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Alewife station to remain shut through the week
By adamg on Sun, 02/05/2023 - 2:03pm
Alewife atrium at 11 a.m. today. Photo by Barb.
Updated with new shutdown time.
The MBTA reports workers overnight removed the five-ton concrete barrier a guy in a Civic knocked loose from the Alewife parking garage yesterday but that the station will remain shut until engineers can figure out how to create a safe passageway from outside to the fare gates - which could take the rest of the week.
The concrete slab fell on a metal lattice that was designed to hold see-through panels, not a 10,000-pound object, and the station atrium this morning remained full of debris from the heavily damaged station roof.
Moving the slab. Photo by MBTA:
We continue to clear other debris and examine the roof’s structural integrity. While we're developing plans for securing the roof, we advise riders to expect shuttles to continue this week.
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Comments
Why close the station?
There's a second set of steps with faregates to the tracks from the other side of the station. They could use that keep the part that was damaged safely closed off.
There are concerns with the
There are concerns with the roof.
People from Cambridge and Arlington use this station.
We aren't peasants. We will not use the servant entrance.
Keep it closed until the proper entrance is functional.
The east entrance *is* the Cambridge entrance
Far more Cambridge residents live near the Russell Field entrance than near the main entrance, which adjoins mostly office buildings.
this alternate access does
this alternate access does not negate the need for 2 means of egress of the platform... so you can just have one way in one way out (event though there are plenty of MBTA situations with this exact same scenario)
Besides other structural concerns….
…. safe exiting in case of fire or other emergencies must be available.
I suspect the experts know what they are doing and are making the right decisions.
Of course, they could always require helmets …
jk
Nice job, Melissa
I was reading the UHub story about the windows falling out of the East (Russell Field) entrance to the station last summer and this comment had some unintentional foreshadowing.
And given the garage has dropped concrete on cars recently, perhaps it's revenge that a car (almost) dropped itself on the station.
Alewife: The combination of the worst design and construction elements of the 1980s.
A POS driver almost kills
A POS driver almost kills people and causes potentially millions in damage and inconveniences tens of thousands of public transportation users and you blame the building itself instead of the asshole driver. Typical.
Yeah, dude
I expect public facilities to be well maintained and safe
If chunks of concrete are falling from the ceiling and windows are falling out of frames, that's a huge problem completely unrelated to a suicidal driver.
The fact a small car was able to cleanly break off a huge chunk of siding coupled with the other concrete failings (the garage has nearly been condemned in the past) means there are some serious structural issues. That isn't to say a car slamming into the side shouldn't cause damage, but it should not cleanly snap off a 10,000lb block of siding onto the atrium either.
How dare you blame a driver!
They are not given the free luxury garage space they deserve over everyone else. This will teach us good!!!
From the news reporting, this
From the news reporting, this person intentionally tried to kill him/herself. Mental
illness is not something to be mocked. Suicidal attempts shouldn’t be internet fodder for ignorant virtual trolls. Educate yourself.
Dude...
...this wasn't exactly a "driving" thing. It was an "attempted suicide" thing. Really, for once, get off your hobby horse.
Suicide by gun is still a gun thing.
Likewise with any other method. We already know motor vehicles are dangerous and used in many suicides.
If this was a suicide attempt, someone below could have been killed.
Exactly
Exactly -- and this is also true if he jumped.
It really is not about the car, Lee.
Don’t be daft.
If you take the gun away from a killer who misused his or don’t issue a gun to someone who shows signs of potentially misusing it, you take away the car of a killer who kills with or shows intent to kill with a car or even shows himself incapable of safe driving.
If your only tool is a hammer...
...you see every problem as a nail.
Kinopio rage.
Is a known factor in your issue.
I hear Magoo is offering soothing words in private sessions for interested members.
That whizzing sound...
...is the entire point flying past your head.
Kinopio suffers from foot-in-mouth disease, which causes him to bury reasonable points in a pile of toxic slag. In your fervid imagination, I see a Kinopio post and "rage", when in reality I see a Kinopio post and either say "good point" or I cringe at the complete ineptitude of his expression of said point. Wishing that someone would express themselves in a less self-defeating manner is hardly "rage", but you've clearly got your own storyline going on about what is in many people's heads, including the suicidal driver of this car, so don't let me stop you.
Glad to help! :)
Glad to help! :)
Should Hondas be banned using
Should Hondas be banned using from the garage?
Alewife, Braintree, Quincy Adams…
Concrete pieces of shit, all falling apart. The Ts design and construction work during the 70s and 80s was a complete embarrassment.
they should demolish the
they should demolish the garage and rebuild. that thing is wildly unsafe and poorly designed. traffic jams for cars existing are a common occurrence, it has taken me over an hour to get out of it more times than i care to admit.
The whole area
The whole area is built on a swamp. Alewife station has an elaborate set of pumps to keep the ground water there low. Why you might ask?
Because if they don't, the station and the garage will sink faster due to unstable ground. Yes, the station and the parking garage are sinking.. a engineer friend says its about a 1/8" a year. Not alot.. but that station opened in 1988, so its sunk about 4 and 1/3 inches since then. (35 years folks)
Doesn't seem like a lot but in building engineering terms.. it is ALOT. People wonder why every few years they do something to that garage because it becomes unsafe? Yeah this is why it crumbles and has issues. Its sinking.. and just enough to cause issues with the structure.
I agree it should be dismantled, along with the station and rebuilt using today's standards for ground water mitigiation.
If we ever had a 4.0 earthquake here, the Alewife Garage would be the absolute last place I'd want to be. It would flatten in no time.
Station opened in 1985
Tremors
I used to work in the offices to the northeast of Alewife Station (north of the east end) and when that earthquake hit Virginia about 10 years ago, we could feel and hear it in the building. :-/ creak creak creak creak
It's a miracle nobody died,
It's a miracle nobody died, honestly.
Hopefully the driver is held accountable, even if this was suicide-related. I get people don't think clearly when they're suffering once you involve other people my sympathy evaporates.
If suicidal, probably thought it would be safe for other people
Seriously, who thinks that crashing their Civic into what looks like a solid wall is going to hurt anyone but themselves? Driver probably thought they were just going to demolish them and their car and end their suffering without hurting anyone else.
People who are suicidal are often not ….
… thinking about strangers. Or their welfare.
The license should be revoked for …
… public safety reasons.