Emergency Beacon St Repaving

[jdh0625.livejournal.com]

According to the Beacon St project website, the city will be doing some interim repairs to Beacon Street over the next few weeks.


Due to the current unsafe conditions created by the deteriorated road surface, we strongly encourage all cyclists to seek alternate east and westbound routes until the roadway surface is improved in mid-October. These interim measures prior to full-depth roadway construction will help to smooth the roadway and improve safety.
We ask cyclists to please make the safe choice and refrain from using Beacon St. until conditions allow. Additional signage and messaging will be provided at various locations to help direct cyclists to the appropriate detour routes.


Also:

Here's an article stating that construction would begin in early 2014.  Whoops.  The contract for the full reconstruction is expected to be awarded in November 2015 now, with real work not beginning until spring 2016 and completion in 2018(!!!)

Comments

[ron_newman]

The city's officially recommended bicycle detour routes, developed with help from the Somerville Bicycle Committee, are

Eastbound (Porter to Inman)

Westbound (Inman to Porter)

I've been using the Eastbound detour in both directions for the last few months. Calvin Street has a very short one-way section but it carries very little car traffic.

Here's an alternative Westbound route via Line Street, Holden Street, and Park Street.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to biking on the interim safe, smooth roadway, before I have to avoid it again once there are cycle tracks.

Stuff I saw recently on the Western Ave cycle track: several groups of pedestrians, a wrong-way cyclist, trash cans, a yard sale, and a small Caribbean carnival. But nobody else biking the right way.

Also, it was plowed very well in winter. But most residents took this opportunity to skip shoveling the sidewalk, so everyone walked and left trash cans in the cycle track, making it unusable for biking.

[ron_newman]

If this was on Sunday, September 13, didn't the Cambridge Caribbean parade close the whole road, not just the cycle track?

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Nope, it was a different day. A Caribbean store had set up some of those mini-tents on the cycle track.

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

Ah, so another brilliant Somerville idea. Losing parking for a cycle track that people aren't going to use. I hope all the store, restaurant, and bar owners that lose business because of lack of parking let the city know.

[ron_newman]

I'm expecting this will get quite heavy use once it's in place. Unlike Western Avenue, there will be one on each side, which eliminates the "wrong-way" issue.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

The wrong-way issue will still exist for anyone who needs to make a left onto or off of Beacon at a place without a curb cut on both sides. Unless you dismount and climb the curb, possibly squeezing through parked cars.

That's what happens on Vassar Street, and Concord Ave by Fresh Pond.

[jdh0625.livejournal.com]

A sizable majority of the parking that is being removed has nothing to do with the cycle track, but rather ADA compliance.

I think the cycle track will get major use. Why do you think it won't? It's a much more important bike corridor than Western Ave in Cambridge and it gets heavy use even though large numbers of cyclists are currently avoiding it because the road surface has deteriorated to such a significant degree.

[ron_newman]

Some of the parking is being removed in order to add a sidewalk on the south side of Beacon between Museum and Park streets, where there isn't one now.

[ron_newman]

But, why would ADA compliance lead to removal of parking spaces? Curb ramps are generally at street corners, and you already can't park blocking a crosswalk even if there's no curb ramp.

[jdh0625.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that it's not just the elimination of spots that are close to street corners, but also spots that are too close to driveways based on Somerville's regulations. That's what I've been told, anyway. Since there aren't individual parking spot markings, I'm not exactly sure how everything is counted.

And of course all the spots on the one side of Beacon between Museum and Park, but nobody ever parks there anyway.

[ron_newman]

I'm not sure why being close to a driveway is an ADA issue. When I still had a car, I parked as close as possible to driveways in order to maximize street parking space for other people.

[keithn.livejournal.com]

In Somerville the ordinances say you need to leave two feet between a car parked in the street and a driveway.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Nobody parks between Museum and Park because the city put in 2-hour meters, even though there are no short-term destinations in the immediate area.

[antimony.livejournal.com]

Ugh, the Western Ave cycletrack is such a clusterfuck.

That kind of track ONLY works if people understand what they are -- sure, they're great in some other countries, but here they just get turned into sidewalk. The Vassar Street one, too.

I want to be all for infrastruture, but UGH. Though the plans I've seen for Beacon look like they have a curb in between the sidewalk and the cycletrack, which might help? IDK.