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.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

If they make it a grade-level roadway, that's going to be a lot of pedestrians walking across a heavily used roadway.

[fefie.livejournal.com]

In addition to the info on the STEP website, Livable Streets has pdf that highlights the salient points of the McCarthy Overpass issue:
http://www.livablestreets.info/files/McGrath_CI_handout.pdf

Also, if you need to refresh your memory of this area, Livable Streets has a short video, which features a few words from some ped/cyclists on the street by the overpass:
http://vimeo.com/37448189

(The McCarthy overpass issue is similar to that of the Casey overpass in JP, which was recently slated for demolition by MassDOT at the wish of the community:
http://articles.boston.com/2012-03-08/yourtown/31136484_1_advisory-group-design-process-state-officials)

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Which of these intersections would you rather walk across?

McGrath and Broadway, at grade: http://goo.gl/maps/tDwk
McGrath and Washington, overpass with narrow at-grade roadways: http://goo.gl/maps/rkjd

We can rule out things like http://goo.gl/maps/8wqn , since no urban grade separation that nice is ever going to be built again.

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

My bet is whatever happens it is going to be worse for traffic causing more air pollution and not all that great for pedestrians anyway. It's a shame things like the Mass Ave / Comm Ave interchange or Route 9 through Newton / Wellesley are out of the question.

[gingicat]

I really hope that they build overpass walkways.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

How did the meeting go?