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Is the bicycle/pedestrian path along the Green Line Extension in Somerville open?
By adamg on Fri, 04/28/2023 - 10:04am
This Web site will answer the question immediately (hint, the answer right now involves Betteridge's Law).
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Dear MBTA
Fuck you and the contractors you hired.
MBTA has nothing to do...
with bike paths, try again.
This bike path is part of the Green Line Extension project
and therefore very much part of the MBTA.
Any soft opening? Or should I say soft access?
When the Cochituate Rail Trail was still unofficially open between Natick Center and Saxonville, there were many segments where the constructors just put up some CYA orange barrels and signs so it was "officially" still "under construction" but everyone was able to use it for many months before the ribbon-cutting (admittedly there were always a couple of hard stops, e.g. impenetrable fences on the bridge over Route 9 at Mathworks).
Just wondering if that might be the case on some Community Path Extension segments while the accessibility work is completed. Not that I would ever condone illegal trespassing in any form, mind you.
Yeah
Same with the current bike bridge over Rt. 2 in Concord right now. It's currently in heavy use but technically "closed" according to the small sign to the side of the trail.
There is absolutely no legitimate reason to keep the path closed and blocked off. None. Like everything related to the T, their absentee manager's response is just to eliminate service.
It's not as if the path extends to Hawaii or NY or wherever the project manager lives.
Rumor
Rumor is that they didn't wan't Charlie to cut the ribbon on it.
Yes. According to Ron Newman
Yes. According to Ron Newman's photos on Facebook, it's really easy to go around the fencing. The only issue is that some of the expansion joints are unfinished, so you wouldn't want to bike over them at speed.
reddit commenters
Answer seems to be yes.
Psst
I'm so old that I biked the whole Minuteman before it opened (both ways!)
Just get on your bike and ride.
Late fall some people pushed
Late fall some people pushed aside the fences blocking it and I was able to run and bike on it. Then the state put up wider and more durable fences and locks and since then it’s totally inaccessible, unlike the Bruce Freeman bridge in Concord.
Same here
It was passible before it was even fully paved. I learned how to portage the bridges that were the last thing to be fixed.
I was headed through an unpaved stretch near Lexington Center when I got a Most Epic Flat - hand wrought iron nail of ye olde early timey origins! Probably from some construction debris dumped on it when it was an abandoned train line. It looked like this one and was probably from the late 18th or early 19th century.
I've ridden most of it.
I rode most of it a month or so ago. The start, near Lowell, was padlocked. After detouring around that section, I was able to get to the high school on the path. Then another detour around active construction, then got all the way to the East Somerville Stop. It's "accessible" if you're willing to shift some lightweight gates around, and in most cases, I didn't even have to do that.
I feel like someone with a bolt cutter could free up the first stretch pretty easily, and that would lead to the rest being de facto open.
Do one for Fenway Path too
The single-block sidewalk between Lansdowne and Fenway stations that could have been done by a four-person crew over any given weekend anytime in the last 30 years, now finally looking shiny and new but still under lock and key as of yesterday for no apparent reason.
They'll open it as soon as possible
But first, they have to figure out why it was closed in the first place.
Was its because there was a light bulb that needed installing somewhere? A rhododendron that needed planting? Who can remember, it's been so long.
Can we please get access
under Park Drive at the Fenway stop
Apparently they can't open it until the contractor is done
including fixing the stuff they didn't get right the first time. This is what someone on Reddit said -- that as soon as they open the path, the contractor is off the hook. It's a kind of stupid situation, but it's basically an accountability thing.
(The last I heard, the contractor is being required to fix some accessibility issues.)
I call BS
The contractor is already on the hook for a certain amount of time after the project is compete.
There is a solution but it requires the MBTA to care. Lots of public projects get opened to the public when punch-list items are still outstanding. Not all the GLX stations are 100% complete currently.
The MBTA, being a lousy agency with lousy management, is happy to use any an excuse so it's one less thing they have to deal with. Just look at how many excuses they've given for slow-zones and reduced service over the past year.
Let's recap the lies:
Fair point on the GLX
and I'm always ready to believe that the MBTA is just f'ed up.
this site reminds me of...
isitchristmas.com