Harvard - Allston Campus

Damn they're really going to town on that bridge! I figured there'd be some repointing and all but that looks like straight mutilation.
 
that's why I took the pics I was just as surprised when I 1st saw it on Monday
 
kz1000ps said:
Damn they're really going to town on that bridge! I figured there'd be some repointing and all but that looks like straight mutilation.
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It's ready to start raining bricks onto the heads of the crew teams sailing in the river. Baaaaaaaad structural shape, and total restoration is the only way to fix it. River St.'s the span that looks structurally scariest at the moment, but this bridge wasn't far behind in the looks-could-(literally)-kill dept.

MassDOT's excuses for not studying ped underpasses were hella lame when that issue was burning a couple years ago. But they're not necessarily precluded from going back in the future if enough planning heavies at the University & etc. start pounding the table for it. The underpasses wouldn't be on the main load-bearing parts of the bridge getting the attention now.
 
How does a bridge get into this condition? Is it mostly natural aging or is it accelerated decrepitude because of deferred upon deferred maintenance and inspections?
 
Brad Plaid said:
How does a bridge get into this condition? Is it mostly natural aging or is it accelerated decrepitude because of deferred upon deferred maintenance and inspections?
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Worst...state agency...ever.


If I didn't know better I would say that they were tasked with building nothing but urban ruins. And I have this picture in my head that every ribbon-cutting ceremony from the late-1940's of them opening a new road or park or something was just a bunch of self-satisfied dignitaries standing in front of the same urban ruins as today while about 3 puzzled onlookers, a drunk homeless guy sitting on a peeling lead paint park bench, and a menacing pack of Canadian geese eating from a tipped-over garbage can all look on in boredom. :confused:
 
Is that really fair to blame the 20th century MDC? Or have these bridges simply reached the end of their designed lifespan, so they need attention now?

I thought they were way older than the 1940s, too.
 
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Ron Newman said:
Is that really fair to blame the 20th century MDC? Or have these bridges simply reached the end of their designed lifespan, so they need attention now?
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It's more like they needed substantial attention and an EOL rehab in 1990, but it took the abolishing of the MDC and the '09 transferring of the roads to MassHighway to establish the full scope and severity of the decay and scramble the resources.


That's not just an end-of-life bridge, it's a collapse-and-kill-a-lot-of-people risk. The MDC may have been hobbled for decades by inadequate funding and hands tied behind its back, but it was negligent at inspecting its own bridges and had no idea how dire the condition was. Craigie, Longfellow, BU Bridge, River St., Western Ave., JFK St., Arsenal St. All of them were or will be done completely over one after the other they're in such a dangerous state of decay. Throw in the Bowker, the Casey, McGrath/McCarthy, the Mem. Drive overpass at BU Bridge that isn't even holding up 5 years after its major rebuild...all of them MDC responsibility, all of them totally fucked because the agency pretty much was asleep at the switch from the early-70's to the early-00's.
 
According to Wikipedia, the Anderson (JFK St) bridge was built in 1912, Weeks in 1926, Western Ave in 1924, River St in 1926. So why exactly are you blaming the post-1940s MDC?

ETA: cross-posted with the above comment, but I'll leave it here because of the link and list.
 
Wasn't the 'major rebuild' of the Memorial Drive overpass at the BU Bridge just last year, not 5 years ago?

Don't forget the Mass Ave (Harvard) bridge, which received a major rebuild in the 1990s.
 
Ron Newman said:
Wasn't the 'major rebuild' of the Memorial Drive overpass at the BU Bridge just last year, not 5 years ago?

Don't forget the Mass Ave (Harvard) bridge, which received a major rebuild in the 1990s.
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2nd time in the past 10 years the overpass has gotten a major rebuild. I don't know what the issue was this past year (metal deck?), but abutments and crumbling brick work were the project scope last time. If this is the kind of maintenance frequency it needs, I wonder it's worth keeping at all the next time it's due.


Mass Ave. wasn't just a rebuild, it's a whole new bridge. The only surviving parts of the original are the stone abutments in the water. Design is different, and the structure is markedly different to look at vs. old: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Bridge#Superstructure_replacement.2C_1980s.
 
Harvard's construction mitigation website indicates the contractor will start mobilizing next week to re-start construction of the science complex.

Construction of the Choo Center at the Business School supposedly starts next month.

chao1.jpg
 
Those last two pix are of the Samuel's site, across N. Harvard from Charlesview.

They have re-started work on the science complex, but it seems to be peripheral utilities from the Harvard construction updates page.
 
stellarfun said:
They have re-started work on the science complex, but it seems to be peripheral utilities from the Harvard construction updates page.
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Saw a couple of small earth movers at the corner of the science site next to the police building, but I figured they were being used for snow removal. Great news that they have started.
 
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