Silver Line to Chelsea

[cybah]

MassDOT has specifically mentioned potential redevelopment in Everett's commercial triangle + the market basket plot next to Chelsea Station. Ultimately the value of the service will come from its access to existing Chelsea residents, but there is some decent TOD potential.

Fwiw I think part of the idea here is the the stations will help catalyze redevelopment in the less-dense parts of Chelsea - the light industrial area along the creek (box district) and the market basket plaza and surrounding area ... while also adequately service existing density

You're both correct.

That area around Market Basket has alot of TOD potential. Just look at what has already gone up since the mid 2000's.. 3 hotels, the FBI, Market Basket redoing their mall, and One North on the other side of Route 1.

Plus, in planning, there's a large apartment complex with 692 units and street level retail that is in planning right now on Everett Ave, right behind Stop & Shop on RBP. I have a feeling once that gets going, we're going to see all the junkyards go byebye and it become all developed.

So all this development is a perfect opportunity to extend the SLG into Everett or Wellington or where ever.. anywhere that is past its soon-to-be current terminus.

 

[cybah]

Hey All-

It's time for another update.

LOTS of progress (as you will see). The stations are starting to look like (even more so than before) stations that are empty waiting for the buses to come. Lots of finishing touches on most stations.. lighting, the shelters (and heaters!), security, communication, and alot more.

Like last time the only station that is really lagging behind now is Bellingham Square station. Both canopies are up and finished now. And today it looked like they were getting ready to finish up any conduit work and get a final grade down between the inbound and outbound platforms.

But the other three stations look great and are almost ready to go.

I really think by snow fall most of the main construction will be done. The shared use path now has blacktop, so I assume the busway will get its final layer soon too. Plus I got a notice about crossing working at Cottage, Highland (Box District), Arlington/6th, Spruce, and Everett Ave for overnight lane closures. I assume this is to finalize curbing in those areas.

I STILL have notes for you, but I've decided to just give up because... I'm probably going to ping the Engineer again to see if I can get another tour sometime in mid/late October. I figure by then alot of the finishes will be done along with the blacktop. Plus hopefully by then we will be in full fall colors by then, so the pictures will look awesome.

If you'd like to see the previous photo sets they can be found here by clicking on the links below:

Pics from 4/25/15
Pics from 6/20/15
Pics from 8/1/15
Pics from 9/19/15
Pics from 10/31/15
Pics from 1/9/16
Pics from 3/12/16
Pics from 4/16/16
Pics from 5/15/16
Pics from 6/26/16
Pics from 8/13/16
Pics from 10/5/16
Pics from 11/10/16
Pics from 12/14/16
Pics from 2/2/17
Pics from 3/23/17
Pics from 4/20/17
Pics from 6/3/17
Pics from 7/22/17

And if you'd like to see the ALL of NEW photos, you can click here

Now for the highlights..

Here's the Central Ave @ Marginal/Eastern Ave Intersection. As I stated above, this is slated to have work done over the next few weeks. Mostly to install new signals, crossings, and new curbing. Hopefully to make it a bit more pedistrian friendly, as this intersection has had a few bad accidents :-/

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Here's Eastern Ave Station with it's new bus shelters. It's really starting to take shape.

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A look at the new shared use path near Eastern Ave Station, as seen from Eastern Ave. Looks like fence posts are going in..

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One of the more exciting things I saw was the final pavement along the shared use path. Here's looking at it from Cottage Street toward the Bellingham Street bridge

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A look at Eastern Ave Station from the Bellingham Street Bridge

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A view looking toward Box District Station from the Bellingham Street Bridge

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Grumble. More graffiti. This will be covered up. Good thing camera's are being installed everywhere (see below)

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Finished shard use path near Library Street

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Another look at the finished shared use path near Box District Station

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Box District Station with the new shared use path snaking around it

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A closer look at Box District Station

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Another close look at Box District Station

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The shared use path now snaking up the retaining wall to Broadway near Box District Station

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A final look at Box District Station

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The shared use path near Box District Station

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The shared use path (and now covered Eversource Box) as seen from the Broadway Bridge

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New security cameras being installed. These are being installed on almost every light pole. This busway will be well covered with cameras.

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A look back at Box District Station from the Broadway Bridge

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The shared use path as seen from the Broadway bridge (looking toward Chestnut Street/Washington Ave)

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The continuing.. or should I say.. finalization of the reconstruction of the Washington Ave bridge. And honestly, I've been wondering when they were going to finish. 90% of the bridge has been done, except for one small section of sidewalk (where it will connect to the ramp to the new station.

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The inbound side of Bellingham Sq Station are done finally. As I said above, Bellingham Sq station just lags behind. It may be the only station that isn't finished by winter, but then again, if they work hard at it, it could be done.

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Now what they were doing last time makes sense. Its going to be single lane. Nice. I hope all major intersections will be like this.

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Chelsea Station as seen from Everett Ave

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Another look at Chelsea Station from Everett Ave

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Chelsea Station from Market Basket's parking lot

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Another look of Chelsea Station from Market Basket's parking lot

That's all for now. Next set will probably mid/late October.. hopefully it will be another offical tour.

And as always, let me know what you think!

 

[shmessy]

Cybah, thank you so much for all that. Great unsung project and it looks like it could be transformative for Chelsea.

By the way, in those last 2 photos, that's the new FBI building looming (altho' the Market Basket is important too ).

Much appreciated!

 

[scorpio02150]

Great update as always. Cant wait to see the silver line buses in action!

 

[jass]

Fantastic pictures.

Poor decision on the lighting, it should face the path and not the street. Bus srivers have bright lights, and arent really dealing with glare from oncoming traffic.

Looks like the elevated section of the trail has no lighting at all

 

[cybah]

Fantastic pictures.

Poor decision on the lighting, it should face the path and not the street. Bus srivers have bright lights, and arent really dealing with glare from oncoming traffic.

Looks like the elevated section of the trail has no lighting at all

Curious, which picture are you talking about as regardes to the lighting?

Also, the raised portion WILL have lighting. I probably didn't get the bases in the photograph. But yes there are posts there for lighting.

 

[FitchburgLine]

Great update as always. Fun fact: this service will be so useful that it's projected to have 8.7k riders per day, in a city of 35k. 23% of the population of Chelsea will use the service.

 

[shmessy]

Great update as always. Fun fact: this service will be so useful that it's projected to have 8.7k riders per day, in a city of 35k. 23% of the population of Chelsea will use the service.

My guess is that a good portion of that number will not be Chelsea residents, but people going into and out of Chelsea.

i.e. folks working at the FBI Building, etc..

In the meantime, with this new line, look for development in Chelsea to boom.

Chelsea should build a damn statue in honor of Jay Ash, by the way.

 

[FitchburgLine]

Still, an 8.7k net change in a town of 35k is a Cambridge Red Line sized flow- likely to be transformative to Chelsea and a massive boost to development/economic revival

 

[cybah]

My guess is that a good portion of that number will not be Chelsea residents, but people going into and out of Chelsea.

i.e. folks working at the FBI Building, etc..

Maybe. Maybe not. In the SLG meetings, one of the main points was that this route would not attract new riders, but take riders off existing routes. And most of the riders I see seem to be going TO work elsewhere, and coming here to live.

In the meantime, with this new line, look for development in Chelsea to boom.

Especially behind Market Basket.

Chelsea should build a damn statue in honor of Jay Ash, by the way.

there's alot of people in town who would disagree with you about that statement

 

[FitchburgLine]

Of those 8.7k, roughly 3k are projected to come from the slow, mixed traffic 116 and 117 (and the 120, which loses a big chunk of its reason to exist)

 

[shmessy]

there's alot of people in town who would disagree with you about that statement

Look at what preceded him!

 

[cybah]

Of those 8.7k, roughly 3k are projected to come from the slow, mixed traffic 116 and 117 (and the 120, which loses a big chunk of its reason to exist)

Great numbers. Where are you getting these from?

And I think you mean the 111.. not the 120. The 111 has over 11k daily boardings or something obnoxiously high.. its either one or two highest riders in the entire system. (either being 1st or 2nd to the 66)

I think the 111 will still exist. The SLG is great going to the Seaport. It's going to make getting to my job near A @ Summer far easier than it is now (I walk from Aquarium most days). I don't care even if I get stuck in traffic. Beats the alternative.

But the 111 really is the fastest way into town (sans traffic on the bridge). 8-11 minutes. You really can't beat that. I don't think it will go away, but I am willing to bet that the T reduces the frequency of the 111 eventually.

Of course, I just saw that MassDOT has decided that they are going to repair the structure integrity of the Tobin Bridge between 2018-2021. So years of lane closures.. far worse than the painting.

And let's not forget that the North Washington Street bridge project in Charlestown is going to start soon. So between the two, its pretty much going to cripple the 111 in terms of trying to keep frequency and route.

The SLG just cannot get here soon enough.

 

[cybah]

Look at what preceded him!

Guy Santagate?

(I know where you were going... receivership, but there was one City Manager before Ash.. Guy Santagate. Who interestingly enough, was the City Manager of my hometown in New Hampshire after he left Chelsea for almost 15 years.)

 

[CSTH]

There's going to be a lot of blue line transfers at Maverick that shift to Airport

 

[FitchburgLine]

And I think you mean the 111.. not the 120. The 111 has over 11k daily boardings or something obnoxiously high.. its either one or two highest riders in the entire system. (either being 1st or 2nd to the 66)

Whoops, I meant the 112! The 111 will still be fastest to downtown- it really complements the SL, not directly competing. On the other hand, the 112 is basically a slow, terrible-frequency version of the Silver line (that also doesn't go to the airport), so it should possibly be eliminated (and used to boost headways somewhere else).

 

[jass]

Curious, which picture are you talking about as regardes to the lighting?

Also, the raised portion WILL have lighting. I probably didn't get the bases in the photograph. But yes there are posts there for lighting.

I am referring to this image, where the lights are directed away from the path

And this image where the path is elevated

 

[cybah]

There's going to be a lot of blue line transfers at Maverick that shift to Airport

Yes I feel like most won't continue into the tunnel and get off here.

The 112 (see comment below) is like 7 mins from Hawthorn @ Central to the BL (depending on how long it sits in Day Sq), so I anticipate the SL3 being about the same or less to airport

 

[cybah]

I am referring to this image, where the lights are directed away from the path

And this image where the path is elevated

The first one, I have no idea. Maybe they think the light from the busway pole will be enough (it is on the same side).

As far as the second one, it's there. Look closely. I think there's not one closer (and one cut off in the photo), because that eventually will be graded to its surroundings.

 

[cybah]

Whoops, I meant the 112! The 111 will still be fastest to downtown- it really complements the SL, not directly competing. On the other hand, the 112 is basically a slow, terrible-frequency version of the Silver line (that also doesn't go to the airport), so it should possibly be eliminated (and used to boost headways somewhere else).

One of the ideas is to have the 112 service Airport via the the bypass road in East Boston (same as the SL3) to improve headways (they always get stuck in day sq)

This is also backed up by the Everett Transit Plan, which suggests the 112 cuts both spurs (Solider's Home & Admiral's Hill) and go direct to Airport to provide Everett with a direct connect to the airport & blue line. (which I don't agree with cutting the spur's...)

My idea would be to just chop the 112 into two routes and have them converge at Market Basket at the SLG stop. But that's a topic for another thread