It was proposed months ago, but the House and Senate have now approved a bill that would eliminate the always-troubled Turnpike Authority. It's now up to Deval Patrick to pass it or not; given his previous stance on the issue, it seems likely that he will. Unions representing Pike employees are (obviously) opposed to the organization's elimination, as it would eliminate their cushy jobs and associated pensions. Trashing the Turnpike Authority seems like a potentially good move that could allow for greater standardization of transportation policy across the state. The utter lack of regard for unions in this case makes the drawn-out Globe drama all the more interesting. Is there something intrinsic about newspapers that make them seem worth saving? Or what if journalism were a government-funded endeavor? Would the Globe be losing even more than "$85 million" this year?
Results tagged “turnpikeauthority”
- The Turnpike Authority proves, with a befuddling toll increase plan, that Deval Patrick is right to get rid of it. [Globe]
- The DC quarter features Duke Ellington. (What will ours have?) [Globe]
- Just because it's foreclosed doesn't mean it's closed, apparently. People were found living in a foreclosed Dorchester home. [WBZ]
Deval Patrick has a plan. He wants to get rid of the Turnpike Authority (yay!) and increase the gas tax (boo!), which hasn't been raised in nearly 20 years. Globe and Herald commenters are up in arms about the gas tax increase, which will take away a few dollars a week from their apparently near-empty pockets. These are the people who kept driving when gas was $4/gallon, and are now complaining that it might be $2.20. Make sense to you?
Those of us who don't drive may not care, but the automobile aficionados among us are certainly interested in the issue of toll hikes on the pike. (Personally, we like the Universal Hub solution: sponsorship.) The financially troubled Turnpike Authority will be holding a series of public hearings on the topic in the coming weeks to allow citizens to voice their opinions on the matter. The schedule is as follows:
--People marched yesterday in memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Steven Odom, a 13-year-old who was shot and killed in random gunfire. [Boston Globe]
We were in Detroit for the weekend, and the most frequently asked questions about Boston were "What happened in the Super Bowl?" and "Is that Big Dig thing finally finished?" The latter is easier to answer: No.
Some truck driver decided to make like a college student on move-in day yesterday afternoon. He blithely ignored the height limits on the Big Dig and plowed his way through the I-90 connector. Noah Bierman at the Globe describes the ensuing chaos resulting from the alleged dumbassery: "The trucker had dodged a height restriction, almost, until his load met with the ceiling, causing sparks to fly."
--The Executive Director of the Turnpike Authority wants to CharlieCard everything so that you can use your card at the tolls. While we're all for not having to save spare change, automation might make it easier to miss fare hikes. [Boston Herald]
The MetroWest Daily News shed some light on the Turnpike Authority Board yesterday. The following line says it all:
Good to know Bostonist isn't the only one who gets nervous driving under the Shaw's in Newton that appears to balance precariously over the Mass Pike. Oh, and through the Prudential Tunnel. And through pretty much any tunnel in this city. The Globe reports today that private businesses are responsible for maintenance of the piece of tunnel that passes under their building.
We interviewed former gubernatorial candidate, businessman, and man-about-the-state Christy Mihos. Mihos has taken an active role against Cape Wind, the proposal to install wind turbines in Nantucket Sound, and he has offered an alternate proposal to install wind turbines at his chain of convenience stores. We told him up front that we were pro-Cape Wind, but we've run a lot of pro-Cape Wind posts, and we wanted to give him equal time to talk about...
Whew! We're so glad all those officials said that our bridges are safe. What's that? You meant safe to drive ON, not UNDER? Oh!! Silly us, our mistake. Thanks for clearing that up. The Tobin Bridge, Boston Authorities were clued in to a potential problem when Dan French of Londonderry, N.H., said last month a softball sized-chunk of concrete smashed his 25-foot boat's windshield. The debris from the Tobin Bridge has not hit anyone,...
Hate Love?! Oooh, We're all mixed up inside today. HATE! : One year ago TO-DAY, the Mass. Turnpike Authority, a.k.a. The Big Dig, killed a woman. Remember? Milena Del Valle was killed on July 10 2006 as she and her husband drove through the Big Dig's I-90 Connector. The zillion-dollar ceiling panels collapsed, crushing Angel Del Valle's wife beside him before he was able to crawl to safety. Today the National Transportation Safety Board...
It came from the tales of Troop E. WBZ followed a tip that State Troopers were using one of the ventilation facilities constructed as part of the Big Dig for a driving range. What's news to us is the sheer volume of the ventilation buildings that allow for a third floor with 25 foot ceilings. We knew they were big just looking at their protrusions on the surface, but never knew they were that big....
Once you know how to use Storrow getting from your point A to point B becomes so much easier. Well, that is if you're willing to take a chance. The Herald reports this morning that they've reviewed documents and seen evidence of their own that the Storrow Drive Tunnel that runs along the Esplanade is in severe need of repair. It's something the DCR has known for a while; they've been looking into the best...
The big news in this mornings papers and airwaves was that a report from the Transportation Finance Commission has released a report that pretty much every state transit authority (including the MBTA, DCR, Turnpike Authority, and Highway Department) is in deficit spending and working to just keep up what they've got going. The deficit spending will result in a projected $19 billion deficit over the next 20 years according to the report. That's just for...
This morning Ramp L, also known as Exit 20, has reopened. Yesterday Mass Turnpike Authority officials opened the carpool lane just north of the ramp, and this morning the ramp was opened to traffic. The ramp, closed since the incident last July, will allow the estimated 22,000 drivers to connect from I-93 N to I-90 E towards Logan. A carpool portion of the eastbound ramp does remain closed for repairs, and is expected to open...
Breaking news out of the tunnels today is that the inevitable legal action is now official. The family of Milena Del Valle, the Jamaica Plain resident killed when ceiling tiles in the I-90 connector tunnel crushed her in July, are suing in a wrongful death case. The legal action names the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, and eight other companies who worked on the project as responsible for the death of Del Valle. There was...
With everything that's gone on with the Big Dig since the project started it isn't surprising that yet another delay was announced by the Turnpike Authority in reopening connector tunnels. They announced that because of engineering flaws in steel brackets that hold up concrete panels aren't actually strong enough to keep them up. Due skepticism was given when it was discovered that the glue holding the bolts in place wasn't doing the trick – but...
Boston awoke this morning to the news we dread, more Big Dig stories. Last night, sometime around 11 pm a large hunk of ceiling in the Turnpike connector tunnel came crashing down when a steel tieback let go. The three ton slab of concrete crushed a car; while the driver was rescued alive the passenger in the vehicle was killed. The stretch of turnpike connector to the Ted Williams Tunnel is closed until at least mid-day tomorrow.
It's easy to forget what's come out of the Big Dig. Literally not figuratively. With all the water that keeps leaking into the tunnels that traverse below Boston's feet the story making headlines is often about taking things out that aren't supposed to be there. But this story all started by taking out the dirt and gravel – and where the Turnpike Authority would put it. Once a dump, Spectacle Island has become the new home to 3 million cubic yards of dirt and gravel pulled above ground as part of the Big Dig and dumped on the harbor island. The DCR opened the renovated, reconstructed island this weekend to about a reported 100 visitors. The island park is free to visit, but getting there is the part that will usually cost you money, ferries regularly cost $10 - $12 to get out there. Today we know you're itching for a reason to ditch work and go find out what all the fuss is about this trash heap – that's where HarborWalk and the Boston Harbor Association come in. Today they'll be leading a free tour, and ferry, out to Spectacle Island.
The Big Dig is still making the news and it's supposed to be finished already. Delay after delay we thought we finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel, especially when they officially named the tunnel, but the job is still not done. Today the Big Dig headlines revolved around the millions of gallons of water that are still leaking into the underground roadways. A week ago it was the lagging state of the anticipated park construction.
Remember that hubbub a little while ago about the use of substandard concrete in the Big Dig tunnels? That Big Dig scandal was so five minutes ago. Today, it's all about the Rose Kennedy Greenway - the swath of park that will eventually sit atop the crumbling tunnel and brighten all of our lives. Specifically, it's about the memorial to the victims of the Armenian Genocide, which the state legislature said in 2000 should be built somewhere (they left it up to the Turnpike Authority to choose where, and the Pike chose the greenway). Yesterday, Mayor Menino joined the chorus of public officials opposed to the memorial on the theory that it's unfair to have just one memorial to just one massacred ethnic group, and it would be a nightmare if every group got a memorial on the greenway (presumably, all that granite would hasten the tunnel's collapse).
We should start by saying that math was never our strong suit, and we didn't progress past Trig. (in which we got a D+ our senior year of high school). Nevertheless, we shall endeavor to analyze the question. We'll focus on lost productivity due to traffic, if only because it's a straightforward figure, and we'll limit ourselves to the Central Artery: 16 minutes and 42 seconds a day comes to 69 hours and 35 minutes of time per year per car, if we assume 250 work days. Of course, only half of that is lost in the morning, so we have 34 hours and 42 minutes of actual lost work time. (OK, you can see where this is going. If you're ready for more number-crunching, click below.)
Last month, fundraising for the Boston Museum Project reached the $4 million mark, a milestone for them, but still just a fraction of the $70 million projected total cost. The goal of the Boston Museum Project (BMP) is to construct a new museum showcasing Boston’s past, present, and future on parcel 12 of the soon-to-be created Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.
While Bostonist is stuck in the office this week with our co-workers on vacation, we’ve noticed that things are not only quiet at work, but in the news arena too. We’ve kept ourselves occupied with this SNL skit floating around the web and now we’re rounding up the latest news stories from the past couple days so you can read them and then keep on eating those leftover holiday chocolates next to the copy machine....