Somerville Canyon

[rmd.livejournal.com]

A big sinkhole opened up over at the intersection of Medford and Pearl streets, near City Hall and down the hill from the main branch of the library. Medford and Pearl streets are closed between School and Walnut streets at the moment, if you're wondering why there's been crazy deadlock traffic this afternoon - I'm not sure how far Davis-ward the traffic extended.

Comments

[kimberlogic.livejournal.com]

yikes!

[ifotismeni]

Thank you for this! I was trying to get to my space at mad oyster studios and was wondering why the street was closed...

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Well, that handily explains why I was diverted up School St. when I was trying to go to McGrath via Medford St. around 5:15. Jeez.

[countlibras.livejournal.com]

wow!

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

There was something else going on in Davis, such that they were diverting all inbound traffic from College off at Chapel and down around our corner. Excitement for everyone!

[ilai]

I was in the firehouse yesterday and heard that there was some kind of medical emergency at that corner, so that might have been why.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

As an added "Welcome to Somerville" bonus police so far have made zero effort to direct traffic around the closure. They've put up barricades, but have not marked any detour routes. And while that might be okay in some areas, that neighborhood has a lot of one-ways that only go a block or two. There's at least one intersection where the placement of the barricades forced traffic down a narrow street with parking on both sides, that came out at a one-way facing a barricade... in other words cars had to either go the wrong way up a street, ignore the barricade, or do a 30-point turn to try to extricate themselves back down a street full of cars trying to do the same thing. At 4pm, there was a four block radius clustercuss, and not an officer to be seen anywhere. If there had been an emergency at any of the homes nearby, there's no way any responders would have been able to get through.

I totally get how if they're worried about a gas explosion, their first priority may not be the convenience of traffic, but the police aren't going to be fixing the pipes, and hours later they still hadn't done crap about getting DPW to put signs up, or to help direct people.

Leaving work at 10:30pm in Gilman Sq., the only way out of our parking lot was to make an illegal left up Medford... which turned out to be fine because it was barricaded, but the officer sitting in his car at the scene couldn't be bothered to interrupt his game of angry birds (or whatever the hell he was doing) to *tell* us it was okay or direct us safely around the construction.

If they don't get it fixed by morning they really *have* to put some officers out there (and preferably ones who spend more time directing traffic than looking at their phones).

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Yeah, as a resident of one of those one-way streets, I saw a bunch of folks going down my street the wrong way.

Based on heavy equipment noises I'm hearing, I think they're still working on it, so hopefully it'll at least have a plate over it as a temporary fix by morning. If not, man, it's gonna suck out there.

I also have no idea how they're detouring the MBTA 80 bus line, which normally goes down Medford and then down Pearl across the McGrath/O'Brien

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

I thought about stopping in for tea, since it was taking so long to get to work. ;-)

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

http://www.mbta.com/rider_tools/transit_updates/?ttype=bus&atype=alert&route=80&detail=80#alerts

Route 80 detoured due to a water main break, service on Medford Street in Somerville is being affected.

Bypassed stops:
Pearl St @ Walnut St (outbound)
Pearl St @ Bradley St (outbound)
Medford St @ School St (outbound)
Medford St @ Thurston St (outbound)
Medford St @ Sycamore St (outbound)
Medford St @ Central St (outbound)
Medford St @ Bartlett St (outbound)
Medford St @ Broadway - Magoun Sq (outbound)
Medford St @ School St (inbound)
Pearl St @ Skilton Ave (inbound)
Pearl St @ Walnut St (inbound)
Pearl St @ McGrath Hwy (inbound)

Connections can be made at:
Pearl St @ Wesley St (outbound)
Broadway @ William St (outbound)
Medford St @ Thurston St (inbound)
422 McGrath Hwy (inbound)

Last Updated: 9/9/2014 7:29:33 PM

[inkarn8.livejournal.com]

Also, good to know it was due to a water main break... I was worried that it would have been natural causes. the UK and other areas like Florida are having dramatic increases in the number of sink holes due to heavy rains or droughts... That would be bad for heavily populated areas and would probably raise our Insurance rates...

[pearlythebunny.livejournal.com]

A report that it's a brick sewer collapse:

http://thesomervillenewsweekly.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/medford-street-at-pearl-brick-sewer-collapse/

Found It!

[rachelmello.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, that answers that question. OSPCD has said one impediment to their development plans for Gilman Sq is that they knew there was a giant sewer pipe under that intersection but no one knew exactly where it was. They had a whole lot of unknowns about where there could and could not build or excavate because no one wanted to risk hitting it.

With this, you could say the uncertainty field has literally collapsed.

RE: Found It!

[rmd.livejournal.com]

you could say the uncertainty field has literally collapsed.

[ron_newman]

When I passed through this area at 7:45 tonight, Medford Street was fully open, but the first block of Pearl Street was still closed with a lot of work going on.

By 10:15, the work was finished and Pearl Street was open.