Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

Union Square station approach/entry looks like it’s in its final stretch …

Views from the train are changing every day.

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I am mildly peeved that various elected officials haven’t been more actively agitating for progress on the path. I’m specifically thinking of most of the Somerville City Council and the mayor. They should be doing more than just shrugging and quoting whatever dribbles out of the T management.
 
RandomWalk said:
I am mildly peeved that various elected officials haven’t been more actively agitating for progress on the path. I’m specifically thinking of most of the Somerville City Council and the mayor. They should be doing more than just shrugging and quoting whatever dribbles out of the T management.
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100%
kinda shocked at the “This is on the MBTA, we’ve tried nothing and we’re fresh out of ideas” attitude.
 
https://twitter.com/x/status/1654958039512784896

This tweet thread from one City Councillor is frustrating. She is asking the city to close it, and in the replies is not indicating that she is *doing* anything to move things forward.

I saw people using every segment from Lowell to School. Demanding the path be closed until it is fully complete is closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. Instead, they should be opening blocks that have no outstanding punch list items.

People, like water, will find a way. Especially on a a lovely weekend like this one.
 
RandomWalk said:
I saw people using every segment from Lowell to School. Demanding the path be closed until it is fully complete is closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. Instead, they should be opening blocks that have no outstanding punch list items.

People, like water, will find a way. Especially on a a lovely weekend like this one.
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I may have missed it, but is the path still technically under the MBTA's control at the moment? (I thought that they hadn't finalized all of the transfer stuff, part of why it was still closed)
 
Maintenance responsibilities are not on the city until the T declares the path completed.

At this point, however, they have blown the opportunity to treat the path as a monolithic thing. The complete lack of information about remaining work, coupled with months of zero work on segments that appear to a casual observer to be done, took that option away from them. Now they have two realistic options:

1) Pay for overtime details to patrol the path and ticket anyone setting foot or wheel on it.
2) Figure out a way to get segments open as they are complete.
 
RandomWalk said:
MNow they have two realistic options:

1) Pay for overtime details to patrol the path and ticket anyone setting foot or wheel on it.
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This is a realistic option to you? Theyre gonna slap some "closed" signs up and call it a day and if people still use the path thats on them and they wont win a lawsuit most likely.
 
RandomWalk said:
This tweet thread from one City Councillor is frustrating. She is asking the city to close it, and in the replies is not indicating that she is *doing* anything to move things forward.
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But she isn't wrong. I'm as frustrated about this as anybody else, but the section pictured in the tweet is absolutely not safe and should be blocked off from use. I understand wanting to see the Councilor offer long term solutions, and I can't speak to whether she has any. But short term, that stretch of path is not safe and should not be reachable by casual bike riders.
 
I agree. She should have said “Please close this section of the path” not “Please close the path”. However, her replies imply that she really does mean close it all.
 
HenryAlan said:
But she isn't wrong. I'm as frustrated about this as anybody else, but the section pictured in the tweet is absolutely not safe and should be blocked off from use. I understand wanting to see the Councilor offer long term solutions, and I can't speak to whether she has any. But short term, that stretch of path is not safe and should not be reachable by casual bike riders.
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it's been like that for 2 weeks or more. Why is it just sitting there like that. Why aren't they working on it?
 
I don't know the answer to that question, @Ruairi, but I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with what a city councilor is tweeting.
 
HenryAlan said:
I don't know the answer to that question, @Ruairi, but I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with what a city councilor is tweeting.
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Maybe, I just find it frustrating when the message is “shut it down ASAP” and not “get it finished ASAP”
There just isn’t the political will to get this project finished in any reasonable timeframe.
 
If this has to be said, I don't know, but in this industry, and most other industries, yelling shut it down ASAP is to avoid any kind of ADA lawsuit or bicycle accident lawsuit will come their way if they look the other way on weekends while they finish these things up - this thing is a liability and they've (at least trying to) covered themselves. Annoying? Yes. Adjusting for bureaucracy going both ways? Yes.

Ruairi said:
Maybe, I just find it frustrating when the message is “shut it down ASAP” and not “get it finished ASAP”
There just isn’t the political will to get this project finished in any reasonable timeframe.
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But also, there probably isn't any financial will either, as opposed to political. The contractors have spent and gotten most of their money's worth on the project - they've presumably only left a small few on to finish the punch list (and the punch list for a portion of the project no less..)

I'm sure the MBTA could be "innovative" here and break up their final inspections by segment, though I'm not aware of all the logistics at play here. Does that cost more? Is that going to slow down work elsewhere on other segments? At the same time, much like the contractor, the project team is likely dwindled in size, and they don't have much liberty or staff available to re-write the procedures if they were written into the contract a certain way at this point in the game, if that's even an option. I don't have much experience in closeout/punch lists, but from an outsider's perspective (while still in the industry), closeout always takes ages - years in some cases.
 
HenryAlan said:
But she isn't wrong. I'm as frustrated about this as anybody else, but the section pictured in the tweet is absolutely not safe and should be blocked off from use. I understand wanting to see the Councilor offer long term solutions, and I can't speak to whether she has any. But short term, that stretch of path is not safe and should not be reachable by casual bike riders.
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Throw some wooden or metal sheets over that part. Worlds simplest fix, doesn't require closure. It requires someone in government to use their brain for 30 seconds
 
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