Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

bigeman312 said:
It was the policy on the D-Branch, too. I was a regular D-Brancher in the early-to-mid 2000s and I thought that policy ended in 2007, but I certainly believe it if it actually ended in 2006. My memory is fallable, afterall.
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I knew it was around that time as well, and actually now that I'm looking again the article was published in November 2006 for a change on January 1st, 2007.
 
bigeman312 said:
It was the policy on the D-Branch, too. I was a regular D-Brancher in the early-to-mid 2000s and I thought that policy ended in 2007, but I certainly believe it if it actually ended in 2006. My memory is fallable, afterall.
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I actually did have a period of riding the D-Line in the mid-90s, but I was using a pass at the time, and boarding it downtown for the outbound part of the ride. I didn't have the same awareness that I did when I had previously lived on the B-Line. Well before the policy changed, I had moved to the Orange Line, so had a lot less reason to notice a change.
 
Delvin4519 said:
GLX repair work and Lechmere Viaduct repair work to run from November 27th to December 22nd as early access work. This work will coincide with the Government Center Garage demolition. It will also complete the lifting of the Lechmere Viaduct speed restriction.
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I watched the recording of that board meeting to see if they had any more details about the Lechmere Viaduct speed restriction. Nothing in the slides, but this is what Phil Eng said: "Back to the Lechmere Viaduct, that currently has 2 speed restrictions, one in each direction, 10 miles per hour. By doing that work concurrent with this work would enable us to lift those speed restrictions. The plan would be to do that at the same time, addressing those speed restrictions on the Lechmere Viaduct. That work entails replacing some shims that were made of a material, HDP, it's more of a poly blend material, replacing that with steel, and doing some alignment work to address those speed restrictions during the same period."

Overall, not much detail on the reason for the speed restrictions still being there unfortunately (bad "shims", and some needed alignment work?)
 
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devnull said:
I watched the recording of that board meeting to see if they had any more details about the Lechmere Viaduct speed restriction. Nothing in the slides, but this is what Phil Eng said: "Back to the Lechmere Viaduct, that currently has 2 speed restrictions, one in each direction, 10 miles per hour. By doing that work concurrent with this work would enable us to lift those speed restrictions. The plan would be to do that at the same time, addressing those speed restrictions on the Lechmere Viaduct. That work entails replacing some shims that were made of a material, HDP, it's more of a poly blend material, replacing that with steel, and doing some alignment work to address those speed restrictions during the same period."

Overall, not much detail on the reason for the speed restrictions still being there unfortunately (bad "shims", and some needed alignment work?)
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Maybe I’m giving too much benefit of the doubt but from listening in to these meetings a lot I get the impression that most of the board isn’t really familiar with much of anything technical related to transit, so I think that Eng and the other MBTA officials try to avoid saying anything too technically specific in their presentations.

This observation is primarily based on the questions portions where the board has been very confused about some interesting things. Such as how single-tracking during repairs works, or how filling the holes with epoxy on GLX allows them to drill new holes to correct the issue. They tend to get hung up on these technical details in some ways that to me should be pretty straightforward for someone in such an important position related to the topic. During the meeting about the GLX issue they asked Eng to demonstrate with his fingers or an object how much 1/16th of an inch is so that the board could understand how far out of tolerance the track gauge was (not to mention he had to explain what “track gauge” means).
 
Koopzilla24 said:
Maybe I’m giving too much benefit of the doubt but from listening in to these meetings a lot I get the impression that most of the board isn’t really familiar with much of anything technical related to transit, so I think that Eng and the other MBTA officials try to avoid saying anything too technically specific in their presentations.

This observation is primarily based on the questions portions where the board has been very confused about some interesting things. Such as how single-tracking during repairs works, or how filling the holes with epoxy on GLX allows them to drill new holes to correct the issue. They tend to get hung up on these technical details in some ways that to me should be pretty straightforward for someone in such an important position related to the topic. During the meeting about the GLX issue they asked Eng to demonstrate with his fingers or an object how much 1/16th of an inch is so that the board could understand how far out of tolerance the track gauge was (not to mention he had to explain what “track gauge” means).
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The Chair has a background with the T and an impressive executive leadership resume, and the Secretary has a history in planning. Outside of that, it is all representatives (local city leaders (good to have), union/trades (good to have), banks/finance (good to have), and law (understandable to have)). There are none with an engineering background like Eng, which makes it difficult for him to receive direction from his Board of Directors on technical items. As you can imagine, they just nod and say "aye."

I'll add one more question I noticed during one of these asking if designs get reviewed by anyone before the T approves them, and I might be hallucinating the next part, also asking if the buildings were designed to code.
 
I think for most American cities' transit agencies' board of directors, having people around who just nod and say "aye" is a good thing, especially if the resident technical expert can bring in expertise from Continental Europe/East Asia. Way too may boards of directors seem to think they know what they're doing, when all evidence points to the contrary. You'd think, by now, that people would get that pretending wisdom is vice and professing ignorance is virtue, alas....
 
Having yesmen on the board is good for allowing Eng to get on with the work that needs to be done, but with the microscope the T board is under right now they’re ensuring they ask all the questions to get all the clarifications they can and look very engaged for the public. This has got them answers that are outside of their expertise making them more confused. It’s ultimately inconsequential just awkward to watch and I’m sure it’s awkward for them to answer. So they might be trying to avoid throwing in too many terms that’ll make them ask “what’s that mean?” knowing they wouldn’t understand the answer.

Going in depth about how poly blend shims on the Lechmere viaduct don’t tolerate the continuous loading the same way as steel causing unnecessary flexing in the changing humidity might make us weirdos drool but it’ll make the Honorable Mayor of Framingham go “what’s a viaduct and how’s it different from a bridge?”
 
I wish I was given the same “grace” on qualifications when applying for jobs, think of how many more positions Id be qualified for if the only requirement is that I nod in agreement! Come to think of thats the same qualifications most congress members have when they pass a defense spending bill with special “itemizations” and then retire after a single term and get a six figure job on the board of raytheon. I’m in the wrong field… fml.
 
It's such a damn shame that the newest & latest line on the MBTA has been so screwed up because the tracks weren't laid right!!!!
 
Somerville certainly doesn't seem to be in a hurry to redevelop the large city-owned parcel immediately adjacent to the new Gilman Square station:

mass.streetsblog.org

What’s Somerville Doing With a City-Owned Empty Lot Next to a New Light Rail Station? - Streetsblog Massachusetts

In 2014, the City of Somerville endorsed a plan to create new affordable housing, spaces for small businesses, and public plazas for city-owned land next to the new Gilman Square Green Line Station. Nearly a decade later, it's still an empty lot.
mass.streetsblog.org mass.streetsblog.org
 
I saw evidence that the woodpeckers had done their work on the outbound track near Somerville Junction Park. Lots of wood chips by one of the plates on each tie.
 
stefal said:
They quietly canceled extending the closure to Lechmere this weekend.. Not sure what that means about any work done.
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The original presentation to the board had the Lechmere Viaduct repairs waiting until November 2024, 11 months from now. There's also a 5 MPH slowzone between North Station and Science Park northbound.

An entire LRT extension project with a 10 MPH slowzone since March 2022, with repairs in August 2022 and June 2023 that didn't do anything to lift it, and the Eng and the MBTA were originally gonna let that slowzone sit all the way until November 2024.

Lots of questions. No answers.
 
I've heard that it was canceled because of signal problems regarding the turn at Lechmere, and there's plenty of tweets to support this (like this), but it is odd that they then waited until the afternoon to cancel.
 
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