COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
GREENDOT OFFICE
DATE:
March 9, 2015, 2-3 pm
SUBJECT:
GreenDOT Advisory Group — Sustainable DOT/Leading by Example
Work Group
Work Group Members Present:
Lauren Ballou (ACEC- Vanasse Hangen Brustlin)
Ned Codd (Massachusetts Department of Transportation—GreenDOT Office)
Jillian DiMedio (Leading by Example at Department of Energy Resources)
Jacob Glickel (Massport)
Shannon Greenwell (Massachusetts Department of Transportation—GreenDOT Office)
Amalia Holub (Massachusetts Department of Transportation—GreenDOT Office)
Edward Hsieh (MassRecycle)
Katherine Knapp (Massachusetts Department of Transportation—GreenDOT Office)
Tim Lasker (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority)
Steven Miller (Massachusetts Department of Transportation—Highway)
Nate Rawding (Massachusetts Department of Transportation—Aeronautics)
Viana Reyes (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority)
Kristin Slaton (Massachusetts Department of Transportation—MassRIDES)
Beth Suedmeyer (Massachusetts Department of Transportation—Highway)
Jules Williams (Massachusetts Department of Transportation—GreenDOT Office)
Meeting Notes
•
Green Teams discussion
o
Highway’s Environmental Department and VHB conducted INVEST workshops with the six
Highway Districts to assess the sustainability of district-level operations and management.
During each of the three workshops, the idea of green committees/teams was raised, and there
seems to be widespread interest in forming district-based sustainability groups. Discussions
identified recycling and energy use as possible areas of focus for these groups.
o
Beth Suedmeyer (Massachusetts Department of Transportation—Highway) and Susan Nichols
(Vanasse Hangen Brustlin) compiled the comments about green committees/teams from the
INVEST workshops. The GreenDOT Office and the Highway Division will use this information
when developing the Green Teams program.
•
o
The GreenDOT Office and Highway Division will select one Highway District to participate in a
pilot project to establish the best way to structure the program before rolling it out to the
remaining Districts.
o
The Sustainable DOT work group will receive updates as the Green Teams project progresses.
Resiliency discussion
o
Massport’s Resiliency Program (Jacob Glickel). Massport’s Resiliency Program is one year
old and is lead by Robbin Peach, Program Manager of Resiliency. Working with consultants and
researchers, Massport’s program has done an in-depth analysis that ranked the vulnerability of
all of Massport’s critical assets. Critical assets are classified as anything necessary to keep the
facility functioning for emergency personnel rather than for use by commercial passengers.
Massport is updating its Disaster Infrastructure Resiliency Planning (DIRP) project which
assesses Massport’s vulnerabilities and develops short and long-term resiliency strategies.
Massport coordinates with partner agencies, such as MassDOT, to plan for a more resilient
transportation system.
o
MBTA resiliency projects (Tim Lasker). The MBTA received grant funding to pursue two
resiliency projects: the Fenway Portal and Alford Street Bus Garage. Tim Lasker focused his
discussion on the Alford Street Bus Garage, which is the MBTA’s largest bus facility and it is
located on the Mystic River. The bus facility houses revenue and non-revenue vehicles,
operations and maintenance staff, a police bunker, storage of various supplies and materials,
and performs other functions that make it a critical property. Its location on the Mystic River
make it a vulnerable property. This project will replace the current sea wall with a higher wall to
better protect the property from rising water levels. The number of culverts, drainage and other
underground infrastructure on the property, as well as the various organizations and
jurisdictions involved, make this a complex project. The design consultant has reviewed three
principal design alternatives, which comprise a vertical wall (similar to existing, but higher); a
moderately sloped concrete bank; and a shallow slope composite material bank. Tim also stated
that if a storm the size of Hurricane Sandy hit Boston today, 19 of the MBTA’s rapid transit
stations would be out of service.
o
MassDOT – FHWA Central Artery Pilot Project (Steve Miller). MassDOT’s Highway Division
is working with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, US Environmental Protection Agency,
US Geological Survey, US Army Corps of Enigneers, and the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration on a pilot project to protect the Central Artery Tunnel in the event of
a major storm. The team’s modeling projects sea level rise/storm surge out to year 2100 and
has a risk-based approach combining hurricanes and nor’easters. Currently, the 2013 and 2030
analyses have been completed, and an interim report has been submitted to the FHWA. Once
the project is complete, the data points in Boston and Cambridge will be available for public use.
Documents that provide guidance on using the data will also be made available. Woods Hole,
however, has a proprietary right to the model, and the model itself will not be made public.
2