MBTA Construction Projects

[F-Line to Dudley]

Re: T construction news

Readville bridge over the NEC came down today.

New one (the utilitarian blue thing behind the old one) is loaded onto the cranes in the parking lot and starts going in at stroke of Eastern Standard Time after the 1:15am Northeast Regional arrival is done.

Amtrak did one special move down the Fairmount Line late yesterday with the regular all-electric set dead-towing a diesel locomotive that they fired up at 128 station for the rare detour.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Re: T construction news

New Readville bridge is in:

And the old one is sitting in the parking lot waiting to be Craigslisted:

 

[Scalziand]

Re: T construction news

Found our replacement for the Northern Ave Bridge.

 

[Arlington]

Re: T construction news

Are there foundations/abutments for a second track at Readville? (I guess it would go compass-north of the this bridge) Or is that too far out to wrap into a near-term project like this?

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Re: T construction news

Are there foundations/abutments for a second track at Readville? (I guess it would go compass-north of the this bridge) Or is that too far out to wrap into a near-term project like this?

There's abutments for 3 more tracks. Eons ago there were additional yards filling out the whole wedge between Sprague St. and the Franklin Line, and up the Fairmount Line along the HP Ave. backlots. Additional berths were all gone by the end of the steam era because diesels aren't half as slow and cumbersome to back up between yards.

They don't really need a second track, though. There's plans--now unscheduled since they cut-and-ran from real Indigo frequencies--to redo the Fairmount platform @ Readville as a double-track island about 250 ft. further north and rework the tracks so the freight backup moves turn out ahead of it. Have that in place and there won't be a headway short enough that something can't clear the single-track bridge in seconds. It's even less a constriction than the Salem tunnel for staging moves. There simply will never be enough big slow freight backup moves on the schedule at Readville to get in the way. Even if the freight yard sees a rebirth in activity there's so few local jobs dispatched from inside Route 128 that any CSX growth at Readville just means the same couple daily freight slots from Framingham get a little longer, not more frequent. Anything brand new like Port of Southie business is going to run in the dead of night when passenger trains have stopped.

*Maybe* if all-electric Indigo service were extended to Dedham Corporate and all Franklin/Foxboro service were routed through Dorchester to get off the NEC a second bridge berth would be a nice-to-have. But even then "nice to have" ≠ prerequisite for running those schedules.

 

[jass]

Re: T construction news

Single track is dumb

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Re: T construction news

Single track is dumb

That particular one isn't dumb at all because it's spanning one sprawled-out interlocking that splits the NEC-Franklin connector with the Fairmount-Franklin connector on one side of the bridge, and splits the Fairmount-NEC connector with the freight and layover yard leads on the other side of the bridge. Plus a diamond crossing right in front of the Fairmount platform where all that mess of freight leads splits in two different directions. Then separate interlockings to the north where the Fairmount double-track starts and to the south where the Franklin double-track starts.

It's already going to get more complicated if/when they move forward with the Fairmount platform relocation to a double-track island. Double-track the whole works straight on through and it'll be 2-1/2 times as many switches. Get a stuck switch on any of that connected mess and the whole interlocking faults to a stop signal. That's why line splits/merges on the system outside the terminal district are usually 1 x 1 or 2 x 1 with very quick changes from double to single before and after the junctions to minimize the number of switches. Too many points of failure for too nonexistent a capacity difference. Beverly Jct.'s 2 x 2 x 1 split of the Rockport and Newburyport branches + the mini-yard, for example, is malfunction city. This one would be way worse.


The only thing that would ever necessitate doubling up the bridge is if there's more freight slots through the connector conflicting with a combo of Indigo frequencies to Dedham Corporate and conventional Foxboro frequencies. The freights aren't going to get more numerous...ever...and Indigo's not going to 128 until they can figure out how to do freight passing tracks and raise the platforms at Endicott and Dedham Corporate. You'd need the whole kitchen sink for a single frequency to get fouled, so it's just not going to be needed for any projectable frequencies. And if they do need one in 2040 or whatever...they can just prefab another cheap bridge deck and hoist it in place on the adjacent berth on a Saturday. That's not money they have any reason to spend today for completism's sake. It would've cost more overall, required more assembly space than they had to work with, required more cranes, and led to a longer service outage to stage 2 decks at one time.

 

[The EGE]

Re: T construction news

Anyone have any idea what's been done with the west side of the Winter Street Concourse (which was formerly drab offices and a turnstile repair shop)? It's been completely cleaned out and repainted in the last few months. The wall between the halves is still there, but that may just be a dust control measure.

I'd love to see a dunkies and some other retail down there, but even just opening the full width of the passageway up would be nice.

My photo from March 12th:

 

[DBM]

Re: T construction news

Anyone have any idea what's been done with the west side of the Winter Street Concourse (which was formerly drab offices and a turnstile repair shop)? It's been completely cleaned out and repainted in the last few months. The wall between the halves is still there, but that may just be a dust control measure.

I'd love to see a dunkies and some other retail down there, but even just opening the full width of the passageway up would be nice.

My photo from March 12th:

Right, the connecting pedestrian tunnel/passageway from Park St. to DTX subway stops. Surely it's linked to all of those new doors that have been added to the Red Line concourse underneath 101 Arch St./adjacent to Macy's & Roche Bros. Perhaps it's overall part of the ongoing ADA-compliance project to build the handicapped elevators on the Red Line? They finished at Park St., are working on the new elevators at DTX (if not finished already), and the passageway improvement is a "bonus"?

 

[datadyne007]

Re: T construction news

Anyone have any idea what's been done with the west side of the Winter Street Concourse (which was formerly drab offices and a turnstile repair shop)? It's been completely cleaned out and repainted in the last few months. The wall between the halves is still there, but that may just be a dust control measure.

I'd love to see a dunkies and some other retail down there, but even just opening the full width of the passageway up would be nice.

My photo from March 12th:

If not retail, moving sidewalks would be awesome on that side.

 

[bigpicture7]

Re: T construction news

^ Something I've always wondered about the Winter St. concourse:
Does anyone know what the deal is with those robust guardrail/side-bumper thingies (sorry I don't know what to call them) are alongside this concourse (both here on the right side of this image in blue, and also present on the other side that's not shown)...

They seem a bit ridiculous for pedestrian purposes. Were there some sort of vehicles that drove in here at some point?

 

[jass]

Re: T construction news

SILVER LINE TUNNEL BABY

 

[KentXie]

Re: T construction news

Currently reeks of piss. Hopefully they add a couple of bathrooms in there so that there is at least a place for the homeless to pee in besides the concourse itself.

That and retail like they do it on the MTR and Tokyo train stations.

 

[JumboBuc]

Re: T construction news

I was thinking this could be a cool spot for a health clinic (with bathrooms, of course) that caters to the homeless. It's a bit out of the way for retail.

 

[bakgwailo]

Re: T construction news

Currently reeks of piss. Hopefully they add a couple of bathrooms in there so that there is at least a place for the homeless to pee in besides the concourse itself.

That and retail like they do it on the MTR and Tokyo train stations.

The MBTA needs more of this everywhere - well, both bathrooms and retail, I guess. The retail can go a long way of helping out as a new revenue stream...

 

[datadyne007]

Re: T construction news

The MBTA needs more of this everywhere - well, both bathrooms and retail, I guess. The retail can go a long way of helping out as a new revenue stream...

Just as an aside: The days of the MA plumbing board exempting the T from bathroom requirements are over. New stations & renovations are requiring bathrooms (single user, one per sex), where feasible at fare lobbies. Assembly, GC, Wollaston, etc.

^ Something I've always wondered about the Winter St. concourse:
Does anyone know what the deal is with those robust guardrail/side-bumper thingies (sorry I don't know what to call them) are alongside this concourse (both here on the right side of this image in blue, and also present on the other side that's not shown)...

They seem a bit ridiculous for pedestrian purposes. Were there some sort of vehicles that drove in here at some point?

I think the blue railings were installed for the visually impaired so that a cane would bump into them before the visually impaired person tripped on that ledge & series of niches along those walls.

 

[bakgwailo]

Re: T construction news

Just as an aside: The days of the MA plumbing board exempting the T from bathroom requirements are over. New stations & renovations are requiring bathrooms (single user, one per sex), where feasible at fare lobbies. Assembly, GC, Wollaston, etc.

That is great news. I actually found out there is one at Ashmont, although it requires the booth person to let you through to it.

 

[jass]

Re: T construction news

Just as an aside: The days of the MA plumbing board exempting the T from bathroom requirements are over. New stations & renovations are requiring bathrooms (single user, one per sex), where feasible at fare lobbies. Assembly, GC, Wollaston, etc.

GC has one now?

The one at Kenmore went away in the big renovation of 2001-2014

 

[datadyne007]

Re: T construction news

GC has one now?

The one at Kenmore went away in the big renovation of 2001-2014

Opposite side of the elevators from street to GL in the fare lobby. A T CSA is required to let you use it.

 

[jass]

Re: T construction news

New platform + 3rd track at Kingston looks done. Will allow MBTA service

20170410_200138 by J Sinclair, on Flickr

20170410_200135 by J Sinclair, on Flickr

20170410_200129 by J Sinclair, on Flickr