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The shine is off new North Station tunnel
By adamg on Mon, 01/28/2019 - 10:03am
Was it only three weeks ago that the pedestrian tunnel under Causeway Street finally opened? T.J. Winnick reports this morning:
Not only is the weeks-old North Station tunnel way too narrow for rush hour but the escalator has already been out of order since last week!
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Comments
Goddammit
That tunnel is awesome.
is not something you hear
is not something you hear often
Its Wicked Baaaastn
Rexlax !!!
Just like the Red lIne Screech entering Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaahvd and other local Qwarhks we'll lahn to love it -- and be happy to show it off to folks who come to visit us
After All its just Baaaaaaaaaaastn being Well its own Wicked self --- Baaaaaaaaaaastn is Well Baaaaaaaaaaastn
can you not
thx
No I agree with him/her
And it's among the reasons I moved away after 21 years. Charm becomes PITA after a while.
Not impressed
I used the tunnel for the first time on Saturday to walk from the Orange Line to the commuter rail station.
The first part of the tunnel was very narrow. Based on what I saw I would never use it during rush hours or after a game at the garden. The rest of the tunnel was narrow but at least had high ceilings which relieved my claustrophobia a bit.
There was standing water in roughly the same place that always had standing water in the old passage to the old stairs to the outside.
The floor was cracked in several places.
The tunnel was filthy dirty. That didn't take long.
The escalator was broken.
Another great job by the T, and always remember that it 's not Charlie Baker's fault. Nothing is ever his fault.
Don't worry. The new Orange
Don't worry. The new Orange and Red Line trains will fix it.
When a partial ceiling collapse hits a new train
Maybe just maybe things will change.
You'd think leaving it to
You'd think leaving it to private developers to make infrastructure improvements as concessions for projects would lead to them making what's best instead of what's cheapest.
Didn't the agreement with the
Didn't the agreement with the developer specify the width of the tunnel?
Perhaps it's like the John Hancock Observatory requirement
"Well, we know we put this in the rules but we can't find the documents any more. Oops."
Just add it to the
"state of good repair backlog," and wait 15 years for repairs.
World Class, Baby!! MBTA
World Class, Baby!! MBTA can't keep up with all the booming development over at North Station! The new "Uptown Boston" !!!
Post-construction warranty repair
Given the short time since the project completion date/reopening of the tunnel, it's fairly certain that the escalator repair should be covered under a post-construction warranty (except if vandalism, owner misuse, or "Act of God").
If warranty repair, which is luckily free to the Owner, then the installer "Otis" as per the barrier, has few incentives to repair quickly unless the spec writers set out an expedited repair provision in the bid/contract for the work.
Seeing other new construction work done on the T and soon "broken" but with long lead time to repair, I think this latest situation may not be rectified quickly. And it gets worse if the T has to first notify the General Contractor for the tunnel project of the defect, who then calls Otis as a subonctractor.
Last week the escalator was broken, I used it anyway.
This morning it was blocked off. I thought there would be a crew working on it, but no, it was just barricaded, reducing the passageway by half. Look for the Union label.
The escalator was not broken
It was temporarily stairs.
We apologize for the convenience.
A question for North Station commuters
Did the run the escalator down in the morning and up in the evening when it was working?
Yes
Not immediately after the tunnel opened, but the T started switching the escalator direction to match the commuter flow after the first couple days.
Thanks for the info
And good luck with everything.
Never Commuted During Rush Hour
Whoever designed this tunnel for the MBTA never commuted during rush hour. Couldn't they do a study to know approx how many people would use the tunnel? They built a stairway that is 2 people wide, plus an escalator. There is always gridlock at that stairway, and it gets worse as some people are running to make their train. Horrible design.