A CraZy Scheme.
By: Arshag A. Mazmanian
The big news from the Executive Office of Transportation (“EOT”) at the Citizens Advisory Committee (“CAC”) meeting on December 10, 2007, was that there was no news on the demographics required for critical ridership projections to support EOT’s Urban Ring Phase 2 RDEIR/DEIS, the filing date for which had been extended to May 30, 2008. EOT hopes to obtain the demographics (being developed by another agency) over the holidays in order to meet this target date; otherwise, it may need to seek a further extension.
But EOT has been busy since the October 15, 2007, CAC meeting. (The November 13th CAC meeting had been canceled as the anticipated demographics would not by then be available.) In fact, EOT has come up with “preliminary alignment recommendations” for Segments A and C of Phase 2, more details of which are available at www.theurbanring.com.
(I shall address some of these recommendations in subsequent comments to this post.)
But the critical Segment B of Phase 2 that includes the long controversial Charles River crossing area still remains at the “conceptual level” with no preliminary alignment recommendations from EOT because of its recognized complexities. The Segment B portion of Phase 2 is between Kendall Square in Cambridge and Ruggles Station in Roxbury, and includes Cambridgeport, the BU Bridge area (via the Grand Junction Rail Line [“GJRL”] beneath the Bridge), with a westerly branch to Harvard’s Allston Campus, Yawkey/Kenmore and the Longwood Medical Area. Segment B appears to be the “crown jewel” of Phase 2 because of the presence of so many prominent institutions (non-profits), provided it is not tarnished as Phase 2 proceeds.
Boston area residents surely recall the BIG DIG problems with its Charles River crossing and the infamous Scheme Z proposal that wisely, following extensive discussion and review, was replaced by the stately Zakim-Bunker Hill Bridge. EOT has continued and augmented the MBTA’s original Charles River crossing proposal for Phase 2 via the GJRL. This is Phase 2’s Scheme Z! For a reminder of what is entailed with this crossing, perhaps readers might revisit this Urban Ring Phase 2 Series’ “The Urban Ring Meets the Marx Brothers” and “The Urban Ring Meets Dr. Seuss” episodes (that can be linked to via this Blog).
For a visual of EOT’s Scheme Z, readers may access the Urban Ring website (see “Note” below for navigating the site) referenced above for documents presented by EOT at the recent CAC meeting, in particular its Power Point Presentation, focusing on “Segment B-Status of Alternatives” and especially the “Yawkey/Kenmore Status” slide. This slide shows not only the GJRL viaduct to grade at Commonwealth Avenue just westerly of the BU Bridge but also superimposed two (2) BU proposals – represented by dashed lines – for alternate GJRL viaducts that may better fit in with BU’s grandiose plans for its Commonwealth Avenue Campus.
(See my earlier postings and comments critiquing these viaducts.)
The remaining Segment B slides may also be of interest. Keep in mind that Segment B remains at the “conceptual level” without as yet the benefit of EOT’s preliminary alignment recommendations. Segment B has been complex and controversial from the beginning when the Urban Ring was initially proposed by area architects in an effort to drum up development sites when the industry was in the doldrums. The surfacing of Harvard’s Allston Campus plans in the past year or so has added to both the complexity and controversy of the Charles River crossing.
As a result, the MBTA’s original and now EOT’s augmented Scheme Z Charles River crossing has gotten even craZier. I must pause at this point (but I promise that juicy comments will follow for the holidays reading pleasure of visitors to this Blog), because of an attack of nostalgia urging me to listen to James Taylor’s rendition of Paul Simon’s “Still craZy after all these years….”
At the Urban Ring website, link “Reference Materials” then “Current Materials” then “11-Dec-2007 CAC #16-Presentation” then “Segment B-Status of Alternatives” and its several slides, in particular “Yawkey/Kenmore-Status”]
