"MBTA closes Alewife parking garage for weekend due to safety concerns" by Adam Vaccaro and Matt Rocheleau Globe Staff August 10, 2018
For years, regular Red Line users of the MBTA’s largest parking garage have complained the structure was deteriorating.
This week, it did. A chunk of concrete fell on a car Wednesday. No one was injured, and at the time, the agency said the garage was safe for use, but on Friday, officials said they “found additional areas of deteriorated concrete that need to be addressed,” months after a consultant hired by the MBTA issued a report warning about “imminent” risks in the garage’s condition.
They were warned months ago, and did nothing?
Officials said the garage is not in danger of collapsing.
Are you going to trust officials and authority anymore after all the corruption and deception, be it CYOA or something more sinister?
Red Line service will operate as normal this weekend, and while officials promised “to limit the closure and minimize the inconvenience,” MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo declined to say if the garage would open for the Monday morning commute.
Opened in the mid-1980s, the garage holds 2,600 parking spaces when fully operational. It is another example of the dilapidated state of MBTA infrastructure, which state officials pledged to repair and modernize after a series of winter storms in 2015 crippled the transit system.
Why is everything falling apart when we have had a decade of a great economy, etc, etc?
Where is all the money dealing going, other than in corporate pocket and into political patronage?
Turns out that is what $tate government is mo$tly.
“It’s just really a tragedy that they have allowed a facility like this to get in such decrepit shape,” said Edward Strachan, a Groton resident who parks at Alewife three times a week.
And NEGLECT, too.
As with malfunctioning subway cars, problems at the Alewife garage had begun to appear long before the T could fix them. Some riders who have long noticed potholes, crumbling concrete, and exposed rebar say this week’s problems felt like they were a long time coming.
Thomas Davison of Arlington said he and his wife have parked in the garage as part of their daily commutes for about two decades. He complained that the T has taken a “shortsighted, Band-Aid” approach to fixing the issues. “There’s [temporary hydraulic] supports everywhere throughout the garage,” he said.
But it won't collapse!
Indeed, in late 2017, a T consultant rated the condition of multiple parts of the garage as risking “imminent failure” and recommended “immediate corrective action,” even though the T had already been completing smaller-scale work on the garage for years.
In response, the T began soliciting bids in July for a broad range of repairs to the garage. On Thursday, the day after concrete fell from above, the agency hired a contractor to start the $5.7 million job in September.
Pesaturo said the nine-month lag between the consultant report and the contract for the garage work was appropriate. “The process for procuring a construction contractor takes time, if you are going to do it right,” he said.
And they may still get it wrong (think state website software upgrades, folks), HA!
So they “knew since November” but just got the bid out last month and work won't start until next month at the earliest.
This is starting to sound like the ferry situation out on the cap, but they have got that fixed.
Jan Devereux, a Cambridge city councilor, said she was not aware of the problems with the garage’s condition until this week.
“What a nightmare,” said Devereux. “It’s all too common unfortunately with capital investment projects that the investment isn’t made until there’s a crisis like concrete falling on cars.”
Remember the woman who was killed by a falling piece in the Big Dig Tunnel?
The upcoming repairs are unlikely to fix the garage for good. The T has said this work will merely allow the Alewife garage to stay open as it develops a “long-term plan” for the site.
Like demolishing it and building a new one?
Alewife is the northernmost station on the Red Line. The garage fills quickly every morning, drawing thousands of commuters from the north and west who use it to access the Red Line.
Used to take it in to Fenway years ago. Never will again.
And get this, the parking rates are going up!
Despite its poor condition, the Alewife garage is also slated to become the most expensive in the T system on Sept. 1, when rates increase from $7 a day to $10, under a new policy to charge more for the busiest parking lots.....
Where TF is all the money going if not for political patronage rip-offs.
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Be careful driving your car:
"Woman killed in head-on crash involving Somerset police cruiser" by Thomas Oide and John R. Ellement Globe Correspondent and Globe Staff August 10, 2018
SOMERSET — Hailey Allard’s friends hugged and cried as they gathered Friday afternoon at the site of a head-on collision involving a police cruiser that claimed the life of the UMass-Dartmouth student early that morning.
“We want to remember her for who she was, and that’s the most loving, caring, she-would-give anything-up-for-anyone type of person,” said Ali Shaw, a friend of Allard’s. “She was all around amazing.”
Allard’s boyfriend, Joseph Souza, was among the friends who placed framed photos and bouquets of flowers at a stop sign adjacent to the site of the collision.
“She showed me love,” Souza said. “Her smile, that was the best.”
Allard, 20, of Somerset, was driving a 1999 Honda Civic when it collided with the police cruiser, a 2016 Ford Explorer, around 12:35 a.m. Friday as she was negotiating a left-hand turn off Route 138. The cruiser was rushing to investigate a report that a man was attempting to break into a truck parked at the Gridiron Pub on Slades Ferry Avenue, according to police.
State Police said Allard was driving north on Route 138 — also known as Riverside Avenue — and was approaching the turn at the intersection with Westhill Avenue when the vehicles collided.
Somerset firefighters extricated Allard from the crumpled car and she was rushed to Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River, where she was later pronounced dead, Procopio said.
The officer was taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to Procopio and a post on the Somerset police Facebook page.
The crash is under investigation by Bristol District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn’s office as well as State Police and Somerset police.
Somerset Police Chief George McNeil, who was on scene early Friday morning, said the car collision was head-on and indications are that one of the cars wasn’t in its correct lane. McNeil declined to say which car was in the wrong lane or who was at fault, as the cause of the crash is still under investigation.
That would have to be the cruiser if she was turning left.
What probably happened is someone was turning right where she was going to turn left, the cruiser was coming up on the car turning right, swung to the left to go past it, and the girl's car was there. Horrifying.
Friends said that Allard, who was a nursing student at UMass-Dartmouth, wanted to work with children suffering from cancer.
Allard’s family reached at their home declined to comment but in a statement described the crash as “a complete and utter tragedy.”
It is.
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I'm sure this will prove more questions like in Cotuit about proper police pursuits.
"Milford woman dies on 22nd birthday in single-car crash in Sharon" by Sophia Eppolito and Danny McDonald Globe Correspondent and Globe Staff July 13, 2018
A Milford woman died on her 22nd birthday early Friday morning in a single-car crash on Interstate 95 near Exit 8 in Sharon, State Police said.
Stephanie Boaventura drove her 2010 Toyota Corolla into the median “for reasons still under investigation,” according to a statement from State Police. When Boaventura tried to drive back onto the road, the driver’s side of her car struck the guardrail.
Massachusetts state troopers responded at approximately 3:10 a.m. Friday. They were assisted by Sharon police, fire, and EMS.
Two lanes of I-95 south were closed for about four hours.
Close family friend Maria Cancilieri said Boaventura was out celebrating her birthday with friends Thursday night, but decided to go home to celebrate with her family the following day.
Should have called an Uber.
Boaventura had recently graduated from Regis College and wanted to be a nurse, Cancilieri said.....
Holy Moses.
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Another firefighter extraction:
"Firefighters rescue worker who passed out inside barge in East Boston" by John R. Ellement and Emily Sweeney Globe Staff August 10, 2018
Boston firefighters donned oxygen masks Friday morning to rescue a worker at an East Boston marine construction company who apparently passed out when oxygen levels dramatically declined while he was inside a barge, officials said.
The worker was removed in a semiconscious state and taken to an area hospital for treatment, according to Boston Fire Department spokesman Firefighter Marc Sanders.
Co-workers called first responders for help around 8:45 a.m. Friday, reporting that their colleague was trapped in a confined space on the barge, triggering a response by the department’s technical rescue unit, whose members are trained in the specialized emergency techniques.
Sanders praised the firefighters who conducted the rescue.
“The worker was very lucky,” Sanders said. “It was a very quick response. After arriving, they had the victim out of the barge within approximately 10 to 12 minutes. They did an excellent job.”
The incident took place at BTT Marine Construction in the 300 block of Border Street in East Boston, the department said.
When reached by phone Friday afternoon, Scott Haggerty, the general manager of BTT Marine Construction, said the worker was “fine” but declined to comment further.
“Everything’s OK,” Haggerty said. “He’s fine.”
Except for one thing.
Jim Lally, a spokesman for the US Department of Labor, confirmed that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is inspecting BTT Marine Construction “to determine if the workplace is in compliance with workplace safety standards.”
Lally said it’s too early to estimate when the inspection will be completed.....
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NEXT DAY UPDATE:
Commuters frustrated as T makes weekend repairs to Alewife garage
It's been “an issue for a long time, and shocking that the agency has ignored it until now,” except it isn't shocking that they have ignored it. That's standard operating procedure for government.
What is shocking is Baker putting a positive spin on it as he starts his reelection campaign.
You can think about that as you head over to Commonwealth Avenue.
