coming in at any sort of an angle there is almost no point in having the canopy at all.
 
Badusername said:
It's better than what's there now but we should be building shelters that are at least somewhat resistant to the elements. They are using a similar canopy design for GLX. If rain or snow are coming in at any sort of an angle there is almost no point in having the canopy at all.
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Agreed. The original shelter over 2/3 of the Mass Ave platform is much more complete than those skimpy new canopies to "cover" the remaining 1/3. People basically don't use the Gainsborough end of the station platform in bad weather -- and the skimpy proposed canopy will not change that.
 
kingofsheeba said:
I’m not one to root for the bare minimum but would you rather have what is there now? This isn’t the Tube and it’s at least an attempt. I can think of so many other Midwest cities that would kill to have these renders.
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I think the obvious questions to my mind (that I can't answer) are:

- What's the canopy cost?

- What's the incremental cost of a better canopy and how much more weather protection does that buy you?

- For that matter, what's the incremental cost of a canopy with as coverage as extensive as the existing covered section, whether it's this single center supporting post design or just extending the original design? Clearly from platforms elsewhere on the system (such as JFK), you can build a canopy to cover the whole platform that can handle the expected snow/wind loading with just a single center supporting post.
 
I think another worthy question is whether anybody will wait on that section of the platform. As things stand now, people really don't, and not for weather related reasons, but because it is so far from the head house. Will the addition of a Gainsborough St. entrance change things enough to warrant the cost of a full canopy? Or is such a project a solution in search of a problem, as most riders will still enter at Mass Ave.?
 
Gainsborough hits a lot of NEU, NECM< and a fair bit of residential. Camden has nothing til Columbus, but then some big apartment blocks. Given how cheap a basic butterfly canopy is, I think the ridership from the new entrance will justify a decent canopy.
 
It can't be much worse than the current canopy, which during heavy rain or snowmelt drains the water directly onto the top of the train which is then directed off the top of the train and onto passengers alighting and boarding the train. The Southwest Corridor canopies seem to have been designed for a completely different climate.
 
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