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Why does Newbury Street get repaved every year?
By adamg on Thu, 05/28/2009 - 8:58am
Kevin McCrea senses a certain inefficiency in a Boston DPW that lets a major commercial thoroughfare be torn up every single year for different utility work, rather than requiring it all get done at once:
... I went to Johnson Paint on Newbury Street to pick up some paint for a job. They were repaving Newbury Street which seems to happen often.
I went inside and said to the guys "this repaving isn't good for business, how often do they do this?" The guys exclaimed, "this is the FOURTH year in a row they have repaved the street, and it is terrible for business." I asked if they really have repaved it four years in a row and they insisted it had, and explained how 3 years ago they replaced gas lines, then the next year they opened up the street for water lines in the same place, and now they are redoing it again.
Also see today's Globe piece on the mayoral candidates and the efficiency of city agencies (and the city's efficiency in tracking their efficiency).
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Comments
Details, Details
I had to visit an office nearby last year when the street was getting torn up. However, I think there were at least 3 different jobs getting done at the same time between Gloucester and Mass Ave. 3 jobs = 3 separate police details. Perhaps that explains something?
With the large cities in
With the large cities in Massachusetts there is a disconnect between the different operators. The gas people do not talk to the electric people, the city does not ask everyone else if they have any scheduled work to be done on a street before it gets torn open. The MBTA will walk in days after a new sidewalk has been layed down, only to tear it back up. Its insane, and it happens in Boston, Cambridge and a few other cities.
Many small towns in Massachusetts are smarter about it. When one thing gets replaced they put in phone calls to everyone else so when that road gets opened it only happens once and then it is sealed for ten years. The smaller cities and towns are also on smaller budgets so they tend to try to do their repaving around the time lines of utility work, thereby getting the utility to pay for a chunk of the work. What Boston needs is one (or a few, it is a big place) person who works for the mayors office directly and coordinates between all the factions. Anytime a road gets opened they check the timelines of all the other work in that area, and then make phone calls if needed. I bet the money spent on the personel would be made up for in the first 6 months of a calendar year.
I think that's the point
In a big city it can be rather anonymous. How many people other than the local shopkeepers (many of whom probably don't live in Boston)notice that the street is getting torn up every year? (I live 6 blocks away and didn't notice - too busy watching the never-ending T work at Kenmore, Copley and Arlington I guess). Do that in Wellesley or Hopkinton and it becomes a source of local conversation. But you can run a city like this and almost nobody notices, generating a huge amount of work for the local unions (who can each donate I think $5000 to your campaign) and the police details. Then all the local union members and the police vote for you in appreciation of the "gravy train". Again - hats off to great politics - but a lousy way to run a city if true.
Not necessarily a matter of size
Some entire states have a policy for state roads that utilities have to get in and out before a paving project takes place, or wait for several years (emergency repairs excluded).
The key is to have an offical policy, follow it, and enforce it. That goes double for all these weak patches that end up wrecking the entire road - some places require proper repair and inspection and fine contractors who don't comply.
That is true, any city with
That is true, any city with less then 100,000 people would be up and arms over this sort of thing.
One thing about the gravy train though is that it is not like there is a lack of road projects in Boston. Repaving Newbury Street four times is expensive and people made money, but how many streets in Roxbury go unpaved? There are some places in East Boston that are a little rough. There is a never ending need for money to fix local roads and sidewalks and if heaven forbid they ever complete all projects you could turn the union contractors loose on new parks across the city.
Illusion of progress
This has been the Menino illusion - constant waste of taxpayer funds on repavings, sidewalk redo's, just to appease contractors and certain unions. Businesses and residents be damned.
Plus the obscene vision for the waterfront district, and the hole in the ground at Downtown Crossing.
My street has also been repaved several times over the last eight years - it seems as soon as the street is repaved, it is being dug up again for water, sewer, electrical, etc. No plan, no coordination.
Get rid of the tiresome tyrant.
Meh, I think they should
Meh, I think they should turn Newbury into a pedestrian thoroughfare anyway, but that's just me:)
I'd be less concerned about the constant tear ups (although, yeah, especially on a narrow street like this one, those tear ups are a pain in the arse) and more concerned with how the roads are repaved after this stuff is done -- I've seen so many crappy repaving jobs around town after the water/gas/phone/cable/whoever people have been working on them.
My favorite is when an area
My favorite is when an area gets brand new brick sidewalks, and cross walks, then 3 weeks later some company comes in to do work, and instead of putting bricks back in they just slop down some black asphalt.
Ah, so you've been on Centre Street in West Roxbury recently
Because somebody did just that - although it was more like a year, rather than three weeks - and it looks awful and is probably a safety hazard to pedestrians( since they did a crappy job leveling it out).
I dont understand how its
I dont understand how its legal to do that
Boston Speedbump
Perpetual road repaving is the local version of traffic calming.
Sorry, Boston Speedbump died a few years ago
Alright, alright, that's a lame, probably tasteless joke that only the roughly three people who remember ne.general from back in the day will get. Sorry, never mind.