Government Center

Matthew provides notes from last evening's meeting on the need for a new Government Center T stop and how officials are planning to move people around when they lose the connection between the Blue and Green lines for two years.

Also see the UHub discussion on the work.

Meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. at 100 Cambridge St. Details on the upgrade.

The Globe reports on the planned September, 2013 shutdown, which will include making the station ADA compliant and replacing the current bomb shelter of an entrance with something glassier.

Meanwhile, on Dec. 18, the Parks and Recreation Department holds a formal tree hearing on the T's request to chop down 21 trees along Cambridge Street to make way for the renovation project - 13 linden trees and 8 crabapple trees. The hearing starts at 10 a.m. in the department's 1010 Mass. Ave. offices.

Episcopalians from across Massachusetts plan an unusual protest tomorrow downtown: A march that will end with Communion - and the destruction of participants' Bank of America cards:

During the service, Bank of America credit and debit cards will be collected in the offertory plate and destroyed, and a special prayer will be said over those who pledge to bank locally and close their accounts with Bank of America and other large banks.

The march starts at 10 a.m. at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul to Government Center, with Communion on the corner of Cambridge and Court streets.

Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE will be present to preach and bless the efforts that individuals are making to bring about economic reconciliation.

Mike Miccoli reported from Government Center at the height of one of the afternoon's storms:

Turnstiles at Govt Center aren't working. Of course, there are millions of tourists confused. Now I know what hell looks like.

Line to get into Govt Center is backed up into the rain. Of course, there's only one frantic employee trying to manually open each one.

Thankfully a true Bostonian used his hand to enter thru turnstile and let everyone in. MBTA worker not pleased, but hey, problem solved!

Firefighters quickly knocked down a fire in an escalator at the Government Center T stop shortly after 7 p.m., but heavy smoke forced them to evacuate everybody from the station and ask the MBTA to have Green Line trolleys bypass the stop until the smoke could be cleared.

An envelope containing "a suspicious material" forced the evacuation of three floors of the Suffolk County District Attorney's office in Government Center this morning, in a replay of a similar scare at the Israeli consulate last month.

The person who opened the envelope, a Boston Police officer assigned to the DA’s Special Investigations Unit, contained the envelope in a secure environment and remained with it until he was cleared to leave by medical personnel. The building's ventilation system was shut down and employees on the second, third, and fourth floors were evacuated; business continued as usual on the remaining six floors. District Attorney Daniel F. Conley remained in the building and was never in danger.

Because the envelope came in the mail, federal officials have taken custody of the envelope and will test its contents, the DA's office reports. The affected floors re-opened after 30 minutes.

Orange Bird tweets:

Nothing perks up a bad day like hearing the Sammy Davis Jr. doppelganger at Gov Center sing "Candyman"

UPDATE: The all clear was given not long after State Police arrived.

State Police, bomb squad on scene at the courthouse behind Center Plaza, after a bomb threat was called in.

Biggest victory parade ever? That's what BPD is saying. Sure felt like it at Government Center, where a sea of jumping, chanting, happy people waited in the melting sun for the Bruins and the Cup - and then exploded into a chant of "We got the Cup!" when they arrived in a cloud of black and gold confetti.

Photos from the parade.

Quinn's trolleyThe Salem News reports on the suit filed yesterday by Samantha Mattei, who suffered a broken back and a concussion when Quinn he crashed his Green Line trolley into a stopped trolley because he was too busy texting to notice it.

Mattei filed her suit the same day the National Transportation Safety Board released its final report on the 2009 crash, basically concluding that texting trolley driver was texting. However, the board also said the accident could have been avoided if the T had an automated system to stop trolleys that go through red signals, like the ones in place on the T's other lines.

In the aftermath of the crash, which did an estimated $10 million in damage, the T banned cell-phone use by train drivers and other employees.

The Herald reports MBTA officials figure a full shutdown would let them rehab the station in less time and wouldn't drag on forever and ever like certain other T-stop projects one could think of.

Boston firefighters are at Government Center dealing with a trash fire on the Blue Line tracks. Expect delays, traffic problems by the station.

At least one train is stuck in a tunnel because of the power shutdown required to let firefighters on the tracks.

Utile posts an image from a 1959 plan for a Scollay Square replacement that would have started pretty much at Old City Hall and which would have involved a series of low-slung buildings:

In spatial design, as well as building massing, and no less in spatial and massing composition we were very mindful of weaving into the existing social and physical texture of this part of Boston.

Via Boston Reddit.

The T forwards a report from one of its workers on an incident around 2:50 p.m. yesterday on the Green Line platform at Government Center:

A 14 yr old male was walking while on his cell phone and he walked right into one of the columns that holds the ceiling up. He is bleeding from his face and is requesting medical at this time. Boston H&H dispatched, Transit Police dispatched.

Kid was taken to Tufts Medical Center with a small laceration on his forehead.

The pillar he walked into:

The city hosts a symposium on greening Government Center on Thurs., Dec. 9 in the Rabb Lecture Hall at the BPL in Copley Square. Starts at 4 p.m.

The trolley hit by train operated by Aiden Quinn. Photo by NTSB

Operators of three of the four trolleys involved in a major trolley smashup just past Government Center on May 8, 2009, described chaos and panic among passengers in the moments after the collision, in interview transcripts released today by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The fourth operator, Aiden Quinn, charged with plowing into the stopped train in front of him because he was too busy texting his girlfriend to notice the stopped train, did not cooperate with the federal investigation into the crash, which injured 46 people and caused several million dollars in trolley damage. Quinn lost his T job and is still awaiting a trial on a charge of gross negligence by a person in control of a common conveyance, which carries a maximum jail term of 2 1/2 years.

In his NTSB intervew, Jimmy Zhu, operator of the rear car in the train that got hit, described the scene:

A concerned citizen passes along this photo of, yes, a Salvation Army bellringer, today, Election Day, outside the Government Center T stop. Paging Dr. Suldog.

That Google Maps has Boston City Hall Plaza tagged as a "park" is a bit sad, no?

(However, they get points for still including Cornhill Street on their maps considering it doesn't really exist and hasn't for, say, 64 years.)

It's a-busing we go between Kenmore and downtown stations as the Green Line sits moldering underground due to the ever popular signal problems.

Robinite took this photo from one of the emergency shuttle buses at Kenmore. Notice how almost nobody's smiling? Notice how her bus isn't moving?

Always ready to assume the worst, Herald readers are busy contemplating the downside of the glass entrances the T wants to build as part of a Government Center upgrade, because, as writer Richard Weir helpfully explains, they could "explode into flying shards of lethal shrapnel should a bomb ever be detonated there." Except the T says they couldn't because they'll use safety glass (and good luck getting that song out of your head; you're welcome).

Also, there will be barriers around the station to keep would-be Tim McVeighs away (hopefully a bit more tasteful than the big balls around the O'Neill building).

Fabulously Out There just doesn't get the Government Center T stop:

... [Tuesday], in 100 degrees weather I helped a couple carry their suitcases down (on that note: all you big guys who are occupying the free weight section at Planet Fitness every day and were walking by them, thanks for nothing, assholes). They were on their way to visit their grandkids and were both easily in their late 70s. It was hot as Hades in that t-station and there is no way to get down to the blue line level. There IS an escalator to get down to the green line level, thank you GOD. Oh wait, that one doesn't always work ...

So don't even think of not filling your census form out.

Hat tip to Dan Wilets for reminding me to post this photo.

The Globe reports the developer who wants to replace the Government Center garage with $2.2 billion worth of skyscrapery goodness is replacing the current project manager with Tom O'Brien, former director of the BRA. Given the economy, though, they don't plan to build upwards right now.

Blue Line commuters no doubt are hoping not to see a repeat of last night's chaos at Government Center. Faegirl is among them.

Copyright Faegirl. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.