PUBLIC HEARING THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2011 AT 6:30 P.M. AT STONEHAM TOWN HALL AUDITORIUM 35 CENTRAL STREET STONEHAM, MA 02180 TO DISCUSS
CITY OF BOSTON’S PROPOSED
NON­RADIOACTIVE HAZARDOUS MATERIAL ROUTE
IN BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
HIGHWAY DIVISION
FRANK A. DEPAOLA, P.E.
HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATOR
THOMAS F. BRODERICK, P.E.
ACTING CHIEF ENGINEER
Arlington Reporting Company
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2 PRESENTERS & OFFICIALS
Thomas F. Broderick, P.E., Acting Chief Engineer, MassDOT Richard Wilson, Manager of Traffic Regulations and Agreements Administration, MassDOT Donny Dailey, Public Affairs, MassDOT Arthur Greenberg, Battelle Memorial Institute Charles D. Rennick, Esq., Legal Counsel Thomas Tinlin, Commissioner, Boston Transportation Department Ken Donnelly, State Senator Jason Lewis, State Representative Katherine Clark, State Senator Scott Galvin, Mayor of Woburn Paul Tortolano, Fire Chief, City of Woburn Mike Raymond, Alderman, City of Woburn Camille Anthony, Board of Selectmen, Town of Reading Richard Bongiorno, Police Chief, Town of Stoneham Police Sergeant Richard Carroll, City of Medford SPEAKER INDEX Name Page Thomas Broderick, MassDOT, 5, 18, 34, 39, 42, Acting Chief Engineer 45, 48, 54, 57, 60, 68, 74, 77, 79 Arthur Greenberg, 9, 10 Battelle Memorial Institute Thomas Tinlin, Commissioner, 18 Boston Transportation Department Donny Dailey, MassDOT, 35, 39, 42, 45, 48, Public Affairs 50, 53, 54, 57, 60, 62, 68, 74, 77, 79 Arlington Reporting Company
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3 SPEAKER INDEX Ken Donnelly, State Senator Jason Lewis, State Representative Katherine Clark, State Senator Scott Galvin, Mayor of Woburn Paul Tortolano, Fire Chief, City of Woburn Joe Demers, Office of State Representative James Dwyer Mike Raymond, Alderman, City of Woburn Camille Anthony, Alderman, Town of Reading Richard Bongiorno, Police Chief, Town of Stoneham Police Sergeant Richard Carroll, City of Medford Frinette Field Bill Shawnessy, Mutual Oil John Hamel, J&S Transport Company Page 35 39 42 45 46 48 50 53 54 57 60 62 68 Arlington Reporting Company
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4 SPEAKER INDEX Name Bill Hinchcliffe Mark Molloy, General Counsel, Massachusetts Motor Transportation Association EXHIBITS Description Notice of Public Hearing/Brochure Sign­In Sheet Page 74 77 Page 78 79­83 Arlington Reporting Company
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5 1 P R O C E E D I N G S THOMAS BRODERICK: I’d like to ask 2 3 everybody to take their seats and we’ll get the 4 hearing started. Good evening. I’m Tom Broderick, the 5 6 Acting Chief Engineer for MassDOT. And I’m joined 7 tonight by Richard Wilson from our Traffic Section, 8 our Regulations Unit, to my right. And, to my left is 9 Charles Rennick, from our legal department to our 10 left. And, also at the table is Art Greenberg from 11 Battelle Memorial Institute. Battelle Institute was 12 the consultant that prepared the hazmat study. 13 They’re also here to provide the brief summary of the 14 report and its findings in compliance with the federal 15 regulations. 16 This is the fourth of four hearings 17 that we’re having on this issue. Some background on 18 why we’re here today. Following the 2009 decision by 19 the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the 20 City of Boston was required to conduct a risk analysis 21 subject to federal routing criteria, evaluating 22 alternative hazmat routes through the City. The City 23 of Boston engaged the services of Battelle Memorial 24 Institute to perform that risk analysis, which Arlington Reporting Company
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6 1 examined a number of routes in consultation with 2 MassDOT, which ultimately concluded that the existing 3 route through the downtown area of Boston is 4 significantly higher in risk than travel on the 5 beltway around Route 128. MassDOT conducted technical reviews on 6 7 the report’s risk assessments, and we requested 8 additional information to ensue that proper procedures 9 and consistent methodologies were employed to assess 10 the risks. Those comments and responses are located 11 on our website. In accordance with the federal 12 13 regulatory process, we are here today to provide the 14 public and interested parties with the opportunity to 15 provide their comments and testimony on the proposed 16 hazardous material routing designation that came about 17 as a result of the risk analysis performed by 18 Battelle. 19 Under the proposed route, hazmat 20 vehicles would be prohibited from using the downtown 21 area of the City of Boston for the through 22 transportation of hazardous materials. Hazmat 23 deliveries with a point of origin or destination 24 within the downtown area would still be permitted Arlington Reporting Company
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7 1 provided the motor carrier receives the required 2 permits. 3 Route 128 would be designated as the 4 preferred through route over which hazmat approaching 5 the City would be transported. 6 Under federal law, MassDOT is the state 7 routing agency with responsibility for ensuring that 8 all hazmat routing designations comply with the 9 federal routing standards. MassDOT must resolve any 10 conflicts among hazardous materials routes and approve 11 all hazardous material routing designations under 12 these federal regulations. 13 Federal routing standards include, 14 among others, population density, type of highway, 15 types of hazardous material, emergency response 16 capabilities, consultation with affected persons, 17 proximity to schools, hospitals, playgrounds, and 18 other sensitive areas, terrain considerations, 19 continuity of routes, alternative routes, affects on 20 commerce, delays in transportation, climatic 21 considerations, congestion, and accident history. 22 I’d like to remind everyone to try and 23 keep their comments brief so that everybody who wishes 24 to participate has an opportunity to speak. We did Arlington Reporting Company
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8 1 have a sign­up sheet for anybody wishing to speak. 2 When you came in, we also had comment sheets as well 3 as the official hearing notice. We will be accepting 4 comments up to 10 days after the public hearing. 5 Anything presented for materials tonight would also be 6 included into the official record. 7 We do have a stenographer here with us 8 tonight so this meeting is being recorded. All the 9 information and the transcripts from the hearing will 10 11 also be put on our website upon completion. Copies of the report, the federal 12 routing standards, frequently answered questions, and 13 other relevant information are available through the 14 MassDOT website right now. If you have any questions, 15 please submit them the comment sheets and we will 16 respond accordingly. 17 The format for tonight’s hearing will 18 be for MassDOT to solicit testimony. Responses to 19 comments will be grouped by topic and responded to 20 through our website. There are a number of frequently 21 asked questions already displayed on the website, and 22 we will be adding to that list as the hearings 23 complete and wrap up and we start putting things on in 24 response to the comments. Arlington Reporting Company
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9 1 After receipt of all comments and an 2 evaluation of the analysis, any new routing 3 information presented for review relative to the risk 4 assessments that may alter the initial determination, 5 MassDOT will inform the Federal Motor Carriers of the 6 final preferred routing. 7 Thank you again for being here to 8 present testimony this evening. The format that we 9 have, we’ll commence with a little bit of the 10 background and history on how we got here. Battelle 11 Institute will provide an overview of what was taken 12 into consideration, what they did when they performed 13 their risk analysis, and then the City of Boston 14 representative, Commissioner Tinlin, will present a 15 little bit of the history on how they got here and 16 what’s been done through the City that got us to the 17 point that we’re at today. And then we’re going to 18 open it up to the comment period, which will be 19 through elected officials as first speakers, and then 20 other speakers as they’ve signed up. 21 So, with that, I’d like to turn it over 22 to Arthur Greenberg who has a few remarks regarding 23 the hazmat evaluation that was undertaken. 24 ARTHUR GREENBERG: Okay. Thanks, Tom. Arlington Reporting Company
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10 As Tom mentioned, Battelle did the 1 2 analysis for the City. And the methodology we used is 3 found in guidance that are really part of the 4 regulations. It’s called DOT Guidelines ­­ or I 5 should say, Guidelines for Applying Criteria to 6 Designated Routes for Transport of Hazardous 7 Materials. 8 9 10 11 12 AUDIENCE: I’m sorry. We’re having an awfully hard time hearing you. ARTHUR GREENBERG: Okay. That’s better? Okay. So, just to go back and repeat what I 13 said, what I was saying is, as Tom mentioned, when 14 Battelle did this analysis, we followed the 15 regulations, the Department of Transportation 16 Regulations. And, specifically, under the 17 regulations, it required us to follow guidelines ­­ I 18 mean it’s actually a document. You can look it up. 19 It’s called Guidelines for Applying Criteria to 20 Designated Routes for the Transport of Hazardous 21 Materials. And so we followed that. And we didn’t ­­ 22 so the point is that we didn’t make up our own 23 methodology. We followed something that’s a tried and 24 true methodology. Arlington Reporting Company
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11 And, as Tom mentioned, we actually 1 2 looked at the factors, and he listed those, the 3 factors like population density, type of highway. And 4 so we looked at these 13 factors that were mentioned. 5 And we sought to obtain the best quantitative data 6 available for each of those 13 factors. And that’s 7 what we worked to do for the analysis. Battelle was actually very fortunate 8 9 that it had a lot of cooperation from a number of 10 agencies, especially from, as Tom mentioned, Mass. 11 Census, DOT, State Police, the Mass. GIS, Geographic 12 Information System, the CTPS, the Central 13 Transportation Planning Staff. We had a lot of 14 cooperation from the various agencies in the City of 15 Boston, including the fire department, the police 16 department, the transportation department, among 17 others. And, we also were really quite engaged with 18 UMassSAFE, which is an interdisciplinary organization 19 within the University of Massachusetts. It’s within 20 the University of Massachusetts and it’s designed to 21 research transportation safety. We worked closely 22 with them. 23 24 So, in order to select the alternative routes that we looked at, and when we compared it to Arlington Reporting Company
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12 1 the risk of the existing through routes or various 2 alternatives, we had cooperation from some of the 3 stakeholders, including the North End/Waterfront 4 HazMat Task Force, the Massachusetts Motor 5 Transportation Association, and many government 6 agencies, including the Massachusetts DOT who played 7 this role. And we ended up with a total of 18 routes 8 being evaluated. And you can see that in the report. 9 The key data that we needed for a risk 10 assessment included, you know, things that were really 11 critical. One was the truck accident rates. So, we 12 needed data on the accident rates for large trucks. 13 For population, we needed data for population within a 14 half mile on either side of the routes. And we also 15 needed to know what kind of hazardous material was 16 actually moving through these areas. 17 In order to get the accident rates, we 18 used the contact with the University of Massachusetts 19 UMassSAFE. And they actually developed the accident 20 rates for us. That’s a key piece of data. Battelle 21 supplied them with the truck flows, the truck 22 movements. We had that data from some of the work 23 that we did. But the University of Massachusetts, or 24 UMassSAFE, they work very closely with the State Arlington Reporting Company
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13 1 Police and they had accident data that they analyzed, 2 and we used that. And they actually, they gave us 3 accident rates, truck accident rates, by road 4 functional class. We used the ones for urbanized 5 areas. 6 The population along the routes is key. 7 We put this ­­ if any of you are familiar with it ­­ 8 into the GIS format so that we put it along both sides 9 of the route, within half a mile on either side. And 10 we used Census data for the residential population, 11 and also the employment population. We had CTPS 12 supply the data. We also, in addition to the 13 residents and the workers, the employment, we also got 14 the estimated populations for hotels, hospitals, 15 nursing homes, schools, and we also ­­ we used the 16 visitor information from the National Park Service, 17 which is, you know, they would handle a major chunk of 18 visitors in the region. And at the request of DOT, we 19 also looked at visitors or shoppers to the major malls 20 in the region. So we even looked at that after we had 21 completed the analysis. 22 In order to identify the types of 23 hazardous materials moving through the area, we had, 24 again, a number of different sources. There wasn’t Arlington Reporting Company
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14 1 any single source that would tell us what was moving 2 through the area. One source we used were actual 3 crash data for hazardous material spills. And then, 4 obviously, if a material spills, then you know a 5 certain truck is moving through the area. We used 6 permit application data from the Boston Fire 7 Department, which gives you information about the kind 8 of materials and where trucks might be going. We had 9 inspection records from the Boston Police Department. 10 We sent out something like 1,200 questionnaires, 11 primarily to carriers, but some others such as 12 shippers, in Boston region, so going out to find out 13 what kind of hazmat they were moving and where they 14 were going. And, we also, the U.S. Bureau of Census 15 does a Hazardous Material Commodity Flow Survey. And 16 we requested from the Bureau of Census that they do a 17 special run for us for the Boston region, which we 18 have. And our conclusion from these various sources 19 was that predominantly, and over 90 percent of the 20 shipments, are Class 3, or actually a flammable liquid 21 such as gasoline. So this accounts for most 22 everything. 23 24 The analysis we did, the risk analysis, really looked at the relative risk to the public Arlington Reporting Company
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15 1 safety for transporting hazardous materials. And so 2 what you’re really looking at is the risk, which 3 represents the probability of an accident, or you 4 might have a spill, times the consequence ­­ times the 5 consequence of that spill. So the formula ­­ in other 6 words, you know, everyone says what is the risk of 7 people endangered or people being perhaps even killed 8 by a hazardous material incident. And the formula we 9 used was risk equals accident rates times number of 10 people adjacent to the routes. And, once again, in 11 the report you can ­­ if you’re interested you can see 12 about this. The through routing risk criteria 13 14 states that if, when you’re doing the analysis, the 15 current route presents at least 50 percent more risk 16 to the public than deviation, the other route that 17 you’re looking at, then that deviation, or that other 18 route, should be designated as the route to do this. 19 So, another way of looking at that is just more than 20 50 percent greater risk means we pick the one with the 21 less risk. 22 When we looked at ­­ when we compared 23 the route that shows up on this map from Everett and 24 Quincy, we compared that with the route that goes all Arlington Reporting Company
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16 1 the way round 128, we found that for the daytime 2 there’s actually, going through Boston on that route 3 and out to Quincy represents four times the risk. At 4 night, it’s approximately two times the risk. So, we 5 broke it down. We broke the population down to day 6 and night. 7 We also looked at other factors besides 8 the risk to the actual population. We looked at 9 emergency response capabilities. We looked at 10 environmental impacts and consequences, and, also, 11 burden on commerce. And, for the emergency response, 12 what we concluded was that the emergency response 13 capabilities, so both in the City and around the 14 communities and areas, we judged that to be adequate 15 to handle a hazmat incident. 16 The environmental risk, we did an 17 analysis of that. And although important, and I don’t 18 want to minimize it, we judged that to be secondary to 19 the risk of population. 20 And the burden on commerce, we 21 actually, we judged that to be really reasonable if 22 that Route 128 was selected compared to going from 23 Everett to Quincy. 24 So, I guess what I’m saying is that Arlington Reporting Company
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17 1 factors besides risk to the population, such as 2 emergency response, risk to sensitive environments, 3 other things like climate, burden on commerce, while 4 worthy of consideration, they would not change any 5 route recommendations based on public risk, which 6 really comes down to following the guidance. It’s 7 really more important. 8 So, what we concluded in our report 9 was, and based on this analysis and risk evaluation, 10 because there is a risk ratio four to one during the 11 day, that there’s really ample justification to 12 restrict daytime through hazmat shipments through 13 Boston. At night, even though there is not as great a 14 difference in risk between going through the City as 15 opposed to going around, it’s still ­­ it’s still more 16 than ­­ the risk is greater than the 50 percent limit. 17 And so we also recommend restricting through hazmat 18 traffic at night. 19 I might add that in our analysis, there 20 was really nothing in our analysis to say that any 21 hazmat local deliveries, deliveries within the City of 22 Boston, of especially gasoline, should be restricted 23 beyond the current restriction based on the Boston 24 City Ordinance. So, we definitely say there shouldn’t Arlington Reporting Company
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18 1 be further restrictions to local shipments. And that concludes my brief summary of 2 3 what we did for the analysis. 4 THOMAS BRODERICK: Thank you, Art. 5 Now, I’d like to ask Commissioner 6 Thomas Tinlin from the Boston Transportation 7 Department to come up and give the history, an 8 overview of the facts and information that got us here 9 to this point that we’re at right now relative to the 10 routing hearings and to provide some comments on 11 behalf of the Mayor. THOMAS TINLIN: Thank you, Tom. Thank 12 13 you, Art, for the brief non­specific portion of the 14 Battelle report. For the record, my name is Tom Tinlin. 15 16 I’m here to give testimony on behalf of Mayor Tom 17 Menino. 18 For folks who have been following this 19 process, let me apologize in advance. This will be 20 the fourth time that you’ve heard most of this 21 testimony. It is a little bit different at the end. 22 But the Mayor, Mayor Menino, feels it’s important for 23 folks to understand how it is that we got to this 24 point. This was not a desire of the City to reroute Arlington Reporting Company
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19 1 hazmat traffic onto 128. It was a desire to make the 2 City of Boston local street surface more safe. And 3 the federal government issued a preemption 4 determination, which we’ll get into, that ordered the 5 City, in order to create a safer environment, which we 6 had always believed we had the right to do with local 7 ordinance and regulation, to go through this process. 8 First, I’d like to recognize the City 9 of Boston team who has been working on this now for 10 these many years. We have the Fire Marshal for the 11 City of Boston, Frank Kodzis. We have the 12 Superintendent for the Boston Police, Bill Evans; 13 District Fire Chief, Bart Shea; Corporation Counsel, 14 Henry Luthin; and outside counsel, Charles Dyer. 15 16 Again, I’m here to provide testimony on behalf of Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino. 17 This testimony will lay out the City of 18 Boston’s public safety decision to seek and propose an 19 alternative highway route for the transportation of 20 hazardous materials to bypass the downtown portion of 21 the City of Boston when neither the pick­up nor drop­
22 off location for the cargo is located in the City. 23 24 We all remember how the events of 9/11 how horrified and shocked the world. At that time, Arlington Reporting Company
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20 1 governments around the globe began a determined effort 2 to ensure the safest environment possible for all who 3 live, work, and visit their cities. As a massive 4 undertaking began to harden targets of opportunity 5 against terrorist attacks, simultaneously, an equally 6 important effort was underway to identify and mitigate 7 everyday hazards in our cities that also posed a very 8 real risk to life, property, and economic vitality. 9 The City of Boston participated in this 10 self­review along with almost every major city in the 11 country. One issue that stood out immediately was the 12 transport of hazardous materials through the City of 13 Boston, with hazmat cargo trucks using downtown 14 streets as a shortcut for the sake of profit and 15 convenience for the trucking industry. 16 The completion of the Central 17 Artery/Tunnel Project and the depression of the 18 elevated John F. Fitzgerald Expressway and I­93 19 corridor in downtown Boston, which previously served 20 as the designated hazardous materials route, 21 transformed this roadway into a tunnel from which 22 hazardous materials are excluded. As a result, those 23 hazardous material trucks that were once confined to 24 the interstate highway system were now re­routed to Arlington Reporting Company
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21 1 surface streets in downtown Boston neighborhoods, 2 bringing these hazmat cargoes into much closer 3 proximity to the general population on and adjacent to 4 these public ways. 5 For many years, the Boston Fire 6 Department, under City regulations established in 7 1980, had regulated the transportation of certain 8 quantities of hazardous materials on our roadways and 9 had issued what were known as “cut through” permits to 10 the trucking industry, allowing them through access on 11 City streets where there was neither a point of origin 12 nor destination. 13 It is important to remember that these 14 permits were granted by the City purely as a 15 convenience measure for the trucking industry, not as 16 a right. In point of fact, the permits were granted 17 by the Fire Commissioner for the specific purpose of 18 authorizing these motor carriers to operate on City 19 streets in exception to the otherwise applicable 20 restrictions contained in the City’s regulations, but 21 only where “a compelling need” was shown by a company 22 and where the transporting of hazardous materials was 23 found to be “in the public interest.” 24 It became clear that if these carriers Arlington Reporting Company
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22 1 were not dropping­off or picking­up cargo in Boston, 2 then they were not meeting the compelling need nor the 3 public interest of the City. The risk of having them 4 on our streets in the densely populated downtown area 5 was too great. We welcome, and continue to welcome, 6 local deliveries by trucks carrying hazardous 7 materials necessary for the daily operation of the 8 multitude of public and private buildings located 9 within Boston. However, continuing to accept the 10 extra burden from cut­through vehicles, with no 11 business purpose for being in the City other than 12 operating convenience, presented an unreasonable risk 13 to the general public when safer routing alternatives 14 are readily available. 15 To provide the industry with an 16 opportunity to present its case on this issue, in 2006 17 we held individual hearings with all hazardous 18 material carriers that had previously been issued cut­
19 through permits for the downtown Boston area. It 20 should be noted that the City ordinance authorizing 21 the regulations that allowed these permits to be 22 issued clearly states that economic criteria “shall 23 not,” not “should not,” but “shall not,” be 24 determinative of whether or not an alternative route Arlington Reporting Company
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23 1 outside the City is practical. Similar federal 2 regulations state that operating convenience of the 3 motor carrier is not a basis for determining whether 4 such an alternative route is practical. 5 At the hearings, companies testified 6 before a committee made up of representatives from 7 Boston’s Transportation, Police, and Fire departments, 8 that if they were prohibited from cutting through the 9 City, their trips would be longer and more expensive. 10 We also heard similar statements in the previous 11 hearings held in Boston, Quincy, and Waltham. This 12 translates to operating convenience and economic 13 factors, the very two criteria that the City’s 14 permitting process clearly states the Fire 15 Commissioner shall not consider when deciding whether 16 or not to issue a permit. 17 While still focused on enhancing public 18 safety, the City of Boston wanted to be as helpful to 19 this important industry as possible. Therefore, 20 rather than applying the 1980 regulations strictly to 21 impose an all­out 24­hour, seven­day­a­week ban on the 22 use of City streets, we opted in 2006 to implement a 23 daytime ban only. This would prohibit the transport 24 of hazardous materials through the City during the Arlington Reporting Company
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24 1 period when our population almost doubles due to our 2 workforce, commuters, tourists, students, and others. 3 At the same time, it would allow the through movement 4 of hazardous materials between the hours of 8 p.m. to 5 6 a.m. to continue. Although this provided the 6 industry with 10 hours each day to cut­through 7 downtown Boston, the decision did not sit well with 8 some folks who are in the auditorium tonight. 9 Nevertheless, in a good faith attempt to balance the 10 public safety needs of the City with the demands of 11 the industry, the change went into effect on July 3rd, 12 2006, and lasted for about four years, with no 13 complaint from the commonwealth, the federal 14 government, elected officials, or surrounding 15 communities. 16 At the same time, to increase public 17 safety in connection with the transportation of 18 hazardous materials within the City, the City 19 determined that it was in the public interest and 20 prudent to adjust the local hazmat route, shifting 21 hazmat traffic from the temporary route during Central 22 Artery construction along Commercial Street to the 23 newly improved surface roadway and Cross Street 24 corridor, which, as the result of the Central Artery Arlington Reporting Company
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25 1 Project, now encompassed better sight distance, 2 geometry, signalization, and lighting, and which was a 3 shorter and a more direct route than the Commercial 4 Street segment it replaced. In disagreement with 5 these two changes, the American Trucking Association 6 and the then MassHighway Department, requested, and 7 was granted, a preemption determination from the 8 Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. 9 The preemption decision was issued on 10 November 16, 2009, and, following a request for an 11 extension, became effective on July 1, 2010. In the 12 decision, the federal government indicated that it did 13 not necessarily disagree with the routing decisions 14 that had been made, but determined that the City of 15 Boston had not followed the proper process under 16 federal regulations before implementing this program. 17 Their rationale was that the City’s actions modifying 18 its past permitting practice and downtown route were 19 taken without the required study and consultative 20 process, and had, in fact, created a de facto new 21 route designation. 22 We were surprised by this as the City 23 did not intend to designate an entirely new route but 24 to simply enforce a long standing local regulation Arlington Reporting Company
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26 1 which allowed us to control the hours that these 2 vehicles were allowed to travel on the route which now 3 had been realigned to take advantage of improved 4 surface roadways within the same central 5 transportation corridor. In any event, the federal 6 government had made its ruling and the City was left 7 with only two options: the first, allow trucks 8 carrying hazardous material to cut through the City 9 every day of the week, both day and night or, the 10 second, go through this process as laid out by the 11 Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The City 12 chose the latter. 13 To comply with this request, the City 14 engaged the Battelle Memorial Institute, a 501(c)(3) 15 charitable trust headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, that 16 you’ve heard from tonight. Battelle is an 17 internationally respected consulting firm that 18 specializes in hazardous material transportation 19 analysis, risk assessment, and policy support. The 20 findings of this federally­mandated study, requested 21 and demanded by the industry, were eye opening. 22 As I said earlier, our plan was simply 23 to prohibit hazardous material from cutting through 24 the City during the day. This study, however, again, Arlington Reporting Company
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27 1 demanded by the industry, concluded that the movement 2 of hazardous material trucks through the City of 3 Boston using the current downtown routing presents 4 significantly more risk to the general public, both 5 daytime and the nighttime, than available alternative 6 routes that bypass the densely populated downtown area 7 of Boston. 8 9 In fact, the relative difference in risk to the public between the routes was so 10 compelling, both day and night, that under the 11 established federal through routing criteria, the 12 length of the deviation on the proposed alternative 13 route did not have to be taken into account. The 14 proposed bypass route is that much safer. Faced with 15 conclusive evidence of unacceptable risk, the City now 16 had no choice but to pursue a nighttime restriction on 17 hazmat transportation as well. 18 The City of Boston has carefully and 19 meticulously completed what the federal and state 20 government, as well as the industry demanded of us. 21 It was a long and arduous process, but the City of 22 Boston got the job done. As the agency responsible 23 for designating hazardous cargo routes, it is now time 24 for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to Arlington Reporting Company
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28 1 complete its job. The Commonwealth has invested 2 literally billions upon billions of dollars on our 3 interstate roadway system, including the ongoing 4 widening of Route 128, which is designed to promote 5 and enhance interstate and intrastate commerce and 6 enhance highway transportation safety. 7 The regional through transportation of 8 hazardous materials falls into this category. This 9 industry should be on that interstate roadway, pure 10 and simple, and not on routes that go through or near 11 heavily populated areas, places where crowds are 12 assembled, on crowded urban streets, especially where 13 alternative highway routes are demonstrated to be 14 safer and present significantly lower risk to the 15 general public. To allow this practice to continue 16 with this overwhelming evidence would be reckless and 17 ill­advised. 18 The industry demanded this process, but 19 now that they don’t like the results, they want a do 20 over. The industry will tell you it will cost them 21 too much in time and money, when, in fact, we are 22 talking about an estimated 22 minutes of increased 23 travel time in each direction. Imagine 22 minutes of 24 travel as opposed to thousands of lives unnecessarily Arlington Reporting Company
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29 1 put at increased risk. They will tell you it is too 2 expensive, yet, Battelle’s report estimates the cost 3 will be less than one cent per gallon of product ­­ 4 less than a penny as opposed to putting thousands of 5 lives at risk on a daily basis. The industry will tell you that Boston 6 7 is better equipped in the event of a disaster. This 8 is probably the most insulting argument to date; when 9 you cannot make your case based on fact, make it 10 through fear. Industry figures show that an accident 11 involving hazmat transportation occurs on average once 12 for roughly every one million vehicle miles traveled. 13 Despite this data, a single crash of a truck 14 transporting hazmat in a crowded area has the 15 potential for deaths and injuries far beyond that of a 16 truck carrying non­hazmat cargo, which is why we are 17 here. 18 Recognizing the potential for severe 19 hazardous materials incidents underscores the need for 20 designating appropriate routes for the transportation 21 of hazardous materials, which is a key strategy for 22 increasing and ensuring public safety. An incident on 23 Route 128 is no doubt a disaster, but that same 24 incident in the heart of downtown Boston is nothing Arlington Reporting Company
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30 1 short of a catastrophe that will exacerbate exposures 2 and have far reaching effects on life, property, and 3 the very economic vitality of our region. Also, as 4 you all know, Boston provides more emergency response 5 local aid than any other city or town in the 6 Commonwealth, and that will not change. In 2009, we 7 were on scene at the tanker accident in Brown Circle 8 in Revere and in Saugus last month, so the argument 9 that Boston is better equipped to handle an event is 10 11 insulting on too many levels to get into here. It is unfortunate that some would 12 attempt to make this an issue of Boston versus its 13 outlying communities and our suburban neighbors when 14 nothing could be further from the truth. The primary 15 criterion for a routing designation is that the 16 designated route significantly reduces public risk. 17 The federal standards for the highway routing of 18 hazardous materials place central importance upon 19 enhancing public safety. The federal routing 20 designation process we engaged in is expressly 21 designed to identify and evaluate roadway and 22 community characteristics that make one route 23 preferable to another from the perspective of 24 improving the overall public safety associated with Arlington Reporting Company
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31 1 2 the transportation of hazardous materials. Interstate routes that avoid populated 3 areas minimize these risks because of their better 4 safety records. It’s really a matter of minimizing 5 unnecessary risk to the greatest number of potentially 6 exposed people in the areas most likely to experience 7 an accident involving a hazardous materials release. 8 9 Mayor Menino would like to thank MassDOT, for holding these public hearings and for 10 working so closely with us on this issue. He would 11 also like to thank our elected leaders who have 12 engaged in this issue with us for quite some time. 13 This process has allowed us to hear 14 counterpoints of view from the industry as it relates 15 to this proposal. At the hearing in Boston, we were 16 told that the truck drivers were better off being 17 surrounded by pedestrians, playgrounds, and traffic, 18 so their minds do not wander and they stay alert. In 19 Quincy, we were told that Route 128 is both too slow 20 and too fast. In Waltham, we were told that if forced 21 to travel at night to make up time, there would be no 22 one available to receive the products on the back 23 side. I believe it was equated to trying to deliver 24 lettuce to Newbury Street in the middle of the night. Arlington Reporting Company
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32 1 We feel the situations are quite different. These are 2 the words of the industry, not ours. Through the course of this process, we 3 4 have heard the rhetoric of the industry that some of 5 the communities along Route 128 have volunteer fire 6 departments. This is not true. All of these 7 communities have professional fire departments. We have heard that the trucks re­routed 8 9 from downtown Boston will be using local streets of 10 abutting municipalities. This is not true. The 11 trucks will be using the interstate highway. We have heard that these municipalities 12 13 will be forced to handle incidents that they haven’t 14 had to deal with previously. Again, this is untrue. 15 There are already hazmat trucks traveling on Route 16 128, and fire departments from the cities and towns 17 along the highway have responded to incidents in the 18 past. 19 We have heard that there would be no 20 more access to the foam used to mitigate a hazmat 21 incident. We’d like to note that when hazardous 22 material gets into the sewer system or into basements, 23 foam can no longer be used. Foam is only effective 24 when placed directly on the spill as a containment Arlington Reporting Company
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33 1 mechanism. So, although the foam may be in Boston, it 2 would be of little to no use on our streets. We also 3 feel it would be prudent for the Commonwealth to 4 provide foam depots along 128 regardless of the 5 outcome of this process. 6 Finally, we have heard that the risk of 7 a tank rollover is much greater on Route 128 and 8 nearly impossible to occur in downtown Boston where 9 average speeds are lower. Rollovers aren’t the only 10 concern with relation to hazmat vehicles. It would 11 only take one car running a red light, or even a crash 12 between a hazmat vehicle and one of our many tour 13 buses, street trolleys, or duck boats cruising Boston 14 streets for a serious hazmat release incident to 15 occur. Let’s not forget, the probability of accidents 16 on local streets is greater than on the interstate 17 highways. And serious consideration should be given 18 to a multitude of interceptors that are in play on 19 City streets. Although there are controlled entrances 20 and exits on the interstate highways, there are no 21 street­level intersections on the interstate roads. 22 Again, fear over fact. 23 What is even more interesting though is 24 that we haven’t heard ­­ is what we haven’t heard, and Arlington Reporting Company
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34 1 that is any disagreement with the Battelle report’s 2 conclusion that the current route, through a 3 neighborhood, in the heart of Boston’s tourist 4 district, is 300 percent more dangerous than the 5 proposed route during the day, and 100 percent more 6 dangerous at night. That is what the federal 7 guidelines call on you to consider. And, once you do, 8 Mayor Menino and the City of Boston believe your 9 decision will be clear. The fundamental question is 10 are we going to allow special interest trade 11 organizations to dictate public policy or are we going 12 to allow the public safety experts to do so? 13 Thank you. 14 THOMAS BRODERICK: Thank you, 15 16 Commissioner Tinlin. I’d like to go over the ground rules 17 for tonight’s hearing. All speakers must sign in on 18 the speakers list in order to provide testimony. 19 Again, if you wish to speak and you haven’t signed in, 20 you still have the opportunity to sign in. 21 Comments should be directed to the 22 hearing body. They should be relevant to the topic. 23 And they should not be personal in nature. Testimony 24 should be kept to three minutes or less to provide Arlington Reporting Company
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35 1 everyone with an opportunity to speak. Please avoid 2 repetitive comments. If your comment was answered 3 during these introductory remarks, we request that you 4 defer in the interest of time. As per MassDOT hearing procedures, we 5 6 will open up with comments from the elected officials. 7 And, with that, I’ll turn it over to Don Dailey, who 8 is going to make sure that everybody who signed up has 9 the opportunity speak and comment. DONNY DAILEY: Thank you very much, 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Tom. The first speaker will be Senator Ken Donnelly from 4th Middlesex District. STATE SENATOR KEN DONNELLY: Thank you. And thank you for taking me ­­ allowing me to speak. I’ll give you a little bit of my 17 information. I’m a Senator from the 4th Middlesex 18 District. If you look at that, it represents a 19 majority of the new trucking that’s going to be 20 shipped over 128. I represent Woburn, Burlington, 21 Billerica, Lexington, and Arlington. And, I can 22 assure you I’m not here for the special interests. 23 I’m here for the 125,000 residents that I represent. 24 Now, I will tell you a little bit about Arlington Reporting Company
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36 1 my background. I was a fire lieutenant in the Town of 2 Lexington, the little one right there where there’s, 3 again, a fair shot. And, I did 35 years in the Town 4 of Lexington responding to 128 and accidents on 128. 5 And I can tell you that putting 300 to 400 more trucks 6 on the road with hazardous material, with all due 7 respect to the paid consultant from Boston and the 8 representatives from Boston, will add a lot of both 9 hazards and exposures to the residents that I 10 11 represent. Now, if you look at the City of 12 Burlington and Woburn, you can see that on that whole 13 area you have a lot of residential areas, a lot of 14 commercial property. And I will talk a little bit 15 about my biggest fear as a fire lieutenant in the Town 16 of Lexington. My biggest fear was to have a LNG 17 tanker, a gas truck, ethanol truck flip over on 128, 18 because here’s the problem we have. Unlike the City 19 of Boston that has 1,500 firefighters ­­ 1,500 20 firefighters, 200 to 300 firefighters on duty at any 21 given time ­­ we had possibly nine to 12 firefighters 22 on duty. But that was my biggest fear. Because once 23 that truck tipped over, once we had an incident, we 24 couldn’t get there. Traffic on 128 stops. There is Arlington Reporting Company
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37 1 no sidewalks. The gentleman from Boston is absolutely 2 correct. There’s no access to those highways. We 3 couldn’t get to those spots. We don’t have the water. 4 We didn’t have the foam. We didn’t have the hazardous 5 material trucks. Cambridge and Boston has dedicated 6 hazardous material teams. The state has, Region 6 has 7 those material teams. And even if you have a 8 hazardous material incident, you have to get that 9 whole team together. 10 The incidents both in Everett and in 11 Revere where you had a tanker flip over, they had the 12 capabilities of putting trucks from the city, from 13 Boston, from all of those areas that surround that 14 area, with plenty of water and plenty of capabilities. 15 We don’t have the same capabilities on 128. You can’t 16 get to the incident when something happens. It’s 17 almost impossible. You don’t have police to direct 18 traffic. We don’t have routes to change. We are 19 gridlocked into an area where both you have heavily 20 congested population, we have manufacturers, we have 21 commercial property. The Town of Woburn ­­ the City 22 of Woburn and the Town of Burlington have very high 23 populations of workers in the daytime, both 24 manufacturing and high tech. Arlington Reporting Company
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38 1 Also, I’d like to mention that in the 2 Town of Burlington, I know I can appreciate that the 3 study that looked at the environmental impact, 4 Burlington, if you look at Burlington, right at Route 5 3 and 128, that’s the aquifer for the Town of 6 Burlington. That’s their water supply. If you go a 7 little further down in that place where you see 8 Lexington and Lincoln, that’s the water supply for the 9 City of Cambridge. So, it does have a major impact. 10 And we have a heavily populated area. We already have 11 congestion from the Mass. Turnpike to Route 93, both 12 in the daytime ­­ we’ve gone from two lanes to four 13 lanes in Woburn, and especially in Woburn. So, we 14 have a heavily congested area and a high residential 15 area with a high risk. We do not need additional 16 trucking on the roads because the City of Boston wants 17 to circumvent them and send them our way so they can 18 go all the way round the route. 19 So, I adamantly oppose this process. 20 And I would like to have the opportunity for our 21 consultants, if we had consultants, to take a look at 22 the hazard to the communities I represent, and all of 23 the other senators and representatives in a very 24 densely populated area called Greater Boston. Arlington Reporting Company
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39 1 Thank you. 2 THOMAS BRODERICK: Thank you, Senator. 3 DONNY DAILEY: The next speaker is 4 State Representative Jason Lewis of Winchester and 5 Stoneham. 6 STATE REPRESENTATIVE JASON LEWIS: 7 Thank you. Good evening. And I appreciate you 8 holding this public hearing tonight here in the Town 9 of Stoneham. My name is Jason Lewis. I represent the 10 31st Middlesex District, which is the communities of 11 Stoneham and Winchester. 12 I just want to say at the outset how 13 thankful we are to have Senator Donnelly here with us 14 tonight to hear his testimony, first, because the area 15 he represents, as he said, is so many of the 16 communities, the suburban communities, that would be 17 impacted by this proposal, but, perhaps even more 18 importantly, because, as he said, he has had the 19 direct experience serving in the fire department of 20 Lexington and actually responding to accidents on 21 Route 128. He can speak from his personal experience 22 as to all of the challenges and problems involved in 23 that, as you heard tonight. 24 I’ll be very brief. And my comments Arlington Reporting Company
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40 1 are based on conversations that I’ve had over the last 2 several months with fellow colleagues in the 3 legislature who represent a variety of the suburban 4 communities in the Greater Boston area as well as 5 local public safety officials in the communities I 6 represent, Stoneham and Winchester. And I would like 7 to express two very significant concerns with the 8 proposed rerouting of the hazmat materials. The first is with the specific route 9 10 itself. First is the length. As was discussed 11 earlier, the likelihood of an accident occurring is 12 directly correlated with the number of miles driven. 13 And what we are talking about here is a route that 14 would increase the distance traveled perhaps by five 15 to 10 times over the distance that is currently 16 traveled. So, that means we are, therefore, 17 significantly increasing the risk of an accident 18 occurring. 19 Second, with respect to the route, and 20 perhaps even more, of greater concern to all of us 21 here tonight and the constituents we represent, is 22 specifically the 93/95 cloverleaf intersection. That 23 is, according to MassDOT’s own analysis, one of, if 24 not the most dangerous and busy intersection in the Arlington Reporting Company
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41 1 entire state of Massachusetts. And as you probably 2 are aware, a project is underway, multi­hundred 3 million dollar project to rebuild that cloverleaf 4 intersection. So, we have a situation today where we 5 already have an intersection that is not able to carry 6 the traffic that is already going through there every 7 day, and one where the situation will be made worse 8 while that intersection is being rebuilt in the years 9 ahead, which just increases the chance of a serious 10 11 accident occurring. The second point I’d like to make is 12 with respect to the emergency preparedness of the Town 13 of Stoneham and other suburban communities. These are 14 communities, as Senator Donnelly said, while they may 15 have professional fire departments and they’re 16 extremely competent, they do not have the manpower on 17 any given shift. They do not have the training for a 18 potential hazmat event, as would be the case in the 19 City of Boston or the City of Cambridge, and they lack 20 much of the equipment that would be required in such 21 an event. For example, the Town of Stoneham does not 22 have a fire truck which would have a Class B foam 23 capability in the event of a hazmat spill. 24 Now, relying on the regional hazmat Arlington Reporting Company
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42 1 teams is really not a good answer. It takes 2 significant time for the regional team to stage and 3 then to respond to the incident. Whereas, you know, 4 in a major city like Boston, or even Cambridge, they 5 have dedicated teams that are able to respond much 6 more quickly. So, for those two reasons, both the 7 8 specific nature of the route itself, the length and 9 the I­93/95 cloverleaf intersection, as well as the 10 lack of emergency preparedness in many, if not all, of 11 these suburban communities, I would like to ask that 12 while we certainly understand the concerns that are 13 being expressed by the City of Boston, that, you know, 14 that this may not be the right solution to that 15 problem, and that we continue to work to find 16 alternatives. Thank you again for the opportunity to 17 18 testify tonight. 19 THOMAS BRODERICK: Thank you, Senator. 20 DONNY DAILEY: The next speaker is 21 State Senator Katherine Clark from Middlesex and Essex 22 District. 23 24 STATE SENATOR KATHERINE CLARK: Thank you very much. And thank you for the opportunity to Arlington Reporting Company
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43 1 testify. I am testifying tonight in opposition to 2 this proposal for many of the reasons that my 3 colleagues have already so eloquently stated. 4 But we already suffer in this area. 5 And my district actually sort of is the eastern 6 counterpart to Senator Donnelly’s, right through 7 Stoneham, Reading, Wakefield, and Lynnfield, and 8 Malden to the south. This would have a direct impact 9 on those communities, some of which are very densely 10 populated, and all of which directly have to use the 11 cloverleaf interchange that has been identified by the 12 DOT in 2007 as one of the top six most dangerous 13 interchanges and intersections out of the thousand 14 identified by DOT in the entire Commonwealth of 15 Massachusetts. Now to say with that dangerous 16 designation that we are going to increase by hundreds 17 of trucks taking hazardous material through this seems 18 to be something that we really need to reconsider and 19 take a second look at for these communities. 20 The second major point is exactly what 21 Representative Lewis just talked about, that is the 22 ability of these communities to respond to a hazmat 23 incident. Having talked to the fire chiefs in my 24 district, in Stoneham, in Reading, in Wakefield, in Arlington Reporting Company
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44 1 Lynnfield, they rely on a state hazmat team that is 2 made up of firefighters from across the Commonwealth, 3 across the region. It takes about an hour at best for 4 them to respond to an incident of this kind. This was 5 just recently reinforced with the explosion and 6 incident that they had on Route 1 in Saugus. That is 7 compared to Boston’s ability to respond with the 8 equipment they have, the training they have, the 9 number of personnel they have that is approximately, 10 11 and your report stated, as 15 minutes. These are very different situations. 12 And I would say that the state could not afford to 13 give my communities, given the layoffs they’ve 14 experienced, and the diminishing local aid and 15 ability, the personnel, the training, the equipment. 16 We simply couldn’t afford it to get it to the level of 17 response that Boston can give. 18 We are certainly sympathetic that 19 Boston is an urban area, that these are going through 20 neighborhoods. But this particular risk posed by a 21 lack to have meaningful, timely response in the case 22 of an incident, and the fact that we are taking these 23 trucks through one of the most dangerous interchanges 24 as identified by the Department of Transportation in Arlington Reporting Company
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45 1 the entire Commonwealth really gives us extreme 2 concern about the safety of the people in our region 3 and the safety of the people in the Commonwealth. 4 So, I thank you for the hearing. I 5 urge you to reconsider this. And we’d be happy to 6 work with you further and get you any information you 7 might need. 8 THOMAS BRODERICK: Thank you, Senator. 9 DONNY DAILEY: The next speaker is 10 11 Mayor Scott Galvin from the City of Woburn. MAYOR SCOTT GALVIN: Good evening. My 12 name is Mayor Scott Galvin from Woburn. I’m here with 13 my chief, Chief Paul Tortolano. And I just want to
14 thank Senator Donnelly who has been a great State
15 Senator for the City of Woburn, as well as the 16 Representative who spoke in our favor, and also Jim 17 Dwyer, another State Rep who is here ­­ not here, but 18 he sent Joe Demers to speak on his behalf. 19 And, again, I thank you for your time. 20 As I said, I’m from the City of Woburn. And we abut, 21 of course, 93 and 128, which is the economic lifeline 22 of that area. It provides great benefits to the City. 23 We have a number of residents who abut those two 24 highways as the state senator said. Arlington Reporting Company
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46 1 We’re very sensitive to Boston’s 2 concerns. We do understand what this is about. But 3 the catastrophe, or the potential catastrophe, that 4 you’ll be putting on my constituents and on my city is 5 unacceptable, and we ask you to reconsider this plan. 6 But the Chief is here and I’d like him 7 to speak more to what our response limitations would 8 be in some type of catastrophe. 9 10 So, Chief. FIRE CHIEF PAUL TORTOLANO: Thank you, 11 Mayor. Thank you. Much of what I’m going to say is 12 going to be brief. It’s going to be a reiteration of 13 what has already been said. 14 I, too, am sympathetic to Boston’s 15 problems, but my primary responsibility is to the City 16 of Woburn. And I, too, am opposed to increasing 17 hazardous material traffic through the City. 18 Route 93 north from the Winchester line 19 to Route 95 south at the Burlington line is 20 approximately four miles, including the 93/95 21 Interchange, which is mostly in Reading, but to which 22 we respond to on a regular basis. It is largely 23 recognized as in need of redesign. In Woburn, this 24 stretch of highway goes through residential as well as Arlington Reporting Company
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47 1 business industrial areas, and includes nine hotels. 2 In an incident involving a tank truck 3 carrying gasoline, we’d be trying to evacuate people 4 for a distance of at least a half a mile in all 5 directions with very limited manpower and many other 6 tasks involved, such as rescue, medical, and fire 7 fighting. We, the City of Woburn, have a total of 14 8 firefighters on duty, available to respond. We’d have 9 to rely on the regional hazmat team to respond as well 10 as fire fighting foam from outside the City with fire 11 mutual aid. I’ve had to shut down 95 in the past due 12 to an LNG tanker accident. And I’m positive that the 13 resulting virtually immediate gridlock would severely 14 adversely impact the response time of hazmat teams as 15 well as additional resources such as foam and mutual 16 aid. For instance, the mutual aid, the hazmat team, 17 the regional hazmat team, the members, there may be 18 one coming from Melrose, one from Revere, two from 19 Waltham, one from Somerville. In the gridlock block 20 that I’ve seen on 128/95 due to closing down the 21 highway, which I had to do, they’d never get there. 22 And they have protocols, too, where they can only 23 operate once they have an adequate number of 24 responders there. Arlington Reporting Company
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48 Highways also impose difficulties in 1 2 terms of continuous water supply because hydrants 3 aren’t on highways typically. In our incidents, we’ve 4 had to lay lines from neighborhoods up under fences, 5 over guardrails, whatever the case may be, up to the 6 highway. In the wintertime, as you can well imagine, 7 that may not be possible at all. An increase in hazmat traffic doesn’t 8 9 introduce a new concern; it does increase the 10 likelihood of an incident without a doubt. Rescue, if 11 possible; extinguishment, if possible; isolate; and 12 evacuate ­­ that’s what we currently do while waiting 13 for adequate resources to be on scene. Again, I am opposed to this 14 15 proposition. 16 Thank you. 17 DONNY DAILEY: Thank you. 18 THOMAS BRODERICK: Thank you, Mayor, 19 Chief. DONNY DAILEY: Representative ­­ from 20 21 the office of State Representative James Dwyer is Joe 22 Demers. 23 JOE DEMERS: Thank you for the 24 opportunity to speak tonight. Unfortunately, Arlington Reporting Company
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49 1 Representative Dwyer wasn’t able to attend tonight. 2 Basically, his major concern, as the 3 aforementioned concerns were, have to do with the 4 interchange. While Woburn enjoys having the 5 interchange there to influx our economic development 6 and our tax base, the major concern we have is that 7 Woburn tends to be the mecca of MassDOT projects, 8 including the interchange and the ensuing 9 redevelopment of the cloverleaf just north of that. 10 So, the major concern we have is there are 11 neighborhoods along 93 and along 95 where you can sit 12 on someone’s porch and gingerly throw a baseball and 13 you’re on the state’s property abutting the highway. 14 And I’m not talking 100 yards. I’m talking 25 yards. 15 In fact, I believe Senator Donnelly’s brother lives 16 very close to the highway. So, the concern we have is 17 if there’s no protections put in place there, you have 18 ­­ I hate to give the, you know, catastrophic 19 incident, but if a hazmat truck, whether it be spent 20 fuel or not, rolls over on the side of the road, this 21 isn’t, you know, a shoulder that’s being covered with 22 oil, this is someone’s back yard. This could be close 23 to one of our drinking wells. 24 The other situation we have is if it’s Arlington Reporting Company
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50 1 a flammable product. You could have a neighborhood 2 fire. And, like the chief just mentioned, with that 3 many people on the force at one time, that’s going to 4 be a tough incident to take care of. 5 So, the concerns majorly are the 6 residents of Woburn. I’m not going to get into the 7 previous discussions we’ve had about noise barriers, 8 but I can tell you right now that the noise barriers 9 aren’t going to be only protecting us from noise in 10 Woburn, it’s going to be more of a safety barrier 11 protecting us from hazardous materials. 12 Thank you. 13 DONNY DAILEY: Thank you. 14 Mike Raymond, alderman from Woburn. 15 ALDERMAN MIKE RAYMOND: Thank you for 16 the opportunity to speak in front of you tonight. My 17 name is Mike Raymond. I’m an Alderman. And I 18 represent Ward 6 in Woburn, Massachusetts. Ward 6, 19 for the benefit of those looking at the map, is from 20 the Burlington line almost up to Route 93. 21 And, although I’m very sympathetic 22 toward the plan of the City of Boston ­­ I understand 23 the close neighborhoods, I understand the trucks 24 driving through the neighborhoods ­­ but please Arlington Reporting Company
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51 1 understand, we share, and we have the same concerns. 2 One of the main concerns is, and I’m 3 taking a part of the speech out of context, is that 4 the City of Boston swells to probably three times its 5 size during the day with people coming into Boston. 6 Well, Woburn does also. 7 And the second major concern I have is 8 ­­ and I actually feel, and I came here tonight, 9 because I feel responsible for the health, safety, and 10 welfare of all those people that live in that area. 11 And I represent them. And, like Joe said, one of the 12 things, these people live within 25 to 50 feet of 128. 13 And it’s very, very dangerous. And right near the 14 Burlington line, if you’re coming down 128, you look 15 to the left or the right, those houses are very close 16 to the highway. If you look at those houses 17 themselves, a lot of those houses were built 50, 60, 18 70 years ago. You can look just by the construction 19 of the house. So, it’s not somebody just building a 20 house next to a highway. They build the highway next 21 to the house. It’s very dangerous. 22 For six hours during the day, three 23 hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon, 24 it is bumper­to­bumper traffic, two miles each way on Arlington Reporting Company
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52 1 128. And I can’t see the hazmat trucks sitting in the 2 traffic itself. 3 Now, somebody mentioned first response, 4 that we don’t have ­­ the City of Woburn does not have 5 a first response hazmat team. We’d have to depend on 6 the state. And I understand that the closest hazmat 7 state would be in Weston, which in itself is 45 8 minutes. If they were to put their group together and 9 come to say there was an accident at 93 and 128, 10 you’re looking at an hour­and­a­half to two hours just 11 to get there. 12 And, like everybody prior to me ­­ and, 13 please, you know, there’s a lot of things that you 14 have to consider when you’re doing something, when 15 you’re trying to put together a project. I understand 16 this. But I’d like to work something into the 17 equation also. Should all the testimony that you hear 18 tonight not be able to sway your decision in saying, 19 yes, this is what we’re going to do, I’d like to move 20 to the top of the priority list for sound barriers. I 21 believe that if the sound barriers were in place, and 22 the sound barriers were in place and the plans have 23 already been submitted, that it would act more of a 24 sound barrier and a safety barrier for at least the Arlington Reporting Company
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53 1 residents from in Burlington and in Woburn. 2 Thank you very much. 3 DONNY DAILEY: Thank you, Alderman. 4 From the Board of Selectmen of Reading, 5 Camille Anthony. SELECTMAN CAMILLE ANTHONY: Yes, I’m 6 7 the Chair of the Board of Selectmen. And I just want 8 to say ­­ and I came in late, so I don’t really know 9 what the plan is ­­ but what I can say that we have 10 heard from you is that we got a flyer that this was 11 being held. But we’ve gotten nothing as far as what 12 the impact of this proposal is or anything else. So, 13 I guess I have a question for you is what kind of 14 information are you getting out to the communities 15 because this is a community issue? And, all of our 16 residents need to be aware of this. And I can only 17 state that Reading, of course, is extremely concerned 18 about the situation. And it’s the old story, not in 19 my backyard, but something’s got to be done where we 20 can get rid of these materials in a safe manner, and 21 it doesn’t make sense to bring them into the 93/95 22 interchange. 23 24 The other thing I’d say is I worked on the task force for the 93/I95 interchange work. It’s Arlington Reporting Company
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54 1 been years. And, yet, we’re hearing nothing about 2 what’s going on. And I do think that that’s all part 3 of this and you need to get some information out to 4 the communities as to where we’re at in that process. 5 But, as the interchange stands right now, it’s not 6 capable of handling those volumes. I do want some information coming back. 7 8 And I would ask the communities, have you seen the 9 plan? Do you know exactly what’s expected of you? 10 That’s my question. THOMAS BRODERICK: Thank you, 11 12 13 14 15 Selectwoman. DONNY DAILEY: Chief of Police of Stoneham, Richard Bongiorno. POLICE CHIEF RICHARD BONGIORNO: Good 16 evening. And thank you for the opportunity to address 17 this issue this evening. 18 I’m representing the public safety 19 component here in Stoneham. Fire Chief Rolli is 20 unable to be here because of a prior commitment. And 21 he did provide a number of talking points, bulleted 22 points, many of which have already been addressed. 23 Our main concern is the cloverleaf. We 24 know how dangerous that is. We respond to calls for Arlington Reporting Company
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55 1 service at that cloverleaf numerous times. Traffic is 2 horrendous. 3 There are some extremely vulnerable 4 populations right at that cloverleaf. There is a very 5 large nursing home and rehabilitation center with the 6 mobility of many, many people severely restricted. We 7 have four large condominium complexes within one­
8 quarter mile of the cloverleaf of several thousand 9 residents who live in that area. If we had ­­ excuse 10 me ­­ if we had a serious event and had to evacuate 11 because of a hazardous material issue, we simply do 12 not have the ability or capability given our current 13 staffing levels and equipment to do that. 14 Chief Rolli has estimated, our fire 15 chief, what it would take for our fire department to 16 adequately handle a major event in the event of a 17 spill, which would include almost $1.4 million or $5 18 million, including a new Quint Apparatus, which is a 19 combination ladder and pumper truck with a Class B 20 foam capability, upgraded SCBA bottles, estimated cost 21 of $50,000 to outfit our fire department, new sets of 22 bunker gear ­­ I don’t know what this is, folks. I’m 23 just reading it ­­ estimated at $120,000. And the 24 personnel ­­ we generally have eight firefighters on Arlington Reporting Company
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56 1 duty on a shift. We generally have no more than five 2 or six at our best time with police coverage on a 3 given shift. 4 I think our collective representatives 5 have been very eloquent. I don’t want to repeat much 6 of what they said. I do want to raise two points that 7 I’m not sure if they’re going to be raised this 8 evening. With 300 or 400 more hazmat trucks coming 9 across the interstate highway, whether it’s I­93 or I­
10 95, even a little hiccup, small crash on any of those 11 roads, all of our communities experience the overflow 12 of the traffic that will detour off those roads. And, 13 relating to Stoneham, they will detour north and south 14 on Route 28, including hazardous material vehicles. 15 The north end of 128 in Stoneham is state controlled. 16 The south end of Route 28 in Stoneham is state 17 controlled. About four miles in between is Stoneham 18 property. We will see dramatic increase in traffic, 19 possibly even hazardous material vehicles. Again, we 20 don’t have the capability. 21 And, I would be remiss if I didn’t 22 represent my concerns and interests for the staffing 23 of our police department. If we had a major event, we 24 do not go into the hot zone or the inner perimeter. Arlington Reporting Company
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57 1 That’s primarily a fire department function. But our 2 hot zone or inner perimeter in this town could 3 encompass one mile. Our officers do not have any 4 equipment that would satisfy their safety, whether 5 it’s a plume of a chemical that could burn skin, that 6 could burn lungs, that could burn sinuses. We do not 7 have that ability or training and equipment to handle 8 that in the event of a major evacuation, particularly 9 at that cloverleaf. Our officers would be put at 10 risk. Our community would be put at risk. And, for those reasons, and for the 11 12 other reasons that our elected officials have talked 13 about, I respectfully request and urge reconsideration 14 of the 128/I­93 detour from Boston. I thank you for 15 your time. 16 THOMAS BRODERICK: Thank you, Chief. 17 DONNY DAILEY: Sergeant Richard Carroll 18 19 from the Medford Police Department. SERGEANT RICHARD CARROLL: Thank you, 20 gentlemen. I’ll try to limit my comments because a 21 lot of them have already been made as far as reacting 22 to a disaster or an incident. What I want you to 23 think about is preventing one. 24 It would be very easy to post a Arlington Reporting Company
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58 1 trucking route, but how are you going to regulate it? 2 Posting signs and not having any kind of enforcement 3 or compliance program in place is what’s going to be 4 necessary. Now, we’ve already spoken to the fire 5 subjects about the resources to the cities and towns 6 affected. They can’t dedicate any more resources, 7 either manpower or money, to any kind of compliance or 8 enforcement program. Even if they could, I don’t 9 think anybody here is aware, but I direct this to the 10 elected officials, there was a bill before the Mass. 11 Legislature last year restricting local cities and 12 towns from having what we call truck teams. The bill 13 was written and crafted ­­ it was by a population. 14 So, I think only the City of Boston and Springfield 15 qualified. So, even if we wanted to as a city or 16 town, we couldn’t put a compliance or enforcement 17 truck team program in place. 18 One of the unique situations we have in 19 the City of Medford, and the Captain just spoke to it 20 so he has a similar situation in Stoneham, we have 21 Route 16. Route 16 is a state road. Half of it 22 trucks are allowed on, half of it trucks are not 23 allowed on. Any truck traffic that wants to go to the 24 Chelsea Produce Market down 93 has to access Route 16. Arlington Reporting Company
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59 1 Any hazmat cargo, when we already have this problem in 2 Medford overnight, if you have a gas station in 3 Belmont, Arlington, Melrose, those tanker trucks are 4 going through West Medford Square, Medford Square at 5 night. Now, Route 60, as we know as High Street in 6 Medford and Salem Street, is an official truck route. 7 So, it’s a state road. The limitations of that road 8 due to its design is beared out with accident data, 9 which I know you gentlemen have access to. 10 My point being is the trucking industry 11 has gone through some changes in the past 20 years. 12 The days of the fleet trucking service I’ll call it, 13 the trucking company with company drivers, is starting 14 to go by the wayside. Most trucks, at least in my 15 experience that I see, are independent operators. And 16 it’s not uncommon to find a tractor trailer truck 17 lost, I’ll say, on a side road, following his GPS. He 18 has no idea what the truck routes are. Signage is one 19 problem, but enforcement and compliance is the other. 20 In Medford, every tanker truck that 21 comes out of Revere and Chelsea, and this is directly 22 what Mayor Menino is complaining about, is going to be 23 forced either to come up 93 north onto 128 as all 24 these other people have spoken about. How are you Arlington Reporting Company
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60 1 going to enforce that compliance? I’ll tell you, people in Arlington and 2 3 Lexington should be paying attention to these meetings 4 because one of the shortcuts is going to be trying to 5 get over to Route 2, through the City of Medford, to 6 Mass Ave., to Arlington and Lexington. The bottom line, and I’ll just finish 7 8 up my comments, is public safety, as far as hazmat and 9 fires were spoken to already at this meeting. Our 10 cities and towns do not have the resources to dedicate 11 to either enforcement to prevent an accident or to 12 deal with an accident after it happens. So, in 13 thinking about your truck route, whatever the answer 14 is going to be, it’s not going to be as simple as 15 posting some signs and saying, “Go here,” “Go there,” 16 “Stay off this road,” “You can use this road.” There 17 has to be a compliance and enforcement component to 18 it. 19 Thank you. 20 THOMAS BRODERICK: Thank you, Sergeant. 21 DONNY DAILEY: Frinette Field, 625 22 23 24 Lewis Wharf in Boston. FRINETTE FIELD: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. Arlington Reporting Company
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61 1 I live in the most densely populated 2 residential neighborhood in the state, the North End 3 waterfront. Over 11,000 of us live there. Many, many 4 more visit our area. As examples, 30,000 people use 5 our recreational facilities annually; 16 million 6 people visit Faneuil Hall each year; 1.3 million cross 7 over to go to the Aquarium. That’s 16 million people 8 on one site abutting an existing hazmat route with 9 significant numbers crossing over into the park or 10 onto the Greenway. Three hundred sixty thousand 11 people stay in our hotels and guest houses annually. 12 Over 500,000 visit the Old North Church. Over 300,000 13 visit the annual St. Anthony’s Festival, only one of 14 many over the course of the summer. I could continue 15 with many more numbers, but the bottom line is safety, 16 as mandated by federal routing criteria. 17 The study done by Battelle underscores 18 the level of risk in continuing to allow trucks 19 carrying hazardous materials to go through my 20 neighborhood. The risk far exceeds that which is 21 allowed. I am empathetic to the trucking industry in 22 trying to keep their cost structure as low as possible 23 by following the shortest route. Frankly, we’re all 24 trying to do that. But the consultant analysis tells Arlington Reporting Company
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62 1 an insignificant increase in cost translating to under 2 a penny on each gallon. Walking down the street the other 3 4 night, I saw a truck carrying hazardous materials 5 racing down Atlantic Avenue and going through a red 6 light. And I cringed. What if the same thing 7 happened on my street as it did in Saugus with the 8 truck explosion? What if a leaking hazmat truck 9 across the street from Harbor Towers on the Greenway a 10 couple of weeks ago had exploded? What if the flame 11 and materials drained into the North End/Waterfront 12 sewers? Roadway drains connect to sanitary sewers in 13 my neighborhood. This provides a direct path for 14 spills, waste, and potentially fire to directly enter 15 residences and businesses. All of this scares the 16 heck out of me. We are in the line of fire. 17 Thank you. 18 DONNY DAILEY: Thank you. Representing 19 Mutual Oil, Bill Shawnessy, 813 Crescent Street in 20 Brockton. 21 BILL SHAWNESSY: Good evening, Mr. 22 Moderator, members of the MassDOT, and 23 representatives. I represent Mutual Oil on Crescent 24 Street in Brockton, Massachusetts. Arlington Reporting Company
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63 I wanted to comment on several areas, 1 2 which I think are pertinent to this routing issue. 3 With time being limited, I’d like to go on record 4 stating that I will submit written comments by the 5 deadline for the comments. 6 Tonight, I’d like to address two areas 7 very briefly. The first is the data contained in the 8 Battelle report and the second is a conflict I’m 9 having with my understanding of the facts as presented 10 by some of the representatives. Clearly, all my 11 comments oppose Boston’s proposal to route gasoline 12 transport approximately 44 miles at highway speeds of 13 65 miles an hour through two counties, 17 communities, 14 rather than 10.3 miles of city streets with speeds no 15 greater than 30 miles per hour and stop lights every 16 few blocks. 17 Starting off with the estimated data, 18 I’d like to thank Battelle. I had a headache reading 19 186 pages. I tried to understand it. I had a little 20 problem with some of it. It was very well done. And 21 I appreciate that type of a report. 22 The Battelle City of Boston Hazmat 23 Route Evaluation Report seems to accurately describe 24 each criterion required by the federal regulation Arlington Reporting Company
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64 1 route designation process, but then, in most areas, 2 draws conclusions which have been referred to during 3 these hearings as facts, facts which lack sufficient 4 accurate data to provide a deterministic result. 5 Instead, the report resorts to estimation, a 6 calculation, approximation of a result with 7 incomplete, uncertain, or noisy input data. 8 Throughout the Battelle report, data important to the 9 risk analysis, such as populations, flow data, truck 10 miles, types and quantities of non­radioactive 11 hazardous material, number of shipments, and accident 12 rates are stated to be estimated. The report seems to 13 use the estimation theory to arrive at an 14 implementable estimator that could be used at each 15 data category. Using accident rates from the report 16 as an example, on page 84, it states, “What drives the 17 uncertainty estimate is the uncertainty in accident 18 rate, specifically the uncertainty in truck traffic 19 density that is the denominator of the accident rate 20 equation. Accident rates are difficult to estimate 21 with certainty, and accident rate differences between 22 two routes can solely be supported by data. The 23 University of Massachusetts’ estimate of accident 24 rates by roadway function or classification is a Arlington Reporting Company
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65 1 significant accomplishment. However, any attempt to 2 extent the accident rate analysis down to a specific 3 route for comparison purposes results in a major 4 increase in the accident rate uncertainty. This is 5 because there are too few serious truck accidents, the 6 numerator in the accident rate calculation, and 7 considerable uncertainty in measuring actual truck 8 flows, the denominator of the accident rate 9 calculation.” 10 Secondly, I would like to refer to the 11 hearing testimony by the Boston Traffic Commissioner. 12 The Commissioner testified that it should be noted 13 that the city ordinance authorizing the regulations 14 which allow these permits to be issued where the motor 15 carriers wish to operate their vehicles in a manner 16 inconsistent with the otherwise applicable 17 restrictions contained in the regulations clearly 18 state that economic criteria shall not, not should 19 not, but shall not be determinative whether or not an 20 alternative route outside the city is practical. 21 Well, I went to the City Council 22 chamber and I asked for a copy of the ordinance that 23 allowed for promulgation of the Boston Fire Department 24 Regulations of 1980. Chapter 39 of the Boston Arlington Reporting Company
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66 1 ordinance of 1979, which provides the authority for 2 the regulation, it was ­­ it was passed by the City 3 Council on December 19, 1979 and approved by the mayor 4 on January 3rd, 1980. Section 2A3 states, “The 5 regulations shall require, but not be limited to 6 prohibit the transportation of hazardous materials, 7 excluding flammable fluids, within the City if there 8 is neither a point of origin or a destination delivery 9 point within the City and if practical alternative 10 route exists from origin to destination outside of the 11 City.” And, it goes on to say, “Economic criteria 12 shall not be determinative of whether or not an 13 alternative route is practical.” You have to note 14 that the Class 3, this seems to be directed an awful 15 lot at gasoline transports, and gasoline is a Class 3 16 flammable liquid which appears to be the focal point. 17 Now, the other part that I’m concerned 18 about is the Commissioner testified, and I’m going to 19 break this one up a little bit, for many years the 20 Boston Fire Department has regulated transportation of 21 quantities of hazardous materials on our roadways. 22 And we got into a point where we started talking about 23 compelling need and public interest as a reason for 24 the issuance of a through permit. Arlington Reporting Company
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67 1 At the inception of the Boston Fire 2 Department Transportation of Hazardous Materials 3 Regulation in 1980, then Fire Commissioner, Chief 4 George H. Paul, designated a fire department chemist 5 by the name of Dr. Edward V. Clougherty to administer 6 this regulation and permitting program. On March 6, 7 1984, in the U.S. District Court, District of 8 Massachusetts, in testimony before Magistrate Robert 9 B. Collins, Docket CA810628MA, Dr. Clougherty 10 testified he was the individual responsible for the 11 drafting, administration, and oversight of the City 12 regulation and administration of hazardous materials 13 transportation permitting. 14 Now, I’m going to jump here a minute 15 and I’m going to ­­ because he’s being questioned by 16 the ATA, American Trucking Association attorney. And 17 he’s responding under oath. And he’s trying to 18 extract from Dr. Clougherty what those terms mean. 19 Dr. Clougherty, the sworn testimony of Dr. Clougherty, 20 who stated he’s the individual responsible for the 21 drafting, administration, and oversight of the City 22 regulation, and the administration of the hazardous 23 materials transportation permitting, clearly describes 24 a compelling need as an economic hardship and public Arlington Reporting Company
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68 1 interest, as in the case of gasoline, there will be 2 product there for a customer to buy. Compelling need 3 and public interest is described in that testimony and 4 not based on risk or safety to the general public. That concludes my comments. I 5 6 appreciate the opportunity to have the opportunity to 7 speak. Thank you. 8 THOMAS BRODERICK: Thank you. 9 DONNY DAILEY: John Hamel, representing 10 J&S Transportation. JOHN HAMEL: Well, I would like to 11 12 thank you once again for the opportunity to testify in 13 opposition to the City of Boston’s proposed ban on the 14 through traffic of hazardous materials and exporting 15 that risk to 23 communities along Route 93 and Route 16 128. 17 Again, my name is John Hamel. I’m 18 owner of J&S Transport Company in Lynn, Massachusetts. 19 And our sole commodity hauled is petroleum products. 20 And I myself have driven these trucks for 25 years. 21 So, how do we get from Point A to Point 22 B? And I will just touch upon some things I talked 23 about in Boston at the first hearing. 24 Well, federal regulations for through Arlington Reporting Company
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69 1 routing, 397.71, were developed to ensure the 2 continuity of movement so as not to impede or 3 unnecessarily delay the transportation of non­
4 radioactive hazardous materials. This proposal set 5 forth by Boston violates all three tenets of 397.71, 6 So, we’re looking to move these trucks 7 off of a direct route with less exposure that is 8 certainly safer, and that is by my 25 years’ 9 experience driving both Route 128 and 93 and through 10 the City of Boston. And, to my knowledge, there have 11 been no serious hazmat accidents or spills traveling 12 through the City of Boston. 13 The City of Boston is prepared in the 14 event of an emergency situation. So, we’re looking to 15 move these trucks onto a highway system that would 16 certainly delay the shipment, put drivers on a high­
17 speed road through communities that are not prepared, 18 on a road that is far exceeding its design capacity, 19 during inclement weather, over unprotected natural 20 resources. So, what does that mean to us in the 21 trucking community? That means our productivity will 22 be cut in half. Okay? And that is substantiated by 23 data. We analyze every delivery we do. And, over the 24 past four years, we have sent trucks around 128. We Arlington Reporting Company
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70 1 have chosen to send trucks directly through Boston. 2 Most of the time we go through Boston we do get a 3 ticket and have our day in court. But if we’re 4 reduced in our capacity by 50 percent, that means that 5 we would have to double the size of our fleets, 6 pushing more trucks onto Route 128 and Interstate 93 7 that, as I stated, are not prepared. 8 So, it would reduce the productivity by 9 50 percent, which would directly, in my opinion, 10 inhibit the industry’s, the trucking industry’s, 11 ability to meet the demand of the products needed in 12 this area. So, more trucks. The industry would need 13 to double the existing fleet of trucks on the road in 14 order to meet the demand, particularly with the 15 heating oil season soon approaching. 16 I’d like to know are companies in this 17 current economic climate prepared, or capable, or, 18 quite frankly, willing to double their fleets. Right 19 now, we have a lack of qualified drivers. Today’s 20 hazmat drivers ­­ and some people have touched upon 21 this ­­ but today’s hazmat drivers have to undergo an 22 FBI and Homeland Security background check ­­ security 23 check ­­ twice. They have to do it with the federal 24 government to obtain a transport worker identification Arlington Reporting Company
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71 1 credential, then the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 2 requires them to undergo the same identical screening 3 process. Okay? They need to undergo specific hazmat 4 training. Most hazmat drivers are trained in counter­
5 terrorism events. They are trained on the eight signs 6 of terrorism, how to report terrorism, where to report 7 it, and most, if the company provided the training, 8 have an access code and a phone number to call in the 9 event of a terrorist situation. 10 So, they get their credentials, they go 11 through training, now they ­­ let’s see ­­ I apologize 12 ­­ they typically train, when they come on board with 13 no experience, a driver will train for up to six 14 weeks, six weeks paid training. Then they’re on a 15 probationary period for 90 days. With the impending 16 retirement of many seasoned professional drivers from 17 the existing pool and the lack of well qualified 18 drivers entering the industry, particularly hazmat 19 drivers, I believe we’ll all see a tremendous negative 20 impact on safety or the ability to meet the demands of 21 the products we deliver. 22 The tank truck industry, an industry 23 that is by far the safest amongst its peers, is 24 already struggling finding well qualified drivers. Arlington Reporting Company
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72 1 And it’s going to get worse. Boston today, to obtain 2 a permit to deliver in the City or to travel through 3 the City of Boston, all companies, all applicants for 4 the permit, are required to provide specific driver 5 information to the City of Boston to include a copy of 6 every drivers’ drivers license, a copy of every 7 drivers’ medical card, a copy of every drivers’ 8 Registry of Motor Vehicle driving record, a current 9 driving record, a list of all citations, warnings, 10 violations, and fines dating back to January 1st, 2000, 11 any violation in connection with driving, transporting 12 hazardous materials, or any safety equipment 13 violations. Boston knows what type of drivers are on 14 their streets. They are well trained, well qualified 15 drivers. We, as a carrier, the Battelle study 16 17 came up with a .8 cent cost, .8 cents to drive an 18 extra 78 miles. Now, that’s backing out the trip from 19 Everett to Quincy, an added 78 miles. Well, we as a 20 company have added between 3.5 ­­ I’m sorry ­­ 2.5 to 21 3 cents or more per gallon to meet the cost of driving 22 around Boston. 23 24 Now, I, again, I think Battelle did a fantastic job on the study. But I would like to know Arlington Reporting Company
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73 1 particularly there where they would come up with .8 2 cents per gallon. If we’re looking at 78 miles round 3 trip, that’s an additional 15.5 gallons of diesel fuel 4 burned. It’s 2.5 additional man hours at close to $47 5 an hour with benefits. Seventy­eight miles at .33 6 cents a mile for maintenance costs, whatever each 7 individual company has for costs for their generation 8 and administrative fees. I would love to know how 9 anyone could travel 78 miles at .8 per gallon. 10 Now, that cost will be directly passed 11 onto the shippers. If the shipper chooses to pass 12 that onto the customer, that’s purely up to them. So, 13 it’s not a hardship for us truckers. We’re truckers. 14 We will deliver the fuel wherever needed. 15 In conclusion ­­ I’ll wrap it up here ­
16 ­ no, I’m sorry. One more quick point. I’m sorry. 17 If due to the inability of trucking companies to 18 increase their fleet size and staff with professional 19 drivers, some companies may need to make a business 20 decision that would warrant looking at the areas of 21 operation in an effort to make sure they can still 22 service customers that are not affected by this 23 rooting proposal. Now, I’m not saying that we would 24 stop delivery to locations that are a hardship, but I Arlington Reporting Company
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74 1 think companies would certainly look at it. 2 So, in conclusion, I respectfully ask 3 that you do not approve the City of Boston’s request 4 for a complete ban on through traffic of needed 5 commodities. 6 Thank you very much. 7 THOMAS BRODERICK: Thank you, Jim. 8 DONNY DAILEY: Bill Hinchcliffe ­­ I 9 10 apologize for the pronunciation ­­ of 365 Concord Road, in which city? BILL HINCHCLIFFE: Yeah, it’s Bill 11 12 Hinchcliffe. 13 DONNY DAILEY: What town is it? 14 BILL HINCHCLIFFE: 365 Concord Road in 15 16 Billerica. I’m sorry. I don’t know. I find it real ironic 17 that everybody used this commodity to get here tonight 18 but nobody wants it on the streets. You know, nobody 19 wants it going through downtown. I can understand 20 everybody’s ­­ you know, I’ve been hauling gas for 30 21 years. I used to go over the Tobin Bridge, right down 22 into the City before all this construction went on. I 23 dealt with the Big Dig going around when you guys 24 closed the roads and made us go in a different Arlington Reporting Company
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75 1 direction. And never, I can’t remember anybody 2 getting hurt or an accident downtown. I’m not saying 3 there hasn’t been. I’m just saying I can’t remember 4 one. 5 Could you imagine, what happened on 6 Route 1, could you imagine if that ­­ it just took me 7 to get to this meeting tonight from Billerica, it 8 takes me normally 20 minutes. Tonight, to get to this 9 meeting, I left my house at 20 minutes of six. I 10 didn’t show up here till 6:30. Okay? Could you 11 imagine if that accident that happened on Route 1 12 happened on 128 during that time, or any time during 13 the day on 128? Like I’ve already heard from Mr. 14 Donnelly here, the Senator, and other fire marshals, 15 you know, they can’t get to it. Do you know how many 16 times a day, a day, daily now, I am cut off when 17 somebody comes out of the left lane to take a ramp a 18 mile in front of me and I’m doing 60 miles an hour? 19 This happens daily. You guys look at us, the four 20 wheel ­­ I would love to take any one of you guys for 21 a ride for a day, one day, and just see what we put up 22 with daily, on a daily basis, out there, and see the 23 dangers that are out there, you know. You don’t see 24 them. You’re sitting here in your seats. You don’t Arlington Reporting Company
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76 1 see them, you know. I’ll take you for a ride through 2 downtown where I’m doing 15 or 20 miles an hour now, 3 you know. 4 I understand. I mean let’s face it, 5 gasoline stations are in high­risk areas everywhere. 6 They’re populated areas. They’re there for a reason. 7 They’re there to make money. So where are they going 8 to be? Where it’s populated. That could happen 9 anywhere ­­ someone backing out of their driveway when 10 I’m driving down a side street to a gas station. 11 These accidents can happen anywhere at any time during 12 the day. I’m sorry, but that’s the nature of the 13 business. It’s dangerous what we do, yes. There’s 14 dangerous involved. I do the gas station right up 15 here at North Main Street, right up here. How 16 populated ­­ I do that place at noontime, people 17 everywhere. One life isn’t worth losing, never mind 18 hundreds. If that accident happened on 128 at any 19 time during the day when there’s traffic, and somebody 20 cuts me off at 60 miles an hour, could you imagine the 21 people that are going to get hurt out there out on 22 128? Now, I’m only doing 15 miles an hour through 23 downtown. I’m walking through downtown. Sure there’s 24 a lot of people walking. There’s a lot of pedestrian Arlington Reporting Company
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77 1 traffic. I understand that. But I’m safer downtown 2 than I am on 128. I’ll tell you that right now. And 3 I invite any one of you to take a ride with me on any 4 given day, any one of you. If my boss would allow it, 5 I’d take one of you tomorrow. I really would. You 6 laugh, but it’s ­­ I’d love to see you ­­ I’d love to 7 have you see what we go through every day, you know. 8 It’s a serious business. And, like I said, I’ve been doing it 9 10 for 30 years now. And I can’t remember the last 11 incident I saw downtown. I’ve seen them everywhere 12 else. I remember the LNG tanker. Okay? I’m done. 13 Thank you. 14 THOMAS BRODERICK: Thank you. 15 DONNY DAILEY: Mark Molloy, General 16 Counsel, Mass. Motor Carriers, 5 Liberty Square, 17 Boston. 18 MARK MOLLOY: Thank you. And I 19 apologize. I’ll be very quick. I hadn’t intended to 20 speak, but I wanted ­­ as you know from previous 21 hearings, we will be submitting written testimony. 22 We’ve hired our own expert to look at the report 23 respectfully to disagree with Battelle Memorial 24 Institute on a number of points. Arlington Reporting Company
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78 1 Two points, then we can all go home. I 2 think I’m the last one. MMTA has long argued for a 3 cogent transportation system. We don’t think that 4 just one community should dictate what happens in 23. 5 We have long said let’s figure out a comprehensive 6 system. And our concern here tonight is that if you 7 approve this route, 23 other communities will then 8 come to you and say, “You approved Boston, now you’ve 9 got to put bans in because, hey, it’s more dangerous 10 than the relative people behind us,” and eventually 11 you can’t get product. And that’s what we’re really 12 concerned about is this is just a ripple effect and 13 goes on down. We obviously support all the points 14 that were made earlier about public safety and 15 equipment in that regard. 16 The final thing I want to mention, to 17 the point of short, you know, short distances, slower 18 speeds are safer. When you talk about fatalities, and 19 this will be the last point, these are family 20 businesses, a lot of them. They care about what 21 happens. When you talk about driver fatalities, it’s 22 great to say, statistically to say, “Oh, there was a 23 fatality there,” but what people forget is do you want 24 to know who that fatality was? Someone’s father, Arlington Reporting Company
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79 1 brother, sister, mother. It’s usually the truck 2 driver. So, I just want to be careful that when folks 3 talk about the trucking industry, let’s be very 4 certain, we care most about public safety, not just 5 about the people we serve, the customer ­­ I mean 6 that’s, obviously, A) that’s business sense ­­ but it 7 goes to human nature. But, at the heart, at the core 8 of it, these people who are driving trucks every day, 9 it’s dangerous. They know it. They have a 10 responsibility to their family members, to their co­
11 workers, to everyone else. 12 So, I just want to highlight that the 13 MMTA is truly concerned about the public safety on 14 this impact, not just because it impacts every single 15 one of us ­­ I live in Winchester. This whole 16 proposal will affect me. But it affects our members 17 directly in terms of who ends up dying when these 18 accidents occur. 19 I appreciate it. Thank you very much. 20 DONNY DAILEY: Mr. Broderick, that 21 22 concludes this part of the testimony. THOMAS BRODERICK: With that, I’d like 23 to adjourn the meeting. I’d like to thank everybody 24 for coming out and for all your testimony. And I’d Arlington Reporting Company
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80 1 like to thank the Town for providing us with the
2 facility for the hearing this evening.
Thank you very much.
3 4 5 concluded.)
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8 //
9 //
10 // 11 // 12 // 13 // 14 // 15 // 16 // 17 // 18 // 19 // 20 // 21 // 22 // 23 // 24 //
(Whereupon, the proceedings were
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81 C E R T I F I C A T E
I, Judith A. Luciano, do hereby certify that the foregoing record is a true and accurate transcription of the proceedings in the above­
captioned matter to the best of my skill and ability. _______________________ Judith A. Luciano ** ALL NAMES NOT PROVIDED WERE SPELLED PHONETICALLY TO THE BEST OF MY ABILITY Arlington Reporting Company
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