Green Line Shutdown Lechmere to North Station, April 30 to December

[tober.livejournal.com]

I realize that Lechmere is a bit far from Davis to be directly relevant here however there are two buses from Lechmere that serve Davis and although those buses as such are unaffected, I thought this was significant enough that it would be appropriate to post here.

According to signs posted at Lechmere this morning, the green line will be shut down between Lechmere and North Station starting on April 30 and continuing until "December." A shuttle bus will operate between Lechmere and North Station, presumably stopping near Science Park. This shutdown is to support construction (elevator installation) at Science Park.

[cross-posted to b0st0n]

Comments

[smammy]

Any engineers care to comment? It could very well take seven months to install elevators.

[tober.livejournal.com]

I don't think seven months is particularly unreasonable although closing Lechmere may be. Science Park as it currently exists was never designed to accommodate elevators and I'm sure that there are certain challenges to fitting one that would not be present in new construction planned with elevators. Further, the station will also be made generally ADA-compliant and that is likely to require a reasonable amount of work beyond the elevators themselves.

The thing that really annoys me is that, despite that there will be little disruption to the tracks during this construction (and I would bet that some storage and overnight maintenance of cars will still take place at Lechmere throughout the construction and at least a single track will generally remain usable between North Station and Lechmere), they have opted to close the line completely between Lechmere and North Station rather than operating trains between Lechmere and North Station but with no stop at Science Park (and probably an additional shuttle bus running between North Station and Science Park). I suspect that this construction does require some disruption of the tracks and maybe the T will also opt to perform some other track work in this region (the track from Lechmere to Science Park is generally not in the greatest of shape although the track between Science Park and North Station is of recent installation). What it boils down to, I believe, is that the T is unwilling to pay the premium for having work performed during late nights and weekends. If money were no object, Science Park could continue to fully operate at least during weekdays for at least most of the construction period. If they were to close Science Park but keep trains running between Lechmere and North Station, I would guess that would add 10-20% at most to the project cost and it sure seems to me that would have been a reasonable compromise.

[siderea]

What it boils down to, I believe, is that the T is unwilling to pay the premium for having work performed during late nights and weekends.

No guessing required. Davey has made it clear what he's thinking, wrt a similar but vastly more disruptive project.