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State to try to convince Coast Guard to keep the Chelsea Bridge down at rush hour
By adamg on Sat, 12/22/2018 - 1:08pm
The Chelsea Record reports MBTA and Massport officials now acknowledge the constant raising of the Chelsea Bridge for ships even during rush hour is screwing up Silver Line and other bus service and commuters and that they are hoping to convince the Coast Guard to go along with a pilot plan to bar most maritime traffic - but not oil tankers - under the bridge for two hours in the morning and again in the late afternoon.
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Comments
Bus Rapid Transit
Plays second fiddle to boat rapid transit. How come the high priced consultants didn't factor the raising of the Chelsea Bridge during rush hour as a barrier to bus rapid transit.
Who Sails Up A Dead End?
If this is just the Chelsea St Bridge there is nothing on the far side but a mooring for oil tankers as the only marina is on the downstream side of that bridge.
Fuel ships
Fuel ships
So, nobody bothered to consider how frequently the bridge
opens during the day before deciding to run a BRT line over it? Another MBTA fail.
The people who think about
The people who think about such things raised this concern, but the higher ups making the decisions went ahead anyway.
Move the tank farm
Simpler to move the tank farm to So. Boston. No need for a bridge opening. Until then, ship movements are linked to the tides and USCG doesn't have much control over tide timing.
The South Boston tank farm no
The South Boston tank farm no longer exists. It was dismantled over the last two decades and the land was sold to MassPort to enlarge the Conley Inter-modal Freight Terminal, expand Haul Road, and keep a reservation for rail freight sidings available should rail service ever be reactivated to the port.
The tank farm could be moved Charlestown next to the Tobin bridge where the old rail yard was converted to surface parking storage for offloading cars being shipped to local dealerships.
Ok, but the tide timing is 100% known
So, the ship can slow down or speed up by a small amount over the course a multi-week voyage to get the harbor at the right time to hit the tides and miss traffic, within reason. If you take 8-10 and 4-7 off the table, that's only 20% of the day.
What about the jet fuel
What about the jet fuel pipeline gouing to Logan? Going to run tankers in its place? There is more to Chelsea street than you know, that goes on , and has gone on .
Perhaps a pedestrian protest at CG Station during rush hour...
Might render a quick problem resolution? Coasties have to commute also...
I met a CG higher-up last year
Flying on a plane to DEN. I had upgraded (early Sat AM) and he was upgraded on the "well, we have seats, let's see if there are any active duty personnel on the flight" deal. He lived out at Hanscom, and took the train in from Woburn every day. Said it was free with his military ID, and beat the hell out of driving. It sounded like some other CG personnel from far afield were less accustomed to public transit and spent a lot of time on 93.
I doubt it
I doubt it
everything for oil
exempting the thing that causes the delays...