While MassDOT has long stopped responding to my emails, I have multiple Gmail accounts at my disposal, and after the team released its latest design for the Reid Overpass in Cambridgeport, I returned to an earlier response to see if I could square it.
As you might guess, I’m still not a fan of the new designs, presented in August, but there’s not much more I can say about them. What I do want to discuss is creativity.
My email to the state Department of Transportation mentioned several of the designs that community members put forward that are clever and solve many of the problems the team is analyzing. First, a Europe-style pedestrian-bike roundabout bridge as an alternative to a car-only overpass. While admittedly a pipe dream, it removes the slowdowns engineers dread from having to accommodate pedestrians. It also makes geographic sense, as bikers already incur a “height penalty” from having to go uphill to go downriver or up the Boston University Bridge. Second is a slimmed-down roundabout featuring a genuinely novel approach to fixing the 47 bus route and a persuasive argument for fewer lanes.
The state’s new designs feature none of these things.
The project team assured me over email that not only was it aware of these proposals, it was in communication with the people behind them. While it’s not great for us to have to do the state’s job, this was heartening to hear. Maybe the engineers were just busy with other projects and didn’t have time to consider these solutions. Of course, the truth is darker than that: They just don’t care.
As a community, we’re unable to hold consultants such as WSP accountable. A corporate behemoth, it has no reason to listen to us and no interest in exerting more than minimal effort on projects that will affect our lives for years to come. The direction needs to come from MassDOT’s leadership, whose current head is too busy running the MBTA to notice what’s happening here.
Further, our representatives need to do more than show up to meetings and thank the project team for sitting down with us – they need to ask for heads to roll.
Nicholas Marchuk is a local author and engineer. His work is available at major retailers and on his website, nicholasmarchuk.com. Comments and questions can be directed to his contact form and may be responded to in this publication.
