Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

Ruairi said:
Washington st. underpass completely flooded and cut off. Future access to new station behind Cataldo also flooded.
Seems like it's the second or third time this Summer.
I know the weather is getting more extreme but they've been working on drainage here for 5 years and it seems to be no better.
Am I missing something? Has the new system not come on line yet, is it clogged with construction debris, or is it just woefully inadequate?
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JT Scott, the Ward 2 city councilor, has a really good writeup about all of the projects either underway or in the pipeline. It's a good read. If it all goes according to plan, there'll be capacity to impound 10 million gallons of runoff in the area by 2027 and some of it is going to be funded by private developers but built and coordinated by the city.
 
I wonder if using steel beams for the elevated portion of glx may end up not being the best idea. Our track record of preventative maintenance is piss poor and concrete seems to hold up much better with less maintenance. Looking at the ramps around the zakim theyre around 20 years old now and they look great, but looking at some of the steel bridges around the city that arent very old they start to look shitty much sooner. With some consistent painting the steel will last forever, I just hope they keep up on it this time.
 
There’s a long and sordid tale why maintenance is deferred to the capital budget.
 
stick n move said:
I wonder if using steel beams for the elevated portion of glx may end up not being the best idea. Our track record of preventative maintenance is piss poor and concrete seems to hold up much better with less maintenance. Looking at the ramps around the zakim theyre around 20 years old now and they look great, but looking at some of the steel bridges around the city that arent very old they start to look shitty much sooner. With some consistent painting the steel will last forever, I just hope they keep up on it this time.
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Looking at all the rusty steel beams on overpasses etc. around Massachusetts, a lot of the problem is simply that they don't keep the steel beams wirebrushed/sandblasted and repainted on a regular cycle. Seems like a no-brainer to do the simple maintenance, but whatever.
 
RandomWalk said:
There’s a long and sordid tale why maintenance is deferred to the capital budget.
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And it's great the transit activists on Twitter decry and rally against any mention of additional SOGR funding. /s
 
stefal said:
And it's great the transit activists on Twitter decry and rally against any mention of additional SOGR funding. /s
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I've always heard (but not confirmed)the Massachusetts policy is to not spend anything on maintenance after anything is rebuilt, just wait to it gets to a critical state of repair and rebuild it again. I don't know which makes more economic sense. Take a picture of the GLX, 93 Fast 14, Route 128 add a lane, Mass Pike accelerated bridge replacement, Rt 95 Whittier bridge replacement, etc., etc. the day after they are completed because they will never look that good again.
 
reno said:
I've always heard (but not confirmed)the Massachusetts policy is to not spend anything on maintenance after anything is rebuilt, just wait to it gets to a critical state of repair and rebuild it again. I don't know which makes more economic sense. Take a picture of the GLX, 93 Fast 14, Route 128 add a lane, Mass Pike accelerated bridge replacement, Rt 95 Whittier bridge replacement, etc., etc. the day after they are completed because they will never look that good again.
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It's a dumb policy. Regular maintenance makes far more sense, financially and sustainably. And spending more up-front on better, more durable materials (requiring less maintenance) usually outperforms cheaper materials on a life-cycle cost analysis, but not always, though the frequency of the cheaper materials and deferred maintenance route being chosen is far higher than the math that engineers figure out would usually suggest. It's the decision makers at agencies and municipalities that can't/don't want to get their voters/finance teams to vote for or sign off on a larger price tag.
 
It's so embarrassing that the "big pumps" under Washington Street bridge aren't active yet. Seriously. It's been years. What takes so long? Incompetence.

Makes me feel worrisome about the entire rest of the project
 
My favorite story, about the unforeseen issues gumming up the GLX, is the drainage installation going slowly because they didn’t expect to find so much rock. They could have figured that out with a decent set of borings.
 
ryblogs said:
It's so embarrassing that the "big pumps" under Washington Street bridge aren't active yet. Seriously. It's been years. What takes so long? Incompetence.

Makes me feel worrisome about the entire rest of the project
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I mean you can't turn on the pumps if there is no where for the water to go. Which sounded like the case from the GLX CWG meeting.
 
Can it be true?! School St bridge sidewalk is finally open again!

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post 5241 (and several subsequent) beat you to the punch with this news-flash.
 
That's quite a bit of elevator work left to finish in a considerably short time period (elevator-installation-wise, at least...)
 
The bits I have heard from T folks working in engineering for the project are that they have blown a bunch of deadlines for the Medford branch. It wasn’t clear if that meant the May 2022 was impacted, but the current state doesn’t give me much hope.
 
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