MBTA Construction Projects

If they're doing all that, they might as well convert Porter Square to full high-level platforms while they're at it (presumably if the existing high-level segment on a curve doesn't mess with Porter's status as an emergency freight line, neither should anything else?)
 
Wash said:
If they're doing all that, they might as well convert Porter Square to full high-level platforms while they're at it (presumably if the existing high-level segment on a curve doesn't mess with Porter's status as an emergency freight line, neither should anything else?)
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Porter wouldn't be a 100% in-situ raising because the rearmost tip underneath the Mass Ave. overhang is on the start of a curve. They'd have to shift about 50 ft. forward towards Beacon and away from the under- Mass Ave. slack to hit a regulation 800 ft. full-high, railing-off some old slack behind the egresses in the process. Then they have to widen the current easterly tip of the island + Beacon extension to 12 ft. wide per M.A.A.B. accessibility regs. Clearing out the derelict old station structures underneath the Somerville Ave. sidewalk actually aids in this future touch, because they'd have to slightly realign the approach tracks for the wider southern platform tip and the remanicured embankment serves up that shifting room.

I doubt cueing that up is going to be anyone's priority, because as long as Belmont + Waverly are deadlocked on designs for their ADA replacements (in large part because of the horrible, senselessly wasteful "switchbacks in the sky" prelim design for Waverly that was roundly rejected on public comment) they don't want to get slapped for over-prioritizing retouches to any already 100% ADA-compliant stations over taming the large backlog of 0%-compliant Fitchburg stations in the renovation queue. Fitchburg Line still being one of the more galling 'land of have-nots' outliers on systemwide non-compliance makes that a legitimate political sore spot. Realistically they've got to recover their fumble on Waverly to get the two Belmont stations cued up, then maybe knock off another easy/prefabbable one like Lincoln before any wiggle room opens up. And even then the M.A.A.B. might have strong preference for tackling 1-out-of-2 of high-ridership non-compliant Concord/West Concord (with legit hard historic buildings to design around) or safety-compromised non-compliant Ayer (because of the track crossings of a busy freight junction) before allowing any pure-enhancement renos to an already compliant stop like Porter.



EDIT: No freight considerations here. The whole reason the old Fitchburg Freight Cutoff existed until the 1980's Red Line construction is because Mass Ave. overpass was too low-clearance for most freight cars, so even back in the day there was virtually nothing passing on the mainline between the old yards at West Cambridge and Northpoint. The Lowell Line got re-cleared as the new perpetual clearance route in 1979 so B&M could sign away the Cutoff for the Red Line extension. The post-1984 replacement Mass Ave. bridge isn't as punitively underheight as before, but is still capped at a tight Plate C dimension (same as a Kawasaki/Rotem bi-level height + turning radius). Right now Inner Fitchburg is designated as Pan Am's #3 route into town after #1 Lowell and #2 Reading (Reading seeing temp burst of freight traffic around GLX construction disruptions). The only specialty it has is a bulletin order directing any overweight cars to go via Inner Fitchburg because Lowell + Reading bridges can't handle any cars heavier than 263,000 lbs...with stipulation that the alt-routed heavyweights be buffered by spacer cars because Inner Fitchburg isn't 100% restriction-free, either. No Boston-area customers take any heavyweight cars whatsoever, so freight through Porter is basically a 2-3x per year event...once per year mandatory so the lone Pan Am crew trained on the Inner Fitchburg can re-up their line qualifications, and any others almost always some special one-off materials order being delivered exclusively to the T's doorstep at BET. Industry standard is now 286,000 lb. railcars, with Lowell-Winchester being a betting-odds fed freight grant recipient in the next 5 years for upgrades of a couple weak small river bridges so the lucrative nightly freight to Tighe Warehouse in Winchester can increase its loading capacity. Winchester Ctr. viaduct is the one weakling limiting the route rest of the way to Boston, so once that interminably slow station reno project wraps the Fitchburg weight bulletin will probably get sunset and redirect over to Lowell.
 
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Ruggles Station Improvements. 10/29/20. iPhoneSE. Wasn’t sure whether Poot quality photo or no post was preferable.

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Based on an excerpt from BigE's photo. Is this "two sided canopy" part of the new CR platform or part of the bus project?
It appears to be a ramp down from the bus level to the CR platform level (for the new platform?)
Where the nearside "upper" canopy covers the ramp, and the farside "lower" canopy might extend over the platform (or is there so much elevation change that the canopy is "all ramp cover?"

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Arlington said:
Based on an excerpt from BigE's photo. Is this "two sided canopy" part of the new CR platform or part of the bus project?
It appears to be a ramp down from the bus level to the CR platform level (for the new platform?)
Where the nearside "upper" canopy covers the ramp, and the farside "lower" canopy might extend over the platform (or is there so much elevation change that the canopy is "all ramp cover?"

View attachment 8033
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It's the canopy for the platform yep

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What still happening at Park St? They did the general cleaning and new signs/lights a while back, are they doing more extensive work?
 
Andrew said:
What still happening at Park St? They did the general cleaning and new signs/lights a while back, are they doing more extensive work?
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The Park Street renovations are a little more in-depth than some of the other ones, some of which just got light bulbs replaced, floors powerwashed, and a new coat of paint, aka typical maintenance.

From the bid,

The scope of work consists of the following Wayfinding and Station Improvements: demolish/replace/retrofit all station lighting throughout the public areas and relocate existing cameras due to impacts with new lighting/signage; demolition and replacement of all existing wayfinding signage; provide compliant braille signage at the two historical headhouses and throughout the public areas of the station platforms; provide illuminated exit signage throughout the station; repair floor finishes, benches and 23 stairways; reopen the Temple Place stairs on Tremont Street; improve station brightening (cleaning and painting) and cleaning of artwork.
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Yeah Park Street is basically getting a full maveover, everything including lighting, signage, stairways, benches, entrances, masonry, etc. So it's the same project, just slowly working its way around the station. These are some I tooklast month:

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Great photos, @HelloBostonHi! It's hard to overstate how different Park Street feels. It's worlds brighter, and it feels more open, even with all the construction equipment around. A remarkable change.
 
Anyone else feel like Park St is wildly over-lit now? The brightness is really overwhelming. Like they installed 25% more fixtures than needed.
 
Downburst said:
Great photos, @HelloBostonHi! It's hard to overstate how different Park Street feels. It's worlds brighter, and it feels more open, even with all the construction equipment around. A remarkable change.
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It's the ceiling. They took down all the metal rafters from the early-90's reno so you can see all the way to the top for the first time in 28+ years. A lot of the work is utility, so they're cleaning up layers upon layers of old electrical conduit junk that the rafters used to cosmetically obscure. Used to be that every time they added or replaced fixtures they just slapped more wire and conduit piping on top of the previous 30 years' worth, so it had gotten to be a godawful spaghetti mess that needed an artful cosmetic cover. Maximum utility insanity coming in the mid-aughts when all the network cabling was hastily installed for the Charlie gates and extra superfluous fluorescent fixtures were added seemingly at random (i.e. the dirty fixtures still remaining by the support poles in HBH's pics). Now they actually have precise systemwide utility mapping and are mass-consolidating their conduits with the LED lighting installs, which results in massive enough cleanup that the (extremely dirty) metal rafters are no longer needed to cover it all up. Can already tell from these pics how much superfluous utility spaghetti has been stripped out of the mix compared to what you used to see looking straight up.

The upshot is...besides the newfound openness...that they can hang much more detailed wayfinding signage from the ceiling from the freed-up vertical space now that the sight angles don't have to slot between the purely decorative rafters.

Bananarama said:
Anyone else feel like Park St is wildly over-lit now? The brightness is really overwhelming. Like they installed 25% more fixtures than needed.
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Better than the dank from never cleaning the lenses on light fixtures. The Red Line level is depressing as hell from that, and that's with trackside fixtures that are barely more than 15 years old. For whatever reason they chose fixtures whose dust cover etchings trap grime like a magnet, so the brightness now is barely half what it was it was when they were first installed. The wall lighting (the fixtures that still work at all) date to the '88 Red-level reno and are far worse still.

But also remember it's still a work-in-progress. Reserve judgment until they're done. There could be a new ceiling treatment installed as a capper to replace the removed rafters. They've tamed the ceiling clutter and all, but it's still not exactly an attractive view up above so cosmetic treatment may yet be in the cards. Plus the remaining mid-2000's superfluous fluorescent fixtures are probably still due for removal as surplus-to-requirement amid the much brighter new LED's.
 
Not 100% up to date on the Park renovations but I believe rafters were originally planned to come back. Not sure if it's changed since then.
 
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Ruggles busway (not pictured) is a hive of activity I've literally never seen in my three years watching the progress slog along. Paving, sidewalks, excavating, people on the platform, people setting curbs, a bus detour on the upper busway seems to have spurred everyone into action for once. Usually I see this site and there's two guys standing around smoking in high vis and a parked excavator.

Also next door, EXP at Northeastern is moving quick too, concrete slab pouring in the basement has already begun.
 
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