Howard/Stein-Hudson Associates, Inc.
Memorandum
CREATIVE SOLUTIONS • EFFECTIVE PARTNERING ®
January 2, 2014
To:
Steve McLaughlin
Project Manager - Accelerated Bridge Program
MassDOT
Through:
Paul Godfrey
HNTB
Project Manager
From:
Nathaniel Curtis
Howard/Stein-Hudson
Public Involvement Specialist
RE:
Final Design Advisory Group (DAG) Meeting
Meeting Notes of November 19, 2013
Overview & Executive Summary
On November 19, 2013, the Design Advisory Group (DAG) met to conclude its role in the Casey Arborway final
design process. The membership of the DAG, particularly those individuals who began their role in the project as
members of the Working Advisory Group (WAG) in 2011 are thanked by MassDOT and its consultant project
team for the role these community members have played in shaping the project. Since the design for the Casey
Arborway passed the 25% stage in February of 2013, progressed through 75% and on to 100% through the
spring, summer and fall of 2013, the DAG has been advising MassDOT on specific topic areas of the project such
as construction management, the new green space associated with the Casey Arborway, bicycle and pedestrian
accommodations and buffering the Asticou/Martinwood neighborhood from changes to the upper bus-way. The
meeting summarized herein addressed elements which had been advanced since the DAG’s prior meeting in
August and included changes to the upper bus-way and Washington Street west of Forest Hills Station, the MBTA
plaza spaces abutting what is currently New Washington Street, and Shea Square. The local knowledge provided
by DAG members has been central to refining and improving these elements of the project over its final months of
design. With Plans, Specification and Estimate (PS&E) drawings now submitted to MassDOT for review, it is
currently anticipated that the project will be advertised in January, 2014 with notice to proceed (NTP) given later
that spring, most likely in May.
Generally speaking, the design changes shared at this final meeting of the DAG were positively received
particularly the changes to the landscape design in the area of the MBTA plaza and removal of school bus
operations from their current on-street location to an off-street location on the Forest Hills Station block. This will
allow MBTA police at the station to monitor pick-up/drop-off activities and end the situation currently encountered
on New Washington Street of school buses acting as “roving stop lights.” The construction period remains of
concern to some abutters, particularly those who had not attended previous meetings. Of particular concern is
the control of dust from the demolition of the bridge and how it could impact young children and senior citizens.
It should be noted that dust control specifications are a standard part of all MassDOT contracts and will be a part
of the Casey Arborway project. Members of the DAG and public who still believe that MassDOT made the wrong
choice and should be building a new viaduct to replace the current Casey Overpass used this final meeting as an
opportunity to voice concerns which to a greater and lesser extent they have been raising since March 2012: that
the traffic studies associated with the Casey Arborway project have not been adequate, that buses and trucks will
either not be able to negotiate the rebuilt corridor or will do it so slowly as to cause traffic congestion, that there
are problems with how MassDOT has funded the project and that the agency has generally been less than
transparent with the community around a whole host of issues associated with the job. Chief among these at this
meeting was the disposition of Shea Circle with regards to the Massachusetts Historical Commission process.
38 Chauncy Street, 9th Floor  Boston, Massachusetts 02111  617.482.7080 www.hshassoc.com Page 1
Howard/Stein-Hudson Associates, Inc.
Detailed Meeting Minutes
Opening Remarks and Discussion of Shea Square
C: Michael Trepanier (MT): Good evening everyone; we have quite a group here tonight. I wasn’t sure if we
would get 5 people or 100 people for this meeting, but I’m glad you are all here. I am Michael Trepanier, I
work in the environmental section at MassDOT and I am the public involvement person and community
liaison for the project. I will host tonight’s Design Advisory Group (DAG) meeting. I see a lot of new faces in
the room tonight and this is a good opportunity for you to become familiar with the final design of the Casey
Arborway. Tonight is about providing you with an update on how the project has changed since this past
August, construction sequencing and timing and construction period outreach. Before we get into that,
because it is a larger crowd tonight, let’s keep up with a good tradition of these meetings and give everyone
the opportunity to introduce themselves. I’ll ask that you allow DAG members to go first and then we’ll
introduce our project team.1 I’d like to take a moment and recognize Representative Russell Holmes who has
been front and center for much of the project and Robert Torres from Representative Malia’s office.
As we have some new people here tonight, I’ll go over our format. This is an open public meeting, but it
really belongs to the DAG. I won’t limit public question and answer, but our intention is to update the DAG
on what we’ve been doing since August. We’re going to be focused on that timeframe and won’t provide
much of a rundown on the past two years. That’s all on the project website and I’m happy to speak with any
of you about that history after the meeting. I want to provide an update on the Massachusetts Historical
Commission (MHC) process with regard to Shea Circle. That’s the historic review happening under Chapter
254. We had submitted a package of information back in the summer to the MHC and followed that up with
a consultation meeting with MHC Director Brona Simon and the interested parties. We have prepared
responses to the concerns voice by MHC in August, particularly documenting the process by which we
determined we would replace Shea Circle with Shea Square. That package will go to MHC tomorrow
morning. It took us longer to complete that effort than we would have liked, but there was a lot of back-up
work we needed to do to respond fully. We expect to hear back from the MHC within the next few weeks
about further consultation. Anyone who wants to get involved in the MHC process should contact them
directly.
Q: Michael Reiskind (MR): Can you provide us with that submission? Is it in an electronic format?
Q: Kevin Moloney (KM): Would you be able to send it us tomorrow?
A: MT: We will be hand delivering it to MHC tomorrow.
Q: KM: But would you be able to send it to us electronically tomorrow?
A: MT: Well, probably not tomorrow, I can’t guarantee that, but I can promise you in the near future.
Q: KM: In the future could be 20 years from now. When exactly are you going to do it, Michael?
A: MT: When I have the documents electronically myself.
Q: KM: You will have it on paper tomorrow and will deliver it to MHC tomorrow. How long will it take to get it
scanned so you can email it out to us?
A: MT: I suppose it could be tomorrow.
Q: KM: But will it be tomorrow?
A: MT: I think we’ve addressed this; I’m going to move on.
1
Here the meeting paused for introductions. For an attendance list, please see appendix 1.
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C: KM: Michael, Michael.
A: MT: What exactly are you asking me for, Kevin?
C: KM: I am looking for an answer. I am tired of this razzmatazz from you folks. In the future; it could be the
12th of never. Tell me tomorrow or tell me the day after. Give us a hard deadline.
A: Steve McLaughlin (SM): Kevin, how about we say by Monday? We have some concerns about file size.
C: KM: And I am concerned about seeing the response from MassDOT to the August 13 th allowance by MHC at
your department’s request for two weeks to present alternatives to what you’re going to do to Shea Circle.
Q: Karen Wepsic (KW): Rather than email it out, would you please put it on your website?
A: SM: Karen, we can email it out to DAG members, but we may have more difficulty posting it to the website.
There are a lot of pictures and getting them fully compliant could present us a challenge.
Q: Michael Halle (MH): The MHC review only covers Shea Square; it has no bearing on the rest of the project?
A: MT: Correct. The MHC made a finding of adverse effect on converting Shea Circle to Shea Square, but they
have no bearing on the rest of the job. We have to demonstrate to their satisfaction that the conversion of the
rotary is unavoidable in terms of meeting the purpose and need of the project.
C: MH: I think that it shows respect for MHC’s role to give them the first look.
C: Bernard Doherty (BD): I’d like to bring up something historical about this issue and showing respect and I
appreciate you bringing up the issue of respect. We spoke about Shea Circle almost from the issue of get-go
of the WAG operation. We were told, I got the notes, that there was no problem with regard to the MHC
giving permission to turn that into Shea Square. Meeting after meeting we were told that and here we are
tonight being told that you need to get documentation and that this is a problem. That’s one issue. We’ll do
the others as they come along.
A: MT: O.K. thank you Bernie. Yes, Jeff?
Q: Jeffrey Ferris (JF): What I don’t understand and maybe you can explain it to me; if throughout the process we
were told the bridge or at-grade solution works with the square or the circle and that this is a time sensitive
project that has to move forward and Shea Circle is not a bridge, it’s not clear to me why the project is so
adamant about getting this change when you’ve had this timeline you’re trying to push through, but you told
us it works either way and MHC said “we don’t like you getting rid of the circle,” why are you holding up the
whole project when you’ve been told not to mess with the historic resource and you told us before that it didn’t
matter?
A: MT: I don’t believe that anyone ever told you that it didn’t matter.
C: JF: We were told 100% of the time that either an intersection or a circle would work with a bridge or an atgrade roadway.
A: MT: Yes, that statement you just made is true.
C: JF: Consistently, over the past couple of years, and at the end you said “we like this better with the at-grade.”
A: MT: It wasn’t a matter of MassDOT liking it better; it was a matter of the community liking it better. There
were pretty clear instructions from the WAG.
C: KM: There was never any kind of vote about this on the WAG.
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A: MT: There was not vote because the WAG was not a voting body.
C: KM: It was a decision by MassDOT, with no respect, no vote, and no determination of consensus. 2 It was a
unilateral decision.
Q: JF: But why are you so adamant about the change?
A: MT: Because Shea Square meets the goals and objectives set out by the WAG most effectively. It provides
connectivity for all modes of travel in a way that is safe for cyclists and pedestrians and still efficient for
automotive traffic. And with that, I am going to move on with the agenda.
Discussion of Recent Bridge Repair Work
C: MT: I want to provide you all with an update on the work we conducted over the weekend of October 5 th-6th.
We closed the overpass on that weekend to resurface it. Our District 6 office has responsibility for the
operations and maintenance of the overpass and based on their own assessment and community input that
the riding surface was poor a decision was made to try for a more thorough and lasting resurfacing. As you
will recall the underlying condition of the bridge is such that the patches we had been applying previously
were not staying attached to the riding surface for all that long. In light of all this we opted for a bigger band
aid: 20 discrete surface sections of the bridge were removed and replaced in their entirety. There’s nothing
we can do about the expansion joints, but it makes it all a little better and safer in advance of winter. Thanks
to some favorable conditions and some intensive work by our contractor we were able to get that done in a
weekend. I want to emphasize that this doesn’t save the bridge at all, it just keeps it going for one more
winter.
C: BD: Another historic thing: I stood up in a DAG meeting, maybe the 2 nd one and made it clear that it was
unconscionable the state of disrepair into which MassDOT had allowed the bridge to fall. People from
Mattapan and Dorchester working minimum wage jobs in the hospital district cross that bridge every day and
I was up there passing out leaflets and it was great for me because they were down to five miles per hour, but
they were bouncing all over the place and nearly hitting each other. I told you about this three months ago
and the only reason you did this is because the Boston Herald did a great article about it and you have to
plow the bridge. That, sir is the truth of this matter: MassDOT has not done its job.
A: MT: Thank you for your comments, Bernie.
C: BD: Oh you’re welcome; I’ll keep them coming.
Q: MT: O.K. yes, Anne, do you have a comment on the bridge repairs?
Q: Anne McKinnon (AM): No, I have a comment on what’s going on over here, somebody is recording
something and I believe that you’re supposed to announce that there is a recording being done so that
people will be aware. Has that been done?
A: MT: I have not done that.
Q: AM: O.K. can you announce that you’re recording this?
A: Todd Consentino (TC): I am recording this.
2
Guidance by the WAG that Shea Circle should be converted to Shea Square was provided to MassDOT as early
as the summer of 2011. This direction was confirmed at the “Checking Design Directions” WAG meeting held on
August 31, 2011. Both Mr. Ferris and Mr. Moloney were present at this meeting. At the time, neither expressed
significant concern about the historical process, or argued for retaining the circle. For more information see
http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/Portals/24/docs/WAG_MtgMinutes083111.pdf.
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Q: AM: Well can you announce it to everybody?
A: TC: This is a public space.
C: AM: I understand that.
C: Community Resident (CR): I don’t think you can video record somebody without their permission.
Q: AM: Could you please announce it to everybody and see if there’s an objection to it?
A: TC: I am recording this because, when certain people who aren’t on the DAG, and who are just supposed to
be here for an overview of the project go off, I would love to be able to show people how their comments are
just rehashing things; things that have already been discussed, things that have already had a thorough
hearing.
C: MT: Todd, I think that…
C: AM: It’s really kind of obnoxious
Q: BD: Is this the way MassBike does stuff? I don’t know.
Q: AM: Will you turn it off please?
A: TC: I will agree to shut it off if you can hold your questions to the end of the presentation the way we are all
supposed to.
C: AM: Yes, we will.
Q: KM: Are you running this meeting?
A: MT: No, he’s not, I am.
C: KM: Then run it, Michael, please.
A: MT: Yes, I’m going to do that just now. O.K. Michael, a quick question and then we’ll move ahead.
Q: MR: Which district is responsible for the current bridge?
A: MT: Our district 6, that’s the Metropolitan Highway System, they are located on Kneeland Street in Chinatown.
All right; I would like to push ahead here. Yes, do you have a quick question?
C: Rosella Solis (RS): It’s not a quick question, it a comment.
A: MT: O.K. go ahead.
C: RS: My name is Rosella Solis and I work in the Boston Public Schools and you’re not allowed to make a video
recording in a public school so you should shut it off.
A: TC: Yes, but school’s not in session right now. Nobody here is a student.
C: AM: People don’t want to be recorded; shut it down!
A: MT: I really don’t have the authority to tell him to shut it off.
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Q: BD: Is MassBike paying you to be here tonight? 3
A: TC: No Bernie, I’m volunteering my time just like you and this is not high school.
Q: RS: I do have a comment. Since you have moved along so far with this project, who will pay the bills for my
health? I live right on South Street and all the pollution comes to me. Will I have my window closed for two
years? Will you provide me with a machine for oxygen? I have grandchildren in my house and two family
daycares. It’s my house and my square; there are about 20 houses that will be impacted.
A: SM: Let me talk to you a little about dust control in the construction contract. The bridge has to come down
and we have determined to take it down. I’m going to ask Paul Godfrey from HNTB to speak about the
measures in the construction contract.
A: Paul Godfrey (PG): A common and real concern with construction projects near homes is dust, noise and
debris from the work. The bridge has to come down and will come down in pieces. In the contract there are
sections addressing dust control and how the contractor will have to keep the site watered to suppress dust.
There are sections addressing noise control and how loud the project can be in terms of decibels. There is a
different noise level for daytime, evening and night. If something like dust or noise control isn’t being done to
the contract specifications, the MassDOT resident engineer will be able to compel the contractor to do it right.
There will be a contact person for the project who will need to respond to concerns within 24 hours. I
appreciate your concern and I’d be worried myself, but this is all pretty standard stuff.
Q: CR: Is there any asbestos in the bridge? I’d heard that discussed.
A: PG: We are not aware of any asbestos. If the contractor does find it, he will abate it using standard MassDOT
abatement measures. We have seen no signs of asbestos being present.
Q: Gail Sullivan (GS): Have you tested for asbestos?
A: PG: Based on the type of structure, the methods used to build it and the time of construction, we have no
reason to anticipate asbestos. Any contractor will know that should he find that material, he will need to
abate it correctly.
C: GS: You’re not doing yourselves any favors. Those of us who support the project are not getting the support
from you that we need. You can’t tell people that contract specifications have covered the issue. You have to
tell people whether the bridge will be netted and how long it will be netted. I support this project, let me
underline that, but that doesn’t mean that it is O.K. with me that there is no concern taken for the issues
raised by this neighborhood. It may not be done in the best manner, but the health concerns are big ones.
I’d like to review the contract specifications myself. I’m an architect, I will understand them, and I will raise
issues. You’ve got to help us help you and if you don’t, then all the antagonism you’ve felt meeting after
meeting will come down on you so hard. You owe it to the community both the part that supports you and
the part that doesn’t and you need to do it well so that this community can heal once this process is done
because the level of antagonism is just unacceptable.
A: PG: Gail, I understand your concern and nobody is minimizing anyone’s health issues. One thing MassDOT
does not do is tell contractors how they must do a project. We can suggest netting, watering, blankets,
covers, and stipulate something has to be done, but to give you what you’re asking for we’d have to have a
contractor on-board and have reviewed their proposed means and methods. Construction period issues are
a real concern and how the contractor decides to do the project will be reviewed by MassDOT and will have
to comply with the specifications we have written. Please don’t misinterpret this as a non-answer, but to a
large degree the specifics you want are dependent on what the contractor and MassDOT agree to once
means and materials have been reviewed. I’m happy to expound on how I believe the contractor will
approach this, but I’m not entirely sure yet.
3
Todd Consentino has represented the Boston Cyclists’ Union since joining the DAG.
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C: GS: I’m most concerned about your level of performance standards and if they are the highest possible. It’s
not acceptable to say to people when they have a problem that there’s a phone number for them to call. We
have to stop problems before they happen.
A: PG: Don’t misunderstand: the telephone number is just one avenue for your use. MassDOT will have an onsite resident engineer and 99% of the issues will be headed off at the pass by that person. Sometimes people
have a concern and say “I think that’s an issue.” The point is I want to make sure there will always be an
open window where those concerns can go. Our team has been challenged to cover all the details,
foreseeing all the ways the contractor may do the job. I don’t take this lightly. MassDOT doesn’t take it
lightly. You can look at the specifications if you want to and when Michael runs through the construction
phase it may address some more of your concerns.
C: BD: I appreciate what Gail said. I’ve been working in construction for 40 years and in the past 20 I’ve been a
contract manager working on large projects all over the world. If someone came to me and told me what you
just have, I’m sorry, but you’d be on the street. If somebody stood in front of me and said I’m sending out a
scope of work with this many holes in it to be bid by a construction management team, I’d say you were crazy.
How do you get reasonable bid quotes if you don’t know the elements you’re looking for? If someone said
there might be dangerous materials on the job site I’d have people out testing for it, because otherwise I’d
anticipate a big change order later on and lots of money. I expect the project manager on this job to
understand the budget, schedule and how materials are supposed to arrive. I don’t hear any of that going on
right now and if you say it costs $54 million, I bet it will be $84 million by the time you’re done. You’re going
to have the contractor coming to you and saying “oh I found this bad thing,” and “oh I need to get it off site”
and “oh now I have to send it to a furnace in Georgia.” The list goes on and on. I’ve been there and I can’t
believe you’re giving us this lack of information. Gail, I agree with you 100%
A: GS: But Bernie, I don’t agree with you at all.
A: SM: We have a very detailed and comprehensive contract package going out to bidders. We’ve gone through
a hazardous materials review. A bridge of this age and construction style does not have asbestos in it. DOT
takes down bridges in urban areas all the time. This is the first time we have gotten to this level of detail with
our construction specifications. That said we do not want to hinder the contractor to the extent that the
ingenuity which the bidding process is supposed to build gets stifled. We have performance standards based
on the comments we’ve received from you over the past several years particularly with regard to sequencing
the job. We’ve been over that with you several times and it gets better every time. The contractor will submit
to MassDOT for review detailed demolition and abatement plans.
Q: MT: Thank you Steve. Can I get you to stay up there and do project schedule?
Discussion of Project Schedule
A: SM: We’ll start the bidding phase very soon: January 25th which is a Saturday. That’s normal. All MassDOT
advertisements go out on Saturdays. This one goes out on the 25 th and a few months later there will be a bid
opening when the contractor will give us a price for the job. We select the lowest responsible bidder. That
means he has all his paperwork in order, has met the requirements to do business in Massachusetts; has their
performance bonds and so forth. We select a bidder, award it to them, they give us their sub-contracts and
we then give them notice to proceed (NTP). We have a pre-construction meeting and then we start the
project. I expect NTP will be granted between May 15 th and 30th, 2014. That date is important to prevent us
from having to get the bridge through another winter. The completion date is Friday, September 30th, 2016
at 5:00PM. That is a very short-hand version of a very detailed schedule which we have been over at length
in other meetings. If anyone wants to know more about that, see me when we break or check out the project
website.
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Q: CR: Can you tell us about contractor standards regarding the employment of local residents, people of color
and women?
A: SM: There are state and federal policies to which we will have to adhere. We’re not under any particular city
residency requirements.
Q: CR: I’m not sure I understand what that means. I think you are saying that the contractor doesn’t need to hire
residents of 02130.4 Could you require that?
A: SM: The contractor must give a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) a proportion of their work. The
range is between 10% and 20%. I don’t know the exact number off the top of my head, but we can provide
that information.
C: GS: I think the level is 19%
A: SM: It might be 19% and it’s possibly even higher than that depending on the region.
Q: KM: I take it that your plan assumes that MHC will approve Shea Square in the time you have indicated?
A: MT: That’s the package we are submitting tomorrow. A submittal tomorrow gives us two months of time to
get everything completed on our end.
Q: KM: But my question is whether the schedule assumes the MHC will comply with your request to replace Shea
Circle with a signalized intersection.
A: MT: The schedule assumes that within the two months we have allotted we will have reached an agreement
with the MHC.
Q: KM: Several weeks ago at a meeting at the State Laboratory the issue of funding on this project came up
particularly with regard to the head-house and upper bus-way changes including the canopy. The
representative of MassDOT at that meeting told us that there were some legal barriers to expending
Accelerated Bridge Program (ABP) money on some of this. So, is there a legal issue and where are you
getting your funding.
A: SM: On January 25, 2014 this project is going out to bid. This project encompasses everything you see on
the graphic behind me: the roadways, head-house, upper bus-way; everything. We plan on using one
contractor. Some elements of the work differ from each other. There are elevators and there are trees. A
single contractor is appropriate for the job. Based on the assumption of one project, one contractor, and one
bid we see the contract value as $59 million right now. That includes money from the ABP and a new bond
bill called “The Way Forward.” The cost of the project is fully funded.
Q: KM: And how much is coming from this other program?
A: SM: About $20-25 million is from The Way Forward.
Q: KM: And why isn’t it all coming from the ABP?
A: SM: We’re getting $20-25 million from the Way Forward and the rest from ABP. It’s really an accounting
mechanism inside DOT.
Q: KM: Why are you doing this when you said you had $70 million to replace the existing bridge? Why are you
taking a third of the budget and getting it from somewhere else?
4
02130 is the zip code for Jamaica Plain.
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A: SM: It’s an accounting issue.
A: MT: Conditions have changed over the two years this project has been in planning and design.
A: SM: ABP has got a lot of projects under construction. This is one of the last to go out. If one of the ABP
projects current in construction today has an overrun, we’ll use that funding. This allows us to repurpose the
funding. I underscore to you: the Casey Arborway is funded.
C: KM: But you told us two years ago you had $70 million for this project through the ABP.5
A: SM: Quite frankly I don’t see the difference. I don’t see the connection.
C: KM: You represented to us that you had $70 million and told us not to worry about it.
A: SM: The project is fully funded. I don’t know why this is a problem for you.
C: KM: You told us, when I asked you time and time again, how much this project would cost and where the
money was coming from, you said it was from the ABP and that was why we had to move quickly to meet the
2016 deadline. Yet, within the last couple of months as these questions come to the fore you come up with
this alternate funding mechanism.
A: SM: Does it matter where the funding comes from?
C: KM: It does to me! It goes right to your credibility!
Q: Nina Brown (NB): Could we please hear about item five on the agenda?
A: MT: Yes, that sounds good.
C: CR: Thank you; it’s about time!
Design Changes since August 2013
C: MT: O.K. we’re excited to show the DAG members our final product: the fully corridor and close-ups of the
MBTA and Southwest Corridor Plazas, Shea Square and some pretty significant changes on Washington Street
west of the station including bicycles, pedestrians and changes to the upper bus-way based on input from the
AMSNA neighborhood. I’m going to invite Paul Godfrey and George Batchelor up to give an overview and
then we’ll have more Q&A.
C: PG: Let me start with the corridor graphic. Jonathan and I will speak to some design modifications since
August and then George will address open space and plaza modifications. This is an excellent pictorial of
what the project will look like when it’s done. The Arborway runs east-west with Washington Street, Hyde Park
Avenue, and South Street running north-south. Forest Hills Station is pretty much in the center.
Changes to the Upper Bus-Way
The membership of AMSNA has had an advance look at this design, but as you all may remember, we had
previously been looking at a 3-bay upper bus-way. The reason we were doing that was because with the
Route 39 bus moving into the upper bus-way we wanted to provide adequate loading, unloading and layover
space. That led us to the 3-bay concept and that design was subject to a lot of scrutiny from the community
The speaker followed up this statement with an email to MassDOT regarding how his comments were
transcribed. For a copy of this email, see Appendix 4.
5
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and MBTA. In the past few months, the MBTA told us that they thought they could modify the design, based
on bus operations at Wonderland on the Blue Line, 6 and make this work with 2 bays instead of 3. The MBTA
had concerns with the 3-bay design regarding passenger loading and unloading and the 2-bay design
addresses that. Based on the MBTA input and comments we have received from AMSNA, the DAG and
community, we are now looking at a 2-bay upper bus-way instead of 3 in the final design. The MBTA will
operate this by dividing the bus-way into 4 zones, an A and B zone for each bay. The buses will load and
unload and have space for layovers with more room than they have today. There is significant layover space
for the 39 bus. A design enhancement that comes with this is that we can pull the bus-way further from the
homes on Asticou Road and buffer the bus operations from the neighborhood with a fence, low wall, and
planted space. The MBTA likes this idea because it gives them snow storage. Other design enhancements:
we have low walls around the exit to the upper bus-way which will catch the lights from the buses at their
source and prevent them from entering the neighborhood. That’s a design change since August. We can’t
take credit for this: it came from the MBTA, but it lets us do something we’ve been struggling to fix for the
community and we like it.
C: BD: As you know, I am the chair of AMSNA and we have serious concerns about this. You know that. I
brought up concerns about money early on saying this funding couldn’t come from the ABP and now I want to
know about whether it’s legal to use Way Forward funding for this work. I want to hear it from the state
representative who is present here tonight, Russell Holmes, because my state representative, Liz Malia, doesn’t
know anything about this and hasn’t been consulted. Your upper bus-way…
Q: Representative Russell Holmes (RH): Can we hear about how the buses move in and out of this thing first?
C: PG: The upper bus-way will operate as follows: all buses will enter at the south driveway either with a right or
a left turn. The only buses to make a left turn would be the routes 38 and 39. The buses will exit from the
north driveway. The 38 and 39 will make a right to go north towards Jamaica Plain and all other routes will
turn left to go south. The only other buses to make a right exiting are those coming out of service. They will
exit the bus-way with a signalized intersection. You can see the stop lines positioned to allow for a safe
crossing by pedestrians. There will be bus loading and unloading to sidewalks along the bus bays directly
adjacent to Forest Hills Station as there are today. That’s the general 101 on the upper bus-way. It extends
out over the lower bus-way and over the parking lot, but we keep all those parking spaces, they’re just
covered.
C: BD: What I want to point out is that moving this bus-way has a tremendous impact in terms of light, which I
admit has finally been addressed. Originally they came to us with a wall and a fence on our side of the road
and finally they took a real look at it and came up with these low walls. That’s an example of the shoddy
approach they have taken with this whole thing. See this yellow line: this is a yellow line that says motorists
can’t cross here, but they are inviting people to use Asticou Road as a cut-through. The way they have
designed this says “come on in.” I want a traffic study done to demonstrate what my neighbors and I already
know: Asticou Road is used as a cut-through. When I see that, it’s just one more example of the insult to this
community. Why are you doing this to us? This is a fire lane. We’ve never had a conversation with the MBTA
on noise pollution or particulates.7 You may tell us this was the deal we made when we moved to Forest Hills,
but I defy anyone, including you Todd to say this is good because I can ride my bike around. We’ve worked
for 30 years to make this a stable community without drug dealers and we are telling you to move this busway further south. You will say you can’t move it further south because of air pressure in the train tunnel, but
this is parcel P2 and the Forest Hills Improvement Initiative proposes a large building further south over the
tunnel than this.
Q: MT: Is there a question in any of that?
6
Wonderland Station is the eastern terminal of the Blue Line and a hub for bus lines serving the north shore.
This project has been subjected to a thorough environmental review. See
http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/Portals/24/docs/AirQualityRpt20111221.pdf and
http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/Portals/24/docs/14978enf.pdf for more information.
7
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A: BD: No, it’s a statement. I will show the documentation which says you can accomplish this. 8
Q: RH: Could we leave the yellow line solid at that location?
A: PG: Yes and I want to point out something else: we have created a raised crosswalk at the entrance to Asticou
Road, at the suggestion of AMSNA members at the August DAG meeting, to make the street less attractive as
a cut-through. It’s like a speed table. The crosswalk will be at the same level as the sidewalk and deter the
cut-through traffic.
A: MT: The operations at South Street/Washington Street are very poor today because of roadway geometry and
old signalization. Once this project is completed the temptation to use Asticou Road as a cut-through will
diminish.
Q: CR: This is my first meeting, but are you saying buses will make a left across a double yellow line?
A: PG: There’s a break in the line for the buses.
Q: CR: I go to Stony Brook neighborhood meetings all the time and this is an issue we’re bringing to the city
council, but we’re routinely told we can’t have speed bumps because they slow emergency response. How is
this different?
A: MT: The difference between a tabled crosswalk and a speed bump is the size. The emergency vehicles can
still get over this and not get hung up the way they can on a bump. This is wide enough to allow them to
glide over it. This won’t be an emergency response time issue.
A: PG: A primary different here is that an emergency vehicle at this location is also already down to a very low
rate of speed to make the sharp turn onto Asticou Road.
Q: CR: Who owns this part of the project?
A: MT: We have a detailed ownership overlay. At the end of the project, just like today, Asticou Road will be
owned by the City of Boston.
Q: CR: And the city councilors have been involved in these meetings?
A: MT: They have and Jullieanne Doherty from the Mayor’s office of neighborhood services has been to almost
all of them. To tell you the truth, I’m a little surprise she isn’t here tonight.
Q: Ted [Last name not given]: I’m from Tower Street. Is there anything you guys can do to lower the amount of
traffic that comes through here?
A: MT: The project we have designed accommodates all local and regional traffic for the year 2035. There are
some north/south alternative routes and some alternative routes for locations further away such as Milton and
Quincy, but locally this is the principal east/west corridor. There might be some long term diversion to bicycle
and transit as those facilities are upgraded, but we are not planning to divert vehicles away from this area or
attract more to it.
Q: Ted [Last name not given]: There are a lot of cars in the neighborhood. For what it’s worth I want to thank
you guys for working hard in a difficult neighborhood. This might not be the right long-term vision, but for
the record, what you’ve done is very good. This wasn’t voted on, who would I talk to about the decision?
A: MT: The decision was made by Secretary Davey. You can speak to him.
8
Investigations by the project team into this claim have showed that the building envisioned for this location would
require a ventilation structure.
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Q: Bill Reyelt (BR): I’d like some clarification about the MBTA snow storage. That’s not on a sidewalk is it?
A: PG: No, it would be generally in this area along the inner edge of the planted buffer berm where there is
opportunity for some police parking and storage space for maintenance and operations.
A: MT: The MBTA said they were concerned about pedestrian movements across the planter buffer. We’ve
designed a fence and plantings to address that potential for a pedestrian/bus conflict. The area where the
snow would be stored would be a walkable surface, but we are doing everything we can to stop people from
climbing the berm and popping out in front of a bus driver.
Q: AM: Can you at least give us a preview of what you’re going to cover?
A: PG: We’ll next do design modifications on Washington Street and then bring up George for open space.
Jonathan, why don’t we segue to Washington Street?
Changes to Washington Street West of the Station
C: Jonathan Kapust (JK): Up until 75% we had a design that transitioned from separated walking and cycling
paths to a shared use path around the upper bus-way. From the 75% public information meeting,
subsequent DAG meetings and work with the City, it became clear to us that there was an expectation for
stronger through bicycle connections. Working with the City we’ve developed new bicycle accommodations
all the way south to Ukraine Way. We looked at bicycle lanes, a bi-directional path on one side, a cycle track
on one side with a bicycle lane on the other, and a variety of accommodations to improve things and really
bring cyclists all the way down from where we’d had the beginning of the shared use path down the project
limits of work and tying into the existing bicycle lanes on Washington Street south of Ukraine Way. The
particular combination that we ended up with is a cycle track on one side of the road and a bicycle lane on
the other. The southbound side of the road is the one with the cycle track…
Q: AM: What’s a cycle track?
A: JK: A cycle track is an off-street bicycle pathway which is physically raised and separated from the street.
Right around the intersection where the upper bus-way exits, the cycle track becomes an on-street bicycle lane
buffered by a section of striped pavement so it’s on-street, but it’s not directly against the traffic lanes.
Q: AM: I’m sorry: is it on the sidewalk or off the sidewalk?
A: JK: It’s both on the same level as the sidewalk and the street; it transitions as you go south. The reason for
this is because once you pass the project limits of work, the existing bicycle lanes are on-street and we wanted
to provide cyclists with the expectation of what they will be tying into as they progress out of the project.
Q: BD: How do you get from South Street coming down past Asticou Road down past where the buses come out?
Then it goes onto the street, right and prior to that, am I correct that the bicycles are on the same level as the
sidewalk?
A: JK: O.K. why don’t I want through both directions from north to south and then back up again? Starting from
the north we have an off-street cycle track, a buffer and then a sidewalk against the street next to the parking.
This is a handicapped accessible permeable pavement that allows the trees to have better growth. The only
area where we cannot place trees along the sidewalk is over the tunnel box. That’s why you see the row of
trees stop here and pick up again a little further to the south.
Q: AM: Can you give the dimensions of these as your are describing them?
A: JK: O.K. the sidewalk in this area is 6 feet wide. There’s a 6-foot buffer. The buffer area is divided into two
zones: half of the 6-foot buffer is part of the sidewalk and has the tree plantings while the other half protects
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the cyclists on their cycle track from the trees themselves; it’s the safety off-set. So the total area for
pedestrians is around eight feet in that area.
Q: CR: So you have bicycles riding on the sidewalk?
A: MT: The intent has been to provide the best possible accommodations for all users. This was one of those last
areas where we had two types of use shoehorned into one space. In this area where you see blue and yellow
lines, the blue indicates the track for bicycles and the yellow shows the separate sidewalk for pedestrians. I’ve
made the walk from Green Street to English High School a dozen times for this project and I know how well
these separated facilities work. Sometimes I want to walk on the bicycle path, but I feel guilt because I worry
someone from the DAG will see me so I head for the sidewalk. We’re excited here because we can provide
similar separated facilities on Washington Street west of the station.
Q: CR: So the eight feet in total is for bicycles or pedestrians?
A: MT: That’s for pedestrians and what do we have for the cycle track?
A: JK: The cycle track is a 6-foot cycle track and it has a 2-foot off-set which provides a buffer from any objects.
Q: CR: So it’s 6 feet for pedestrians?
A: JK: 8 feet.
Q: CR: A buffer and then 6-feet of cycle track?
A: JK: Yes, that’s right.
Q: CR: And that extends from where to where?
A: JK: It goes all the way from the Arborway all the way to this intersection with the exit of the upper bus-way.
C: CR: It’s too bad you couldn’t get it all the way to the Blackwell Footpath.
A: JK: The Blackwell Footpath belongs to the Arboretum and it’s not part of the City’s bicycle network. The
Arboretum doesn’t want cyclists using the path or for it to become a network route.
A: MT: The policy decision was made to place the cyclists on the street. If you’re on a bicycle and you can see
that things get much better in 20 feet, you’ll just keep going. These accommodations are frankly better than
those on the Charles River and as we all know those are heavily used.
A: JK: Another advantage of this plan is that we get five additional trees and 18 feet of new landscaping.
Q: BD: The walkway you’re talking about is no more than 4 feet wide going all the way down past the Blackwell
Gate. Where are you getting all the width?
A: JK: We’re shifting the road to the east.
A: Sarah Freeman (SF): That’s a nice addition.
Q: GS: Can you explain what the blue dots are?
A: JK: I’ll do that. Those blue dots are transition zones which are different from the cycle track and sidewalks. It
will be composed of asphalt pavers that will show both pedestrians and cyclists that they are in an interaction
zone. The blue dotted lines will be colored pavers showing cyclists and pedestrians how to diverge onto their
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separate paths. Think of it like the Freedom Trail but with the line dashed every 30-44 inches. In this case the
cyclists would come off the cycle track down a ramp onto the on-street buffered bicycle lane. As you get
towards the signal at Ukraine Way, where Bernie correctly notes that there isn’t much space, the buffer tapers
down and south of Ukraine Way we tie into the existing bicycle lanes on Washington Street.
Q: Jessica Mink (JM): I’d really like to suggest a curb cut at the entrance to the Blackwell Footpath that could be
accessed from the bicycle lane running north on Washington Street. People might want to cut over from the
right hand side because there are times when there’s no traffic like early on weekend mornings.
A: MT: We can look into that.
C: JK: O.K. let’s do the run-through in the opposite direction: south to north. On Ukraine Way, the City asked us
to explore bicycle options understanding that it wasn’t really part of the project. What we did was to restripe
the existing pavement to provide a bicycle lane from one side of the train tracks to the other. Coming up
Washington Street from the south, we have a bicycle lane which ramps up into a transitional area. The dotted
line I mentioned previous directs the cyclist towards a cycle track at the back of the sidewalk. The pedestrian
area is towards the front and the sidewalk is 8-feet wide because we expect higher traffic with the transit
station on this side. At the City’s request we also widened the cycle track in this area by a foot because there
might be a pedestrian in there and this provides some extra room. We still have the tree lined buffer with the
permeable pavement. As we cross the tunnel box we berm it up a little to allow for smaller trees. As you
move on past the upper bus-way, this turns into the bi-directional bicycle path.
C: GS: This is a lot better.
C: Rachel Szakmary (RS): The Arboretum really doesn’t encourage cycling on the Blackwell Path.
A: JM: We’re working hard with the new mayor to change that. There’s a specific ban in Franklin Park and
we’re working hard to change that too. These are major issues for the city’s bicycle community.
Q: AM: Is it two-way or one-way northbound?
A: MT: From Ukraine Way to the station, the right turn out of the bus-way, it’s one-way northbound and then it
turns into a two-way bicycle path.
A: JK: And just to clarify that a little further, if you were coming south on the east side of Washington Street west
of the station and you were going to continue south, you would be able to cross at this signal.
Q: George Zoulalian (GZ): Can I see where the upper bus-way canopies are and whether the walkway into the
station is covered?
A: MT: Sure, there’s a dotted line here which extends to the entrance of the station. This entire area is covered
by canopy. With the changes to the upper bus-way, we got the size and weight of the canopy down which is
good with it being on top of the tunnel, but the pedestrians are protected as they exit and board the buses.
You’ll be able to get off a bus and be under cover all the way to the station just like today.
C: KW: You’re not completely sheltered now unless the rain is completely vertical.
Q: GZ: Where’s the drip line?
A: MT: Getting off the bus, you’re covered. Waiting for a bus, you’re covered.
C: KW: A next bus announcement board inside the station would be useful.
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A: MT: I know the MBTA is working on those customer service improvements. I agree with you; that would be a
useful improvement.
Q: CR: A few questions going back to Asticou Road: could you reverse direction and make it a “no left turn?”
What about cabs and pick-up/drop-off? You’ve eliminated a very active cab stand. It seems like you can’t
have the kiss-and-ride operation without blocking the bicycle lanes? Oh, and will the sidewalks be repaved?
A: MT: Yes, all of the paved surfaces sidewalks, roadways, all of those will be new and ADA-compliant. Now
your earlier question: during the WAG process we knew the route 39 bus would have to move during
construction since you can’t have operating buses under a bridge being demolished. Originally we’d thought
about having the bus operate from curbside on the section of the Arborway which is now new Washington
Street, but we got input from the WAG and neighbors about how difficult the taxis are right next to Asticou
Road and we thought it would be nice to move them. The MBTA also had concerns about a U-turn their
articulated buses would need to make on the Arborway. With all this input we did a swap and moved the 39
bus to the upper bus-way and put the cab stand on the south side of the Arborway at the north edge of the
station parcel. That improves service in the corridor for buses and gets the cabs off Washington Street and
Asticou Road.
Q: RH: So the taxis no longer have to make a U-turn?
A: MT: Correct. No more illegal taxi U-turns. There is a new kiss-and-ride location at the northwest corner of
the station parcel and we have other kiss-and-ride locations salted around the station. There’s one over here
near the new head-house on the Southwest Corridor terminal plaza.
Q: CR: So it’s feasible to have pick-up/drop-off on either side of that roadway?
A: MT: Yes and another good thing about the new head-house is that if you do get dropped off by a car going
west and you want to catch the subway, you have direct access to the Orange Line platform without having to
cross the road.
Q: CR: And could Asticou Road be a “no left turn?”
A: MT: That’s really a question for the residents to bring up with BTD.
Q: Peg Preble (PP): How will the bus-way be supported where it projects out over the parking lot?
A: PG: It will be a concrete pile system; actually quite similar to what’s holding up this building we’re in right
now.
Q: RH: How much money is it to do that?
A: PG: That’s between $5-6 million.
Q: BD: And how much to take it down the existing Casey Overpass?
A: PG: That’s around $7 million.
Q: MT: Is that everything you had to present, Jonathan?
Changes to School Bus Operations
A: JK: I still have school buses to do. We’ve heard a lot about school buses, where they go and what they do to
New Washington Street. After talking with both BPS and METCO we have found an off-street location from
which the buses can pick up and drop off and that’s the parking lot off Hyde Park Avenue. They would enter
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here by Tower Street and make a loop though the lot. They really only need the space for about 15-30
minutes each day and MBTA security at the station is very happy about this because it will help them control
the students. It will also be a help to parents meeting their children at the station. So, all the school buses
come off the street and there will be no more pop-up stop signs.9
Q: PP: Are you saying all the buses and students will go into that parking lot?
Q: BD: Have you spoken to anyone in the community on their feelings about this?
A: JK: There are already buses stopping here; they just do it on the street. The parking in that area will be kept,
just reconfigured to provide space for the buses. There’s already an existing kiss-and-ride space in that lot.
The buses are typically there just at the start of rush hour and between 3:30 and 4:00 in the afternoon. It’s
not the pick-up/drop-off times for workers and it’s a very good solution because the buses get pulled out of
rush hour traffic. There will be new signage to direct everyone. The MBTA police are thrilled with this.
Q: CR: Will there be crossing guards?
A: MT: The crossing at Tower Street will be signalized with pedestrian signals as it is today. In terms of getting a
crossing guard there, that’s up to the City.
Q: JM: So will you put the school buses in the lower bus-way?
A: JK: No, they will be in the kiss-and-ride lot adjacent to the lower bus-way.
A: MT: We also checked out when the MBTA workers go on and off shift and it doesn’t conflict with the school
buses.
Q: CR: Have you analyzed the impact of parents going in and out of that driveway?
A: MT: Compared with the daily kiss-and-ride volumes, this is a very small impact.
C: MH: This is an issue with has come up over and over again. I’m very happy you came up with a solution that
consolidates the issues and puts the children in the safest location. Some kids will have to cross a street, but
some kids have to cross a street today. We’ve all been saying this is a problem and New Washington Street
stinks. People have been putting up with that now for 20 plus years. Let’s just be happy that this is solved
well and move on.
Changes to the Landscape Design
C: George Batchlor (GB): I’m going to start off with a comment. I’ve been involved with this project since last
winter, around February or March when I started attending DAG meetings. I really appreciate the DAG’s
support and earnest direction in terms of pushing the landscape architecture. We’ve been able to really
advance some good ideas and I want to draw your attention to three aerials over here: one is a Google view
of today, one shows a schematic of where we were in March, and here’s what we have today. The level of
refinement that we’ve gotten from this group is great and I appreciated it.
So, here are the highlights going east to west:
 At Shea Square a big thing we did was refine this plaza and really pay attention to the neighborhood.
To the north we’ve been working with the Boston Parks Commission and the Landmarks Commission
to draw on the trees in the park itself and match this area into Circuit Driver. Across the street, we
have much more a neighborhood and we have an opportunity give Franklin Park Villa much more of
9
This was met with applause around the room.
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

a front yard and a small park for the neighborhood at large. We’ve evolved a seating area and lawn
space that really gives the Villa a front lawn.
We’ve had some important points from the DAG process that the Arborway is a green corridor that
connects to Franklin Park. We’ve made some fine-grained decisions on trees using Elms and Oaks
down the center for a spine and then flowering trees on the outside for visual interest. The large trees
around the courthouse are preserved and can be seen from this seating area across the Arborway.
Let’s jump to the Southwest Corridor plaza. Here we have this mini-roundabout which is an arrival
point for cyclists. We have worked with DCR to get just the right feeling of arrival at this point to give
everyone a high degree of visibility. This design has progressed way beyond where it was in March
and has really been shaped by DAG input on green space, pedestrians and bicycles. This is an
important terminus and the trajectories within it are all changing. The head-house is the new focus
for Orange Line riders. The corners are the result of a lot of conversation. The past we talked
vaguely about pedestrian/bicycle mixing zones, but we really worked with our bicycle specialists at all
levels and came up with the idea of these mixing zones with different colors and textures and that
really brings us to a different place. The cyclists will be guided through the area and pedestrians
alerted that they are mixing with bicycles. We’ve provided landscaping that buffers the street and a
lot of bicycle parking since this area is being mapped out as a potential Hubway location. This is a
big transportation zone, but it’s also a DCR park. We’ve expanded the seating area and changed the
planting pattern to create more a center with a custom information kiosk, water fountain and bicycle
repair stand.
C: MT: The idea of a farmers’ market has been raised and I know Sarah will want to know more about this. It’s
something George has looked into in terms of programming the space, but I know the concern is for what
happens when DOT is done and DCR takes custody of the space and there’s a need to take a lane for a
Saturday afternoon. DCR has a permits section, the lead of which is a specialist, whereas at MassDOT he’d
be a chief engineer, but the permits section can issue a permit for the farmers’ market to take a lane or
introduce some other temporary, off-peak traffic control. DCR isn’t saying they will do this, but they will look
at it and there’s a process in place with their traffic and security. When they described the process to me it
sounded straightforward and like something they would feel comfortable doing. That’s positive from DCR
and while I can’t make promises about a permit review to be done 3 or 4 years from now, it sounds
favorable. I think the hardest part of it all is the $50 permit fee.
C: Ruth Helfeld (RHe): I don’t know all the details, but we’d certainly entertain a permit request if one came to us.
C: Frederick Vetterlein (FV): Back at the August DAG meeting, I worked with Gail on this corner by the substation. Since our August DAG session, the Stony Brook Neighborhood Association met with MBTA, the DCR
and the developer at the Hughes Oil site who recently got his permits from BRA. He’s setting aside money to
build a park extension through that area. There’s a real possibility of this Southwest Corridor extension. The
sub-station has this big green area10 in front of it and both the developer and our association are curious
about whether that can be incorporated into the front of the sub-station because right now it blocks the
connections to Washington Street and if it can’t be moved, could it be integrated? The east side extension
would flow naturally down the intersection with Washington Street and the Arborway. The path would flow
down because of the slow the in the land.
A: GB: We have not programmed this area yet specifically to keep the options open; we made sure not to block
it.
Q: CR: Who would police that area?
A: MT: It is a tough area; not much visibility.
A: RH: That would be the State Police in there.
10
Here, Frederick Vetterlein pointed to the plan documents on display.
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A: GB: We are also going to do some tree work in this area to improve visibility. We intend to limb up trees
which are in good shape, that’s removing the lower limbs and leaving the upper ones, and remove any trees
which are in bad shape in their entirety.
Q: BD: Speaking of the head-house, the head-house will be a way for people coming from the north to get to the
Orange Line. What about pedestrians who just want to cross the street?
A: GB: They have crosswalks at both Washington Street and South Street to use.
C: BD: That space just begs for a fence to stop people from crossing in the middle of the block.
A: GB: There’s a 2.5-foot wall down the center median to prevent them from crossing there.
Q: BD: Young people will try to cross there because it’s where you are removing the existing mid-block crossing.
This is going to be six lanes and a lot more traffic. Will you commit to putting a fence on top of your wall?
Q: CR: What about a pedestrian overpass?
A: GB: No fence. The way we’ve dealt with this is to use the pathways to split pedestrians who are not going to
the head-house to either side and towards the intersections. Remember, the pedestrian accommodations at
those intersections will be much better than they are today.
Q: CR: But what about a pedestrian overpass? What about some stairways?
A: GB: AAB compliance means that we can’t just build stairways to the pedestrian overpass. We’d need to have
ramps and the ramps need to have no more than a 5% grade and if we do that, we eat up all our new park
space.
A: MT: And the pedestrian equipment at both intersections will have count-down pedestrian heads.
Q: CR: So what happens when I push the pedestrian button?
A: MT: Sorry, Gary, come on up here. I’m going to let Gary McNaughton our traffic engineer answer that one.
A: Gary McNaughton (GM): The pedestrian phasing is built into the signal. If it’s not called, the cars get the
time. If you are crossing diagonally, then to do it safely you would need to cross at right angles: first the
east/west street and then the north/south, for example. Each signal is timed to let a pedestrian walking at the
MassDOT average speed of 3.5 feet per second get across the road in one movement. The count-down
pedestrian head are there to allow people to make an informed decision, if they arrive at the crosswalk after
the pedestrian phase has come up, whether they have enough time to cross the street. There is enough time
for them to cross in one movement, but if they do get stuck, there is a pedestrian refuge in the median and
there is a call button out there.
Q: CR: So there are no pedestrian call buttons?
A: GM: No, there are pedestrian call buttons.
Q: CR: So if I press the button, it doesn’t change what happens, it just indicates to the signal that there is a
pedestrian there?
A: GM: Generally yes. There is a leading interval for the pedestrians so they get a few seconds head start. It
changes the signal’s phasing a little bit, but it’s not like some other areas you may have seen where you push
the button and everybody stops for 45 seconds while the pedestrians can cross any way they like. It’s not set
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up that way and it’s really not the way the City of Boston is designing signals any more. The concurrent
phasing is more efficient and gives the pedestrians more opportunities to cross more frequently rather than
giving a more occasional, but larger block of time.
Q: Julie Crockford (JC): Will you accommodate blind people with sound signals?
A: GM: Yes. Everything is going to be fully accessible with compliant signals and tactile strips at the crosswalks.
Q: JC: Will that be true of all the crosswalks in the project?
A: GM: Yes and really this project is a huge improvement in terms of pedestrians. There are more crosswalks,
better pedestrian signals, clearer pathways and the old trolley tracks will be extracted from the intersections.
Q: JC: So people who live in Stony Brook will be able to go to the Dogwood?
A: GM: Yes, that’s right. Today the walking pathways really funnel them away from their destination and
towards the mid-block crosswalk from which they have to backtrack towards the Dogwood.
Q: David Wean (DW): So these are concurrent pedestrian crossings?
A: GM: Right, but the pedestrians have that leading interval to give them a head start.
Q: CR: Where will the first stop be for the Route 39 bus going north and south?
A: GM: The closest stop to Forest Hills right now is Saint Marks, but that’s being removed under the Route 39
improvements. We’ve spoke with the MBTA and if under this new arrangement there’s a need and desire for
it to come back, they would entertain reopening it.
Q: CR: Is there a way to allow MBTA customers to use the head-house to get to the buses from the head-house
along the Orange Line platform? I think they do something like that at North Station.
A: MT: If you use a link pass I guess you could do it and not pay the fare, but setting up something that would
allow people to have access to a paid area of the platform and then come up again for the buses, it’s not
something we can really address and I don’t think the MBTA has technology to do that.
A: GM: There is sort of a walkway like what you’re describing at North Station, but not to many people use it and
generally we find people like to stay on one level rather than making multiple climbs. I think there would be a
lot of complications with people jumping the fare.
Q: CR: How many vehicles travel this roadway at rush hour?
A: GM: It’s about 2,100 cars total. That’s counting both directions. We’ve got it more precise than that, but
that’s a good estimate from memory.
Q: CR: And how many traffic lights is it from end to end?
A: GM: Let’s go east to west. There’s Cemetery Road, an existing signal, but which gets upgraded with new
roadway geometry and signal equipment. Then there’s the signal at Shea Square, that’s new, then you pass
through the eastern media U-turn, you might stop there. Then there’s Washington Street and South Street.
Both of those exist today, but this design changes the geometry and upgrades the signals. Then you exit the
corridor at the western median U-turn which doesn’t stop you unless there’s a pedestrian there. The median
U-turn signals are only two phase signals so they are quite efficient.
Q: CR: And what study do you have that makes you think this will work?
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A: MT: We’re not going into that here. We have reams of data on that and will gladly talk you through them
after the meeting.
Q: GZ: You mentioned the head-house roof design?
A: MT: I’m sorry George, that’s the one team member I don’t have tonight.
A: JK: I can do this one: we’re going with a curved roof instead of flat.
Construction Period
C: MT: That’s about it on major changes. The final item I want to touch on this evening as we approach our
appointed end-of-meeting time is what happens after tonight and how the project moves into construction.
We are advertising in January 2014 and expect to give NTP in May that year. By no means does the
conclusion of this process mean the end of the public involvement effort associated with Casey. Before I get
into that, I want Paul to touch on how construction is sequenced and what the community can expect.
C: PG: Very quickly and briefly, this is a 29 month project. It will kick off in May 2014 and have 7 stages of
construction. The first two are what we call micro stages, each about a month long, which address the
creation of a temporary road on the north side of the corridor which gives us room to begin demolishing the
bridge. Stage 1, after the first two micro stages, is the beginning of demolishing the bridge. We begin by
taking down the westbound side of the bridge, followed by the eastbound side. The end of 2014, the bridge
is out of service. By the time 2014 is rolling into 2015, there will be a decent portion of the demolition done
and we’ll be heading stage 3 with the at-grade roadway going into construction. Some bridge will still be
coming down in 2015. We expect the bridge would come down beginning at either end and working towards
the center because that’s how we believe the contractor can best bring the bridge down and maintain access
for all modes. The project will be substantially complete in July 2016 with clean-up ongoing through to
September. You’ll be able to drive on it by July of 2016. There’s a lot of detail behind this and I’ll walk
anyone who wants to through it off line after the meeting. 11
C: MT: So that’s how long the job will take, but this is not the end of the outreach process. One of the specific
things we directed Paul to do was include a specification in the contract documents to have a dedicated
community liaison between the contractor, DOT and the community so we’ll have a public involvement
trifecta: one with the contractor, one person at 10 Park Plaza and one resident engineer on site. They will all
be front line in terms of interactions with the community.
So, the next time you’ll see a major DOT meeting would be with a contractor in the room a month or so after
issuing NTP, that’d be sometime next summer. There will be a bit of a quiet period. We’re all still working on
this, but our role in terms of community involvement is shifting towards dealing with construction, traffic
diversions, traffic patterns and that sort of thing. The contractor needs to have a public involvement plan
within 30 days of receiving the job and that will be before they get NTP. That plan gets submitted to DOT for
review and approval. The contractor will do periodic public update meetings. They get 45 days from NTP to
their first meeting.
Q: MR: So could we have trucks the day after NTP?
A: MT: Definitely not. The resident engineer won’t let that happen. The contractor will be asked to allow site
tours for interested groups, I’ve done a few personally and the tractor will need to publish a newsletter and
give notice of any utility changes. I expect plenty of regular public information meetings.
11
For a graphic representation of the simplified schedule provided here, please see Appendix 3.
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C: MR: Every two weeks! Construction meetings should be every two weeks until we’re confident as a community
that things are going O.K. I’m asking for every two weeks.
A: SM: We’ve agreed to regular meetings; I’m not committing to every two weeks.
Q: MR: Can we start there and extend it as people get comfortable? That’s what we did with the Southwest
Corridor and it was not onerous.
A: SM: Again, I won’t commit right here, but I’ll look into it.
Q: MR: Will local police be present at these meetings?
A: MT: Sure, I think that’s easy enough to arrange. In terms of people who will replace me, we will have a
dedicated person with the contractor, a resident engineer with full control over the site and someone at
headquarters downtown. That’s 3 times what you have today. Once this information is all fully laid out, we’ll
post it to the website.
Q: Clay Harper (CH): Will you roll out the 100% vision to the local public and media beyond this room?
A: MT: We do not have plans that go beyond our usual methods. This is our final public meeting for the design
process. I will put up these graphics and the minutes on the website and let you know when they are up. This
graphic is really excellent because when you look at Google Earth is five years; this is what you will see.
Q: CR: Have you ever addressed Arboretum Parking?
A: MT: All of that parking along the Arborway will stay. That’s beyond our limits of work. We don’t make any
changes west of the Arboretum’s Forest Hills Gate.
Q: CR: What about east of the gate?
A: SM: Nobody should be parking there, that’s the ramp.
Q: BD: I want to thank this young lady for bringing up the issue of parking. I want to bring up the issue that you
are introducing buses onto the Arborway. If they have a problem here, they will just continue down to Murray
Circle and they will start doing that all the time unless you have very active enforcement. The apron invites
trucks to turn here: what provisions have you made to avoid queuing so that a truck making the turn won’t
back traffic up across the intersection to Washington Street?
A: GM: A truck will take a little longer to clear, but the signal timings account for a percentage of trucks. It’s not
a problem we foresee.
Q: BD: Do you have any way of knowing about future trucking needs in Allston, Brighton, Mattapan or
Dorchester?
A: GM: This is a very limited trucking movement. I cannot say there will only ever be six trucks, but given the
roadway network, land-use patterns, and that I do not expect a major trucking concern to pop up on Asticou
Road, this will stay a limited trucking movement. BTD will control these signals and will be able to make
adjustments if they are appropriate.
C: BD: They control them now and they are awful.
A: GM: Which is why we are replacing them; as you know, those signals are around 20 years old.
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Q: MR: Can you give us a better idea of where the existing bus-way is, its length and width and how much it is
growing?
A: PG: The bus-way exits opposite South Street under current conditions. We are moving further south. It will be
about 50% longer than it is today.
Q: MR: And how much wider is it?
A: PG: It’s about 10-12 feet wider.
Q: MR: To the east of that space is dedicated MBTA parking. I don’t see that in the future design. Where does it
go?
A: PG: Over to Arborway Yard.
Q: MR: And what about during construction?
A: PG: We can move it the moment we need to do so.
Q: MR: And we’re all happy with it, but taking that away from a unionized MBTA worker could be harder to
deliver than you think. Can you promise they won’t start parking in the snow storage area or layover lanes?
A: PG: I cannot and do not speak for the MBTA, but they are aware of this and understand they have to move.
Q: MR: Great! Wonderful! O.K. that was one question and this is all very nice and looking good. The MBTA
plaza is supposed to be part of the Emerald Necklace and we have MBTA police vehicles parking in a
pedestrian location which I don’t see designated at that spot now. You are not planning it appears for the
MBTA police to return. When do they vanish?
A: MT: We have designated curbside spaces for the MBTA transit police.
C: MR: Yay! That’s excellent.
A: MT: About eight months ago I got in a really sticky spot between the MBTA and their transit police who you
might not know are not quite the same agency and don’t always fall in line with each other, but we spoke with
the MBTA and they helped us out. We formalized this all by giving them some dedicated spaces.
Q: MR: Can we ramp it up and encourage them a little more? The police substation in Forest Hills is useful. It
was supposed to be neighborhood policing and it isn’t. You can’t visit them there and they don’t answer the
door. Can we put something in writing or have super high curb cuts or spikes in the parkland?
A: PG: One big advantage here is the plaza design. The current plaza invites you to drive onto it. My sense is
that with the new bicycle and pedestrian pathways, it will be a lot less attractive for driving
Q: MR: One thing that is not neighborhood friendly are all the street names: Washington Street is in two places
connected by New Washington Street and of course there’s history behind that, but can we come up with
useable names?
A: MT: You should take that one up with BTD.
C: MR: I would vote for Davey Way, McLaughlin Boulevard and Doherty Drive.
A: MT: We have three years before anyone has to make the final signs. Let me get to Sarah as we’re close to
time here.
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C: SF: Mike Halle had to leave, but he wanted to make a comment and then I have a comment. From Michael
Halle, there are three things that 99% of us all seem to agree on: one, the bridge must come down… 12
C: JM: I don’t believe that.
C: BD: We don’t feel that is true.
C: JM: That is not true!
C: SF: Most have said the bridge is crumbling, that residents must be protected during demolition and
construction and that when construction begins it should be as painless as possible. My own thoughts are
unscripted. I’m still trying to wrap my head around this as the last meeting. Maybe I take this process to
heart more than I should because the bulk of the work is on the Arborway and I represent the Arborway
Coalition. I appreciate the time you have spent on this and I’m sorry we haven’t all jelled around what I think
is a really positive vision. We’ll have to think about how we make our relationship to each other work. We’ll
see each other on Centre Street and the bicycle path and this shouldn’t be a civil war. In that spirit we have a
thing called the Arborway Award. Jerry Wright got one when he did the first Olmsted play and when
Christine Cooper retired from the boathouse she got one, and Jeffrey Sanchez got one for being such a help
with the Arborway Hillside most recently with the tree grant as did Sue Pfeiffer from the Arboretum and Allison
Yost from Olmsted 2022. So, the Arborway, the one thing we have a lot of is oak trees and they have acorns.
To thank you for doing this, we present you with the Acorn Award. I feel like I’m at the Academy Awards;
thank you for humoring me. Whenever you recognize someone, you leave someone out and I realize I
already left out the landscape design firm, but what this little card says is “Protecting Olmsted’s Vision – Acorn
Award, to MassDOT, HNTB, Howard/Stein-Hudson, the WAG and the DAG members.” All of you who have
spent so many hours putting your vision forward like Michael Halle.
A: MT: Thank you Sarah, this means a lot to us.
C: SF: Oh and most important the little container is chipped and I thought at first I’d better find something nicer,
but it’s a nice symbol because we accept our limitations and do the best we can. 13
C: CR: I have a question.
A: MT: We’re really pretty much done here. Please see me after the meeting.
Q: CR: No, I want my answer now, here in front of the group. I want to know why you guys never considered a
4-lane bridge for the area.
A: MT: Actually, that really is appropriate to speak about off-line. That was decided in a year’s worth of process
between March 2011 and March 2012. That’s the first year of this process. It’s been covered in detail. It’s
all on the website, but I’ll stay as long as you like to discuss it. Good night everyone.
Next Steps
The work of the DAG is now at an end. As noted in the introduction to these minutes, the membership of the
group, particularly those who began their efforts on it with the WAG in 2011, are thanked for their service by both
MassDOT and its project team. As the design phase transitions towards the construction period, MassDOT
reminds residents that briefings to specific community groups are still available particularly to address issues of
traffic calming during construction and construction management.
12
13
Here Sarah Freeman was interrupted by Jessica Mink and Bernard Doherty.
Sarah Freeman’s presentation received significant applause.
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The end of the design phase public involvement process is by no means the end of outreach for the job. During
the construction period there will be an outreach process similar to those associated with other MassDOT megaprojects such as the Fore River and Kenneth F. Burns Memorial Bridge replacement projects. This new process will
include, but not be limited to, web, email and print-based updates on major project milestones particularly those
with traffic impacts, regular community updates in the form of public information meetings and briefings to
individual stakeholder groups. Both MassDOT and the contractor team will provide a public involvement liaison
to the job.
The process regarding Shea Circle is also ongoing. The shifting of the advertisement date to January, 2014 will
allow this process to play out fully and without undue constraint due to time pressures. Materials from the project
team regarding the questions posed at in August, 2013 coordination meeting have been submitted as of
November, 2013 and are under consideration by the MHC. Any community member seeking to become
involved in this aspect of the project should contact the MHC directly.
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Appendix 1: Attendees
First Name
Last Name
Affiliation
Alice
Bill
Wayne
Bruce
Nina
Nathaniel
Heather
Patricia
Todd
Julie
Deneen
Bernard
Kim
Dottie
Jeffrey
Sarah
Paul
Michael
Melissa
John
Clay
Mary
Kevin
Russell
Stephanie
Mark
Jonathan
Jonathan
Deanna
Linda
Anne
Steve
Gary
Tom
Jessica
Kevin
Mark
Rebeca
Essek
Peg
M.
Michael
Bill
Joan
Steve
Stephanie
Rosella
Gail
Mark
Robert
Michael
Alexander
Allan
Beitler
Blaisdell
Brown
Cabral-Curtis
Carrito
Clifford
Consentino
Crockford
Crosby
Doherty
Everett
Farrell
Ferris
Freeman
Godfrey
Halle
Hamel
Hanifin
Harper
Hickie
Hollenbeck
Holmes
Janey
Johnston
Kapust
Kapust
Keene
Lally
McKinnon
McLaughlin
McNaughton
Menihan
Mink
Moloney
Navin
Oleveira
Petrie
Preble
Regan
Reiskind
Reyelt
Robinson
Schneider
Shull
Solis
Sullivan
Tedrow
Torres
Trepanier
Community resident
Community resident
Community resident
Community resident
DAG
Howard/Stein-Hudson
Community resident
Community resident
DAG
Emerald Necklace Conservancy
CSS
DAG
Community resident
DAG
Community resident
DAG
HNTB
DAG
Community resident
Community resident
Community resident
DAG
DCR
State Representative
Community resident
Community resident
HNTB
HNTB
Community resident
MBTA
[For Elizabeth Wylie]
MassDOT
McMahon Associates
Community resident
DAG
DAG
DAG
Jamaica Plain Gazette
HNTB
Community resident
Community resident
DAG
DAG
Community resident
DAG
Community resident
Community resident
DAG
Community resident
Office of Representative Malia
MassDOT
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Karen
Wendy
Fred
Wepsic
Williams
Wolflink
DAG
Community resident
Community resident
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Appendix 2: Meeting Materials
The following pages provide images of the materials used with the DAG during the meeting summarized herein.
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Appendix 3: Project Schedule
The following page provides a simplified construction graphic which corresponds to the project schedule discussed
earlier in this document.
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Casey - Construction Schedule (DRAFT)
Task
Notice of Proceed (NTP)
Milestone 1 - Completion of Temporary Roadway
Relocate Route 39 Bus to Upper Bus-way
Complete EB and WB temporary roadways
Shift traffic to temporary roadways
Milestone 2 - Substantial Completion
Bridge demolished
Upper Bus-way completed
Headhouse completed
Arborway EB and WB completed
Shea Square completed
Milestone 3 - Project Complete
Complete landscape and park areas
Complete bicycle paths and sidewalks
Final pavings and markings
Anticipated
Date
5/15/2014
12/1/2014
8/9/2016
9/30/2016
2014
1
2
X
X
3
4
X
X
X
1
2015
2
3
4
1
2
3
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
2016
X
4
X
Howard/Stein-Hudson Associates, Inc.
Appendix 4: Email from Kevin Moloney
The following email was received from Kevin Moloney regarding his exchange with Project Manager Steve
McLaughlin.
From: kevin moloney
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 02:38 PM
To: DePaola, Frank (DOT)
Cc: McLaughlin, Steve (DOT); Trepanier, Michael (DOT)
Subject: A key exchange between MassDOT's Steve McLaughlin and me was left out of the MassDOT Notes for
the November 19, 2013, Casey Overpass DAG meeting, and....
Mr. DePaola:
A key exchange between MassDOT's Steve McLaughlin and me was left out of the
MassDOT Notes for the November 19, 2013, Casey Overpass DAG meeting, with the
result that what is in the MassDOT Notes re: project funding at that meeting is not correct.
Contrary to what the MassDOT Notes state, and based not only upon my own
recollection of what he and I said at the time but also on the notes taken at the time by
another attendee at that DAG meeting, Mr. McLaughlin did not mention "repurposing" of
any funds at this meeting. In fact, what he and I said to each other on this subject was as
follows:
Moloney: Does your schedule assume MHC blesses
the plan? And two, on the funding of the
non-bridge elements, is there a legal barrier
and where is the money coming from?
McLaughlin: The project cost is $59 million. Funding
is coming from the Accelerated Bridge
Program and the recent Way Forward
bond bill—$25 million.
Moloney: Why?
McLaughlin: It’s an accounting issue.
Moloney: Why are you using another source?
McLaughlin: What difference does it make? We have
the money.
Moloney: Why?
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McLaughlin: So we can go beyond the 2016 deadline.
The reason given was "so we can go beyond the 2016 deadline" not "repurposing."
Please have the MassDOT Notes for this November 19, 2013, DAG meeting
corrected to include the above exchange between Mr. McLaughlin and me and have the
corrected edition published on the MassDOT website.
Thank you.
Kevin F. Moloney
20 Rambler Road
Jamaica Plain
Massachusetts 02130-3428
Tel.: 6
e-mail: k
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