USPS Complex | Fort Point

[Nexis4jersey]

Re: South Station Tower

What haven't they filled the Channel yet?

 

[whighlander]

Re: South Station Tower

What haven't they filled the Channel yet?

Nexis -- 2 reasons [edited -- 3 reasons]:

1) officially it is a navigable body of water and under the jurisdiction of the US Army Corps of Engineers filling up a navigable body so it is no longer navigable is not a trivial bureaucratic process

2) probably more relevant -- there is a small building on the opposite bank -- it houses the filtration plant for a high volume cooling system used to cool high volume industrial equipment making high volumes of razor blades at the Gillette World Shaving Hq -- located providentially on a vast (as in the Atlantic Ocean) supply of cooling water -- and despite the fact that the Gillette dukedom is now overseen by the P&G King in Cincinnati - you still don't muck with Gillette

3) as pointed out later -- Warning Warning minor digression -- However I would not consider it sufficient to issue a Hijack of the thread Alert at this time -- { (love time travel -- its great to fix something after all the subsequent comments]} -- returning control to the thread -- Anyway -- #3 -- a damn stupid idea if there ever was one

 

[Arborway]

Re: South Station Tower

What haven't they filled the Channel yet?

Because it's a terrible idea that no one would support.

 

[stick n move]

Re: South Station Tower

What haven't they filled the Channel yet?

Are you kidding me thats the #1 worst idea iv heard on this forum yet if anything they should b making it longer and more useable. If they get rid of that ups warehouse theres gonna be a lot of prime waterfront realestate and even if they dont why would you want to get rid of what there is in front of atlantic wharf and the intercontinental.

 

[stick n move]

Re: South Station Tower

What haven't they filled the Channel yet?

Are you kidding me thats the #1 worst idea iv heard on this forum yet if anything they should b making it longer and more useable. If they get rid of that ups warehouse theres gonna be a lot of prime waterfront realestate and even if they dont why would you want to get rid of what there is in front of atlantic wharf and the intercontinental. They already filled in way too much way back in the day the south bay went way past whats there now they never should have filled in that much so we need to keep what little is left and make it nice.

 

[JSic]

Re: South Station Tower

The rendering is great but they need to disguise the vent building.

 

[HenryAlan]

Re: South Station Tower

Paddle boats from in front of the Children's Museum.

How hard would that be right now? And why has it not been done yet?

There's probably some safety issue connected with the fact that the channel is directly connected to the harbor. Of course, with the new plan to fill it in, that's kind of a moot point.

 

[tobyjug]

Re: South Station Tower

By the 60's it was a giant toilet bowl, and I was pretty happy back then to see it get filled in. I recollect that this was a common sentiment, it was just so awful.

In my lifetime, it seems like everything in South Bay east of the Expressway to the west "shore " of South Boston, then south to the South Boston Bypass Road has been filled in and put to use as rail yards, city tow lots and meat markets. (I'm sure someone can give a more precise description.)

A lot of it was still navigable, in theory at least. The Broadway Bridge would pivot once in a while, and occasionally got stuck in the open position. The Rapid Service Press Building had a dock behind it. (Miss that big red light up sign on the roof with the sequence: "Rapid. Service. Press. Rapid Service Press."

By the 90's much of it had been filled in. The Big Dig seemed to finish it off what was left.

I guess the area has been put to good use. But I now feel guilty that I was once happy to see it filled in.

 

[whighlander]

Re: South Station Tower

Are you kidding me thats the #1 worst idea iv heard on this forum yet if anything they should b making it longer and more useable. If they get rid of that ups warehouse theres gonna be a lot of prime waterfront realestate and even if they dont why would you want to get rid of what there is in front of atlantic wharf and the intercontinental. They already filled in way too much way back in the day the south bay went way past whats there now they never should have filled in that much so we need to keep what little is left and make it nice.

stick -- actually for a canoe or a kayak there is quite a bit of it -- it extends all the way down to where West 4th St goes under I-93 -- at its very end is a large Combined Sewer Overflow outlet -- so don't go boating in rainy weather

 

[whighlander]

Re: South Station Tower

By the 60's it was a giant toilet bowl, and I was pretty happy back then to see it get filled in. I recollect that this was a common sentiment, it was just so awful.

In my lifetime, it seems like everything in South Bay east of the Expressway to the west "shore " of South Boston, then south to the South Boston Bypass Road has been filled in and put to use as rail yards, city tow lots and meat markets. (I'm sure someone can give a more precise description.)

A lot of it was still navigable, in theory at least. The Broadway Bridge would pivot once in a while, and occasionally got stuck in the open position. The Rapid Service Press Building had a dock behind it. (Miss that big red light up sign on the roof with the sequence: "Rapid. Service. Press. Rapid Service Press."

By the 90's much of it had been filled in. The Big Dig seemed to finish it off what was left.

I guess the area has been put to good use. But I now feel guilty that I was once happy to see it filled in.

Toby -- I didn't realize you were a true "long gray beard" -- most of the South Bay was filled in the 1920's and 1930's and the rest when the T built the Cabot Yards -- long before the Big Dig

 

[stick n move]

Re: South Station Tower

I truely think they should widen it up and make it so you can get boats down to the end and have boat docks along it so there would be a lot more places to get access to the harbor this along with the new seaport buildings will really expand access in the future. Its not like theyd be digging a new channel it was already there so they would be reclaiming it which would be easier to push through. This is boston were a waterfront city if you dont like it move to oklahoma.

 

[shmessy]

Re: South Station Tower

There's probably some safety issue connected with the fact that the channel is directly connected to the harbor. Of course, with the new plan to fill it in, that's kind of a moot point.

Baltimore's HarborPlace doesn't seem to have a problem with it.

 

[Ron Newman]

Re: South Station Tower

Gillette's use of Fort Point Channel water for cooling is the reason I-90 goes under the channel in a tunnel, rather than over it on a bridge.

 

[tobyjug]

Re: South Station Tower

Toby -- I didn't realize you were a true "long gray beard" -- most of the South Bay was filled in the 1920's and 1930's and the rest when the T built the Cabot Yards -- long before the Big Dig

Woof!

I'm not that old!

You are right, of course! But what they didn't obliterate back then, they finished off in the 60's and 70's. The Big Dig was but a last teaspoon.

I searched YouTube for a TV broadcast from the early 70's when scuba divers filmed swimming through toilet paper and feces. All I found was some guy who lost a bet last year and had to go for a swim.

 

[riffgo]

Re: South Station Tower

As late as the 1960's the Channel extended all the way to Massachusetts Aenue near what was then known as Boston City Hospital. It was beyond foul at this narrowed location most of the time.

 

[stellarfun]

Re: South Station Tower

It would be darn near impossible to get a permit from the Corps to fill in a navigable body of water like the Channel. Here is a recent notice from the Corps on San Francisco Airport's proposal to fill in a relatively small portion of the Bay, including 0.04 acres of old salt water marsh, for a runway overrun. For filling those 0.04 acres, the airport will offset by restoring 0.20 acres of tidal marsh elsewhere, a 5:1 ratio.

http://www.spn.usace.army.mil/regulatory/PN/2011/2011-00273.pdf

Logan is constructing a new runway overrun area into the harbor. Massport is not even going to try and use filled land for this; the overrun will be constructed on pilings.

The ready ability to fill navigable waters came to a screeching halt with enactment of the Clean Water Act in 1972.

 

[whighlander]

Re: South Station Tower

I truely think they should widen it up and make it so you can get boats down to the end and have boat docks along it so there would be a lot more places to get access to the harbor this along with the new seaport buildings will really expand access in the future. Its not like theyd be digging a new channel it was already there so they would be reclaiming it which would be easier to push through. This is boston were a waterfront city if you dont like it move to oklahoma.

Stick - there is a plan for boat docks and such by the BRA (circa 2000) its called the Fort Point Channel Watersheet Activation Plan -- you can Google for it

As for the boats -- depends on their size

The non-openable bridges limit the size of boats as Congress and Summer St. have very low clearance during the mean high tide (4 ft) of course a lot more at low tide (approximately 14 ft)

 

[BostonObserver]

Re: South Station Tower

there was talk of putting the north bound lanes in a tunnel under the channel. Gilette squashed this less expensive option.

 

[Nexis4jersey]

Re: South Station Tower

I didn't realize it was such an important channel , seemed to serve no purpose when I visited....maybe because it was winter? Is there more activity in the summer?

 

[stick n move]

Re: South Station Tower

The boston tea party happened in the channel and they are currently rebuilding the boats and are going to build a museum in the channel.