Storrow Drive tunnel replacement

They worked fine probably because there weren't 100,000 cars traveling it each day. In all likelihood, putting traffic lights on Storrow will lead to all day traffic jams.
 
No traffic lights!!

No trees cut!!!!!!!!

Nothing major or mind-altering will be done for a generation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Storrow Tunnel to undergo repairs. Work in lieu of reconstruction

By David Abel, Globe Staff | November 9, 2007

Officials at the Department of Conservation and Recreation, less than a week after announcing they had postponed plans to rebuild the decaying Storrow Drive Tunnel, said yesterday that the agency will spend $6.8 million on interim repairs.

The tunnel repairs will begin early in 2008 and continue for up to nine months. The repairs will replace deteriorated concrete in the roof and walls and waterproof roof joints to prevent leaks.

The work will be done at night, allowing the tunnel to remain open to traffic during the day, agency officials said.

"These repairs are necessary to keep the Storrow Drive tunnel operational until we begin the full reconstruction," Commissioner Richard K. Sullivan Jr. said in a statement. "We will use the additional time those repairs provide to work through the challenge of managing reconstruction of this heavily traveled roadway."

Officials said the agency has already begun a $430,000 project to repair the 56-year-old tunnel's drainage system and structural beams. Those repairs began Sunday and will continue for about six weeks.

They said the agency is negotiating with an engineering company to review plans for the short-term repair and long-term reconstruction of the tunnel.

As they debate a final plan for reconstructing the tunnel, the officials said they are working with other state agencies to coordinate other road and bridge repairs in the Charles River area without impeding traffic.

"The long-term Storrow Drive solution cannot be realized without considering the entire transportation network," Sullivan said in the statement.

Over the next 15 years, six bridges over the Charles River, as well as the Bowker Overpass that connects Storrow Drive with the Fenway area, will require about $300 million in repairs or reconstruction. The bridges and roads carry more than 440,000 vehicles a day.

Agency officials said preliminary reviews indicate the Craigie Drawbridge and Craigie Dam Bridge will be the first to require reconstruction.

The department, whose plan to run a temporary bypass road across the Charles River Esplanade sparked neighborhood outrage, has delayed filing a key environmental impact report that would have advanced the Storrow Drive tunnel project.

It's not clear when construction will begin to make permanent repairs on the tunnel.

Officials had previously said they expected construction to begin in 2010.
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/11/09/storrow_tunnel_to_undergo_repairs/
 
Interesting... so they're basically saying that they are not changing their plans at all but they are delaying them because no one liked them. What was the point of all the public meetings and thinking outside the box if this new commissioner was just going to come in and say that he's going to spend millions of dollars to keep it exactly the same? Let's see some creative thinking here! Why aren't we trying to IMPROVE the area?
 
Smart move by the park people, if this doesn't get landmark status there is something seriously wrong with the system.


Advocates seek landmark status for Esplanade

By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff | November 15, 2007

Worried about the state's on-again, off-again proposal to use Esplanade land for a temporary roadway, Boston residents and park advocates are asking the city to designate the Charles River waterfront a landmark, a move that could thwart its use as a road.

On Tuesday, about 800 city residents filed a petition with the Boston Landmarks Commission seeking recognition that could help protect the parkland from being used as a Storrow Drive detour or for any other form of development.

The state Department of Conservation and Recreation, which operates Storrow Drive, has been considering a construction plan that would reroute traffic onto a stretch of the Esplanade during renovations to the Storrow Drive tunnel. Though the department has decided to delay renovations and make only interim repairs, residents have been asking the Boston Preservation Alliance how they can permanently protect the parkland from such projects.

"It's very common for landmark petitions to come forward when there's an imminent threat," said Sarah D. Kelly, executive director of the citywide preservation advocacy group. "I think this made people start to think about the park and its value to the city and region even. People felt strongly that they wanted to do something to try to encourage its long-term preservation."

The Esplanade is within the Charles River Basin, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. But that designation would only require federal review if the Storrow project tapped federal funding, which Conservation and Recreation Commissioner Richard Sullivan said is not expected. A detour onto the Esplanade would still need to be reviewed by state environmental regulators to go forward.

City landmark recognition is the highest status a park can receive in Boston, marking its significance both as a local treasure and a regional draw. To qualify, a building or location must have historical, social, cultural, architectural or aesthetic significance appreciated beyond Boston's borders.

Landmark designation would also give the city greater control over the Esplanade's future. Though it would not necessarily prohibit the detour, it would make the option unlikely, officials said.

"It will make any effort to take out all the trees and pave the Esplanade more difficult if it has landmark status," said state Representative Martha M. Walz, a Back Bay Democrat. "But it should get landmark status anyway. I don't think anyone's really noticed over the years that it did not have landmark status, because we treat it with such care."

The Esplanade's roots can be traced to 1892, when Frederick Law Olmsted designed Charlesbank, a park near the current Museum of Science that featured the nation's first outdoor athletic facilities. The parkland was expanded and took shape in the 1930s and for decades has played host to a national television audience and locals celebrating the Fourth of July.

The Boston Common, the Public Garden, the Fens, the Commonwealth Avenue mall, and Franklin Park all won landmark designation over the years, but the Esplanade was never proposed.

"It seems to be a funny oversight," said Linda M. Cox, a cofounder of the Esplanade Association involved in the petition, adding that "everyone is amazed" that it hasn't been considered for landmark status.

The Boston Landmarks Commission is still planning a hearing where residents can assert why the Esplanade should, or should not, be recognized as a landmark, and the commission will decide whether it deserves a review. If so, the commission would undertake a study and outline the parameters for a landmark designation, a process that would probably take at least three to four months.

A landmark designation could feasibly be written to require the state to seek approval for anything beyond grass-mowing and maintenance at the Esplanade. New bandstands, boat houses or playgrounds would need to be in keeping with the historic character of the park. Even the removal of trees or the planting of perennials could be governed by the commission.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/ar...es_seek_landmark_status_for_esplanade?mode=PF
 
They should just cover up the whole expressway and reconnect the waterfront to the city. The expressway pretty much razes any opportunity for harmony between the two. I like the idea of walking across Beacon and hitting grass and trees immediately without the threat of a stray car. I know the engineering and the new traffic patterns would be a HUGE task but it's just an idea. I know it's been said before and I'm sure it will be said for years to come.
 
The Globe said:
Lane in Storrow Drive Tunnel closes for construction
December 26, 2007 09:34 AM

By Globe Staff

One eastbound lane inside the Storrow Drive Tunnel will be closed for the next several weeks as construction begins today to repair drains that prevent flooding and ice.

The $400,000 project by the Department of Conservation and Recreation will start at the entrance of the tunnel, with work running from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. While jackhammers will be used, work crews will install a temporary noise barrier to minimize the impact on residents.

"We are trying very hard to be mindful of the neighbor's interests, especially their need for sleep," DCR Commissioner Richard K. Sullivan Jr. said in a statement. "When the noise is loudest, we will work during the day. To minimize traffic disruptions, however, we'll move the work to nighttime hours when the crews will be further inside the tunnel and the noise outside will be greatly reduced."

No work will be done on Dec. 31 or Jan. 1.

Beginning Jan. 2, construction will begin inside the tunnel, with crews working from at night from 9 to 5 a.m. Sunday through Thursday for several weeks. The nighttime schedule is designed to minimize the impact on traffic. While crews are inside the tunnel, the noise is expected to be considerably less.
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Link
 
Menino wants to extend park over Storrow Drive
March 7, 2008 01:57 PM

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff

Mayor Thomas M. Menino today called for expanding public green space between the Public Garden and the Esplanade by covering over a section of Storrow Drive in need of rebuilding.

"I'm calling on everyone to take a Big Picture view," Menino said in a speech to the Boston Municipal Research Bureau at the Seaport Hotel in South Boston.

"Think about this for a moment," Menino said. "We can reopen the river front to residents, connect the Charles River and the Public Garden, and create more green space in the heart of our downtown neighborhoods."

In challenging the state and others to extend public space along the Charles River, Menino cited the example of the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge.

"We saw a chance to make a bold statement about Boston's future," Menino said.

As reported in the Globe this morning, Menino also called for building height limits along the new Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.

"The public interest, not the private market, should guide development" around new Greenway parks, Menino said.

To the west, Boston University and Harvard University are considering similar plans to extend parks above Storrow Drive and Soldiers Field Road to the Charles River.
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Interesting....

Funny how height limits on the greenway were mentioned on this forum today. i swear to god if rediculous height limits are enacted i will run for mayor myself.
 
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He's 100% right about Storrow Drive. Doing this would make it easy to walk from the Public Garden to the Hatch Shell.

If anything, he should go further and call for the removal of the Charlesgate overpass and all the elevated highway ramps that connect it to Storrow Drive. (Replace the whole mess by a simple rotary.)
 
Can the city afford this though? I know harvard can, and i am sure BU could raise the cash, but would cost a small fortune for the rest of storrow drive.
 
The Mayor isn't calling for all of Storrow Drive to go into a tunnel -- just the section near Arlington Street and the Hatch Shell.
 
I was walking this area the other day and put some elementary thought into Mayor Meninio's proposal and I think it could work. Of course, this is Boston, so it won't work, but this is a plan to get private money to pay for this ambitious project. You basically give part of the land away to a developer, and you expand the commercial uses currently available on the Esplanade.

This plan could pay for itself:

storrow.jpg


Instead we'll have hack union people, the affordable housing crowd, preservationalists and every other special interest putting their hands in the mess until the project is no longer profitable, takes 10 years to complete and costs 10x what is originally estimated.

Anyway that's just my very simplistic -probably silly- idea of what to do. The footbridge land can be taken for building, as can the wrap around the back area of Beacon Hill. This incredibly valuable land would have the Public Garden at it's doorstep, as well as the Esplanade, and would straddle both Beacon Hill AND the Back Bay. How valuable would this land be to a developer? Maybe not enough to pay for the tunnel project, but maybe enough to get it financed reasonably.
 
A 10-story building at the meeting point of Beacon Hill and Back Bay? Fuggedaboutit. Nevah gonnah happen. You'll get maybe six stories at best.

I'm all for a beer garden though..
 
I know - but go to Google street view and check out what is there right now - it's ten stories - on the Back Bay side. On the Beacon Hill side you have 7. So if the building (or townhouse-style buildings) could be seven stories fronting Beacon Street (to keep the street wall's integrity) then it could step up to ten stories in the back.

Of course, it will never happen. But this valuable sliver of developable land could finance this idea. If I worked for the federal government I would give exactly $0.0 to future highway projects in Massachusetts for ten years as a punishment for the Big Dig. The State can't afford it, the city can't afford it. But a little privatization, and commercial development could sell it. The Esplanade could use a little life and commercial activity, like the English Garden in Munich.
 
I like this idea, except that it looks like you've entirely replaced the eastbound entrance to Storrow Drive with your new building (blue on map). I don't think you can just remove that ramp without causing lots of problems. Or am I misunderstanding your proposal?
 
That's why I called my own plan "simple" and "silly" - I have no idea what the logistics are of accomplishing something like this. the development could go over the ramp, at least partly.

Just walking over the footbridge, it's kind of striking to see the amount of land around there that is not being used. If you grouped that land together and sold it off, the resulting development would actually improve that area.

I just prefer the idea of something like this vs. just decking over Storrow and making a park with money that just doesn't exist. A little privatization might help.

Maybe an alternative is a little two lane road replaces Storrow, as Storrow goes underground and the back of all of the Beacon Hill townhouses (home to sheds, garages, etc) becomes yet another row of townhouses, facing the new street and the water. This one street would be designed to be pedestrian-friendly - not a thoroughfare.

Again - simple, maybe silly - but I like the idea of decking over Storrow in this area, and connecting it to the Public Garden. I don't like the idea of paying for it with government money
 
One of the plans that the state presented a couple of years ago was in fact to tunnel this part of Storrow (both directions), and build a two-lane access road above ground. The access road would have traffic lights and crosswalks at Arlington and Berkeley streets. That would still allow all of the current traffic movements, while at the same time expanding and connecting the parks.

Since everything seems to be up for grabs at the moment, you should try to push your plan with the city and state people who can make it happen.
 
If I worked for the federal government I would give exactly $0.0 to future highway projects in Massachusetts for ten years as a punishment for the Big Dig.
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If I lived in another state perhaps I might not wonder where all the money came from to build the nice highways thru Wyoming and the modern phone service they enjoy in Fairbanks Alaska. People in Massachusetts have been throwing into the pot for an awful long time, we deserve every penny to help us redevelop just like we helped other areas get established. Of course there has to be oversight but you can't go after the real bad guys when they are being shielded by the very politicians that bash the project.

btw- Rip down Storrow and do not replace it.
 
Nope - I disagree, if a project is so horrible mismanaged, that state should be penalized. The current system is such that the state throws up its arms and says "gee wiz, that sure is a mess!" and then moves on to the next project.

Just like in the real world, there should be penalties and repercussions for behavior like this. Other states will manage their projects better if there are consequences, but not if they see what Boston got away with. Already other cities can't even try to undertake these projects because Boston ruined it.

Travel on the Mass Pike east from Newton, go slow, like 40 mph in the break-down lane with your flashers on - because that's the ONLY way you will be able to see the quarterly planted flower beds that are tucked away and hidden from view. Seriously. It's disgusting beyond belief. It's graft, it's corruption, it's a bankrupt agency with a hand-shake deal with a landscaper who's probably some state rep's brother. This is a bankrupt agency with quarterly flower plantings along a highway that cannot be seen by passing cars!At one point there is a large oak tree that is tucked away and it's surrounded by a thick planting of flowers. You cannot see it while driving, you have to be a passenger and turn around and peek through as you pass it. And they're raising tolls and complaining about how poor they are. They own real estate - develop it. Get out of the financial hole without jacking up tolls to the highest rate in the nation.
 
I don't know the area you mean, but is it possible that the landscaping is meant to be seen from the nearby surface streets rather than from the Pike? Or that some of it serves as noise buffering? My guess is that it's there because the city of Newton wanted it.
 
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