Street Construction FYI

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I just received a robocall from the City informing me that the street construction slated for Tuesday had to be moved up and will happen tomorrow, so move the cars, etc. The thing is, we were not notified that any construction was pending at all and, until a half hour ago when a DPW truck came through to put some up, there wasn't a single sign concerning *any* construction, so nobody knew we even had to move the cars by Tuesday AM, let alone in the next 11 hours.

I called 311 to let them know that no signs had been put up and also to ask where I could find the info (including the list of streets) on the web site (because I couldn't find it) so that I could forward it to y'all and was told that it's not there. (I did find a list of streets slated for reconstruction in 2009, but ours isn't actually on it.)

[Updated] Thanks to Ron for getting them all down, this is now the complete list of affected streets as per the message, only a couple of which are in the Davis Square area, but I'm including them all for your info:

Ash Ave
Austin St
Bowdoin St
Farragut Ave
Fremont Ave
Lowell Terrace
Maine Ave
Maine Terrace
Westminster St

But that list is incomplete, so when you have a moment, you may want to look out the window and see if there are any new signs on your street. According to the message, there will be neither parking nor access tomorrow, so if your street is affected and you need to use your car, make sure it's parked somewhere else and not trapped in your driveway.

Comments

[ron_newman]

I'd say this is worth a serious complaint to both Tom Champion and your local alderman.

[ron_newman]

If you call 617-628-7669 you can hear Tom Champion repeat the recorded announcement. I had to call it 3 times to take down the information below.

He says there will be no access to, or parking on, these streets from 7 am to 4 pm on Monday 6/15:

Lowell Terrace
Bowdoin St
Fremont Ave
Austin St
Maine Terrace
Maine Ave
Ash Ave
Westminster St
Farragut Ave

and also that construction on Curtis St is postponed to an unspecified future date

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Thanks for getting all that down, Ron. I'll update the post to reflect the complete info.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

This is a typical issue/problem with the city - if WE want to get signs put up to block parking, we are required to have at LEAST 48 hours notice, but the city does it on 30 minutes some times (morrison back in 2005 was signed on the day of construction, and cars were towed, no notice to residents, no appeals heard).

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's hideously irresponsible. How utterly annoying, that appeals would not even be heard. Sometimes, I understand the push towards anarchy when such ridiculous misuses of power are used to flout rules/common decency. Very irritated to read this.

[masswich.livejournal.com]

Its a bit of a pain to have roadwork done but it is nice to have new sidewalks. OTOH, the sidewalks there are putting in around Davis this season are really sloppy. The ramps don't slope down much (or in some cases at all) so they just pile asphalt in the street itself to complete the ramp. The tactile (usually red and bumpy) strips they use to indicate a ramp are sometimes not in the right place or at the right angle, and the ramps aren't across the street from each other.

The City is really lucky if no one from the disabled community has complained yet- these ramps clearly don't meet code. I'm not even a big user of ramps but I think its a disgrace- it just looks like the City is being taken advantage of by a connected contractor.

[laryu.livejournal.com]

The piles of asphalt might only be temporary as they prepare to repave the entire street. That's what they did on both ends of Herbert (at Day and at Chester): a) put in sidwalk tactile ramps, b) pile asphalt on the street leading to the ramps, c) tear up street, d) tear up sidewalk, e) pour sidewalks, f) repave street with grades to ramps. Only there was a week or so between each step.

[masswich.livejournal.com]

That may be true but only if they are planning to repave several streets right next to each other along Curtis in the same season. And it doesn't explain the locations of the ramps or the improperly installed tactile ramps...

Don't get me wrong- I am glad the city is spending money on this, and I think they generally do a good job on public works. That's why this is so strange...

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

they've put a number of those "ramps" which don't meet ADA guidelines (or so it is claimed over on the google groups somerville parking problems) in the middle of streets, and started ticketing for blocking a ramp/crosswalk - even if there's no crosswalk painted, never has been.

No call or e-mail?

[bryelejr.livejournal.com]

I didn't receive a phone call or an e-mail about this. I'm signed up for all the e-mails and phone calls from the city, so I'm very confused as to how they decided to notify people.

When I put my trash out on Farragut this evening at 6:30 p.m., there weren't any signs posted yet. Giving residents fewer than 12 hours of notice when they require many more hours from us to alert our neighbors is quite the double standard.

Farragut Avenue/Curtis Street Update

[somerville311.livejournal.com]

DPW has confirmed that, unlike all of the other streets on the list for yesterday's Connect CTY call, Farragut Avenue had only recently been placed on the repaving list. At the time, Farragut had been scheduled for a second contract that would start up in July.

As part of the scheduling change resulting from the need to coordinate contractor schedules on Curtis Street, where regrinding has been delayed, the City had an opportunity on short notice to begin work on Farragut as well as on a number of other streets. Unfortunately, neither the Communications Department nor Constituent Services were aware of Farragut's separate and special status when the Connect CTY calls were set up late yesterday, so Farragut residents received the same call as the residents of streets that had already been posted for Tuesday.

If this information had been available, Farragut Ave residents would have received a separate call explaining the special circumstances.

The City requires its repaving contractors to post and flyer streets at least 48 hours in advance of grinding and/or hot-topping, but,in this case, the contractor did not know about the change until this weekend. Because of the late notice, any vehicles that must be towed will be relocated to adjacent streets, will not be ticketed and will not be subject to any towing fees.

The City remains committed to repaving as many streets as possible with the state dollars made available for this purpose, which sometimes requires a flexible approach to take advantage of every opportunity.

Nonetheless, we apologize for the short notice and attendant inconvenience.

Finally, please note that, because Curtis Street will be subject to extensive below-ground utility and resurfacing work over the next few weeks, the pedestrian ramps will not be permanently joined to the street until the resurfacing is complete. All work remains in compliance with ADA standards. The City's ADA Coordinator will review the temporary patches and the work will be re-inspected on completion.

Re: Farragut Avenue/Curtis Street Update

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much, unspecified voice of City Hall!

While I did receive the message (and passed it along to neighbors) and our cars are in the clear, I know other residents did not and I felt it would be quite unfair for them to be punished for it. It's great to know that the City is doing the right thing here.

Re: Farragut Avenue/Curtis Street Update

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Because of the late notice, any vehicles that must be towed will be relocated to adjacent streets, will not be ticketed and will not be subject to any towing fees.

I'll believe it when I see it, considering what happened on Kidder Ave in 2006 (http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/638326.html).

Or Willow about a month later (http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/689797.html).

Or Summer St a month after THAT (http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/720824.html).
For shame.

Wow. So, if one had been on vacation...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

One would come back and find the car towed? Seems unfair.