Grounding McGrath Highway meeting Thurs 5.31

[somervillesnow.livejournal.com]

Apologies not Davis Square, but important to Somerville's future in general.  It looks like we need a large turnout Thursday 5.31 to tell the state/MASS DOT to convert the elevated portions of McGrath Highway to an at grade boulevard.  Currently they want to spend $10 million in repairs to extend it's life.  This is absurd, as no one wants this ugly piece of concrete in our city.  The money should be spent to deelevate it, rather than wasted.  If it is spent to extend it's life, you can bet it will not be deelevated for a *long* time.  

See STEP website for meeting details and more insight on the issue: http://www.somervillestep.org/2012/05/mccarthy_overpa.html

Comments

[ron_newman]

The state should not spend ANY money to repair this. Let it gradually decay, inspect it every six months or so, and when it fails inspection, demolish it.

[somervillesnow.livejournal.com]

I agree! At least in spirit. The folks at STEP have a much better command of the issues than I, I believe some netting would be required in the meantime in case of falling concrete. Otherwise MASSDot are going to say it is an emergency we have to blow $10 million now on repairs.

I feel they should just tear it down now, like this year or next. I'm no engineer, but isn't an at grade road something society has been doing for a few hundred years now?

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

That area is sooooo blighted, at least in appearance. They should make it below grade (tunnel) and have bike paths and pedestrian walkways on top :) If only we had infinite resources.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

What about when you're the one waiting underneath it for the bus and it collapses on you since the state didn't even put precautionary maintenance into it?

Let massdot know about your vision for the future, but don't think that this infrastructure can just be left alone until then.

[ceo]

Problem with demolishing it immediately is is that a grade-level roadway will take some serious design to make it a safe route for bicyclists and pedestrians. Be nice to have that plan in hand before tearing the thing down.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

You can download the three proposals for the roadway: Boulevard, Limited Access, or Rotary, here: http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/groundingmcgrath/Documents.aspx

[entrope.livejournal.com]

I think (?) there is one, from what I can gather. I believe it's already been studied. Want to go tomorrow night? If I don't have a work thing, I'll be there.

[ceo]

I'd love to, but it's Benjamin's school's end-of-year picnic that night.

And as I've been learning with the Green Line extension, there's a significant difference between "proposal" and "construction-ready design".