I-90 Interchange Improvement Project & West Station | Allston

Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

stellarfun said:
No commuter rail station for now for Allston. Not enough money in the Massdot project budget. Perhaps they estimated near-term demand and decided there wasn't enough. Space for it will apparently be provided in the reconfiguration.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...ficials-say/EjVjeYpRkbTVTMyfgoYOiP/story.html
Click to expand...

That's just the Globe parroting the MassDOT guys at the Task Force meeting (as Dave pointed out last week). They didn't say that MassDOT has no money for the station, they said that their Highway Division project doesn't include money for an MBTA facility. Big difference.

The MBTA only needs about 1-2 years to build the station, and it probably wouldn't open until the highway construction is done anyhow, and perhaps until the DMUs are ready for Riverside in the 2020-2024 range, since Allston and Brighton and Yawkey makes too many urban stops for that line. The T will build this, but it doesn't have to say so for a few years, though the Globe may have just held their feet to the fire a little.
 
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

Not sure if this was included up-thread, but I recently found this presentation from waaay back when we still had the EOT.

This includes an overview of the entire corridor and has a lovely slide that enumerates the various benefits and challenges for each potential station location.
 
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

Interesting that the Everett St station ranked so high and it's now going to be built as part of the New Balance development. I think Cambridge St would have been better but since they are so close I guess it won't really matter.
 
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

vanshnookenraggen said:
Interesting that the Everett St station ranked so high and it's now going to be built as part of the New Balance development. I think Cambridge St would have been better but since they are so close I guess it won't really matter.
Click to expand...


Update:

I guess you can call this the "two" of the "one-two punch to the gut" this week.

Ugh.......

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...ly-expected/aks5w9nZlbT08zXSe3UESO/story.html

Brighton rail station opening pushed back to 2016

By Martine Powers | GLOBE STAFF MAY 30, 2014


"Commuters eagerly awaiting the debut of a Brighton commuter rail station, courtesy of New Balance, will have to wait a while longer.
The Boston Landing commuter rail station — originally scheduled to open this year — is now expected to open in 2016, as developers have realized the planning process and construction work will require more time than originally expected.....
....News of the station’s later opening date is further disappointment for residents who have also hoped for a rail station near Allston Village; MassDOT officials said last week they have no immediate plans to make that project a reality."
 
Last edited:
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

Big surprise, they have barely done anything at all for the past two years and then, voila, timeline gets pushed back two years.

But she's right, what can you do. It's privately funded. I guess that's that.
 
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

I'm wondering if the issues are all things under New Balance's control, or if state agencies have been tough deal with. The article was sufficiently vague about the actual causes of the delay, other than "oh man this is a lot of work!"
 
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

cden4 said:
I'm wondering if the issues are all things under New Balance's control, or if state agencies have been tough deal with. The article was sufficiently vague about the actual causes of the delay, other than "oh man this is a lot of work!"
Click to expand...

I think it has more to do with a developer that's never built a rail station realizing that building one is hard, especially when your top priority is the much larger and more expensive buildings next door (and all the other infrastructure improvements they promised)...
 
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

"We're creating exciting public/private partnerships to move the MBTA forward!


Aaaaaand we fucked it up."

-The MBTA
 
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if it is part of New Balance's plan.

1. Float the idea of Brighton Landing out there
2. Make promises to build it
3. Sit on their hands
4. Community starts getting antsy
5. Stop making promises
6. The state pays for it
 
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

BostonUrbEx said:
To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if it is part of New Balance's plan.

1. Float the idea of Brighton Landing out there
2. Make promises to build it
3. Sit on their hands
4. Community starts getting antsy
5. Stop making promises
6. The state pays for it
Click to expand...

That would be pretty risky. They still have more plans to develop another parcel they acquired last year, and a long term vision for the stop and shop plaza.
 
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

So, I noticed that the consultant claimed, today, that they are "open to all ideas regarding the highway interchange."

Time to send 'em in, if you haven't already...
 
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

Out of curiosity, did anyone here attend the meeting last night?
 
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

Yes, I'm on the task force.
 
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

In a paraphrase of Voltaire, I may agree with everything you said, Karios Shen, but I disagree vehemently with your right to say it:

http://allston.wickedlocal.com/article/20140627/NEWS/140626889

First off, Shen's tenure at the BRA has been primarily marked by his and the agency's inability to stand up to the prior Mayor and promote good development. His chief achievement to date is the promotion of the SBW, which has certainly resulted in things being built (good), but very little attention paid to mandating a pedestrian experience, mixed-use, or street-level retail from developers. Now, some of the developers have done that on their own, and the results aren't awful, but that's not a credit to the BRA. Boston has been building bike lanes, but again, that's a credit to the Transportation Department, not the BRA. Other than vague platitudes about pathways to the sea, this is the first time I've seen Shen actually go out and push for land use planning, ped/bike, and neighborhood development.

That's not inherently a bad thing for him to be doing. However (and I grant off the top that he's probably on the Task Force and therefore allowed to comment), this is an unfortunate look for the BRA. To come out of nowhere at a neighborhood task force meeting, in front of the NIMBY neighbors, and slam a fellow government agency which, to date, has actually proven receptive to working with people is bad. To make it a power play is worse, and that's what this is. Shen couldn't care less about Allston. He just wants the BRA to look like the good guy in order to gain more say in the project.
 
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

I don't know, if Shen has decided to grow a pair and become an URBAN planner I won't begrudge him that. More likely, Walsh instructed him to do his fucking job for a change and defend the urban environment against lazy planning.
 
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

fattony said:
I don't know, if Shen has decided to grow a pair and become an URBAN planner I won't begrudge him that. More likely, Walsh instructed him to do his fucking job for a change and defend the urban environment against lazy planning.
Click to expand...

There's nothing wrong with him doing that. The issue isn't that he's pushing MassDOT, it's that he's pushing MassDOT in a public forum in front of the media, instead of offering his advice through professional channels. Karios Shen is not an elected official, he's a professional. If Mayor Walsh wants a big public statement made objecting to these designs (and I'd support that), he should be the one to make it - that's his job. He then asks Karios Shen and the MassDOT engineers to collaborate, and they do so on professional terms.
 
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

I think you may have a misread on the situation. Although MassDOT has made a lot of noise in recent years about community involvement (and to their credit, they have made an effort), and they've talked a lot about things like GreenDOT, there is still a lot of inertia in the agency from the bad old days.

Let me give you a quick example. On June 11th, the DOT team showed up with a single plan to discuss: the expansion of the highway viaduct along the Charles River from 107 feet wide to 130 feet wide. They showed up and said: this is how we're doing it and it will help us do both construction and a final condition of the highway with wide shoulders. As it turns out, this widening will require the taking of an approximately 30' cross-section of protected parkland right-of-way along the river, but DOT had not even bothered to tell anyone at DCR about that until they announced it in front of the task force (which includes DCR).

It's become clear in the past few weeks that DOT presented this plan because that is what they thought the only way to proceed was, given their desire to create very wide shoulders on the viaduct.

I don't know whether Kairos had a statement planned in advance on June 11th when he first spoke, but his comments were almost directly in response to the blundering moves of DOT. And what he asked was to receive the "blessing" of the task force to be able to use "professional channels" to get the planning done.

I don't think there are any "NIMBYs" at the table here because, first of all, the thing is already in our back yard, and second, MassDOT has the opportunity to make a win-win-win for everyone here if they will just take it. The problem is as Kairos pointed out, that DOT wants to treat this as "just a highway project" and everybody I know agrees with Kairos when he says that it is much, much more than that.
 
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

Matthew said:
I don't know whether Kairos had a statement planned in advance on June 11th when he first spoke, but his comments were almost directly in response to the blundering moves of DOT. And what he asked was to receive the "blessing" of the task force to be able to use "professional channels" to get the planning done.
Click to expand...

Fair enough - I wasn't in the room and you were. I still think that a public meeting is not the right setting for that sort of strong language from a senior planner and potential agency partner, though. The fact that it was covered by (local, minor) media bears that out IMO. The "NIMBYs" I was referring to were those who could have read the story (or may have been in the audience), not those on the Task Force.

Based on the story, I interpreted his comments as being a response to diagrams like those we've seen since April. I didn't realize things had gone downhill.
 
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

What's wrong with having wide shoulders on the viaduct?
 
Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)

Equilibria said:
Fair enough - I wasn't in the room and you were. I still think that a public meeting is not the right setting for that sort of strong language from a senior planner and potential agency partner, though. The fact that it was covered by (local, minor) media bears that out IMO. The "NIMBYs" I was referring to were those who could have read the story (or may have been in the audience), not those on the Task Force.

Based on the story, I interpreted his comments as being a response to diagrams like those we've seen since April. I didn't realize things had gone downhill.
Click to expand...

Even though it is a bit messy, I do like the fact that they are doing this in an open and transparent way. The task force, and the public, should see that -- rather than a slick presentation that was hashed out behind closed doors.

The city, in the form of BTD, has expressed interest -- on multiple occasions -- in the "April diagrams" because these diagrams constrain the possibilities for the street grid and parcels. DOT has continued to develop alternatives along those lines these past few meetings. Kairos joined with BTD to speak out about that process, on the 25th, because DOT presented refined diagrams that showed cross-sections and various grade changes. For example, a couple of the alternatives indicated that they would require the highway access roads to be raised on earthen berms above grade, which seems like it would create multiple barriers within the land opened for development. You can see when they get around to posting the slides.

mass88 said:
What's wrong with having wide shoulders on the viaduct?
Click to expand...
In isolation, nothing -- beyond cost, anyway. But the viaduct is constrained on several sides by the railroad infrastructure, the Soldier's Field Road/Charles River Reservation, and Boston University buildings. Widening the shoulders seems to necessitate cutting back on one of those constraints, and DOT unilaterally decided they could take a portion of the Charles River Reservation without even consulting DCR in the matter. That's when things went downhill.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top