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See the latest from the Comm. Ave. bridge hellmouth
By adamg on Sat, 07/28/2018 - 11:18am
BU has a Webcam pointed right at the bridge. It's not a livestream, but it's frequently updated.
H/t Perry Donham.
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Comments
It's not a hellmouth!
It's actually pretty amazing. In two weeks they replace 1/2 the bridge, while keeping the other half open to busses and bikes/peds. They aren't even closing the interstate below it. That's a big civil engineering feat. Interesting to watch.
This sort of well planned, rapid improvements is what Massachusetts needs to do far more frequently. This is a whole lot cheaper then a 4-5 year traditional project too.
A hellmouth would be if it was a 5 year project with daily changes to the traffic patterns (Big Dig) or if the bridge became so deficient that needed to abruptly close it entirely. (Long Island, etc)
Forest HIlls
"A hellmouth would be if it was a 5 year project with daily changes to the traffic patterns"
What you describe sounds like forest hills. Not quite 5 years, but 2015-current...
It Is During Normal Conditions When It's Not Under Construction
It's been worse
It's gotten slightly better since they renovated the BU Bridge and again when the first half of the bridge opened.
But yeah, not a good intersection.
Hellmouth
I thought it was a hellmouth because you cross it from Cambridge into BU.
Cambridge resident, BU graduate.
And then...
Train station elevators.... one year or more
Find a quicker way to fix elevators, then
I’ve seen elevator replacement last a year in other places, but if you’ve got a way to get it done in 2 weekends, I’m sure the T would love to hear it.
It's NOT open to bikes
It is closed to bikes. It's open to peds pushing bikes.
Nowhere near the same thing.
Partly true
Only BU Bridge is restricted to walking your bike. Comm Ave itself is open to cycling and buses replacing the green line.
Coming this Labor Day Weekend!
Wisdom uttered by the Priestesses at Hub Oracle!
Prophecy from Out of the Hell-Mouth!
After sacrifice, made consultations.
The auguries have been determined.
"Thus, in this certain time, hath, in this urban ground, unearthed,
The certain fault-lines of ancient paths of transport which hath afore decreed,
That fault shall now be, henceforth, unavoidably seen!
Behold, the Great Boston Grid-lock of Twenty-Eighteen!
(especially, if there's any construction delays or unforeseen weather interference, together with over-building in downtown, over-population of vehicles and the inevitable collapse of the T --- The Oracle seems to have a good point, don'tcha think?)
Better than the maps.
Thank you!
Much better than the badly labelled maps.
Cool time-lapse
Nifty feature there. Thanks for this!
It could be worse
At least they're not replacing the bridge with nothing and taking 5 years to do it.
On the other hand, I was dismayed to learn that the new bridge doesn't really include any improvements to the configuration of the intersections there -- if any such improvements ever happen we're probably looking at decades into the future.
Glad to see a construction project...
that actually can be completed at all in the city. Too bad they can't the same effort and initiative at Forest Hills.
It's a very different project
Most of the "quick" project involve replacing bridges, and at that the quickness hides the fact that months of work takes place without people really being impacted. Moreover, even if they could do the work at this pace, to get the work done quick, that crucial transportation crossroads would have to be shut down completely for several weeks. Completely shut down. Would you want that to happen?
That said, if they had the same number of workers at Forest Hills that that have at a normal construction project, it would be long done by now. I mean, except for the upper busway, since after all they only started on the design after construction began and only got funding 2 years in to the project.
They could have shut down Forest Hills
Open only to buses, peds, and bikes. That would have sped things up a bit.