Haverhill Line Upgrades (Western Route)

RE: Track Work ~ Bussing between Reading and Haverhill

Sigh... someone in MBTA PR needs to learn the correct spelling; plural of bus is spelled buses and the verb is busing.
http://grammarist.com/spelling/buses-busses/

It's almost as bad as "The train is comming"

Doubt it.



By the way, the construction has not been completed yet. (Look at the date on that thing!)

I'm sure the T has a copy editor in its marketing department, or at the very least a proofreader. Yikes.

While that particular T office may have the inconvience of non-spell-check computers, it seems expecting too much to order -- without even a "please" -- the inconvienced riders to aplogize for the manner in which they engaged in such self-inconvience and in such an unpunctuated way.

(This might have been prepared by one of my one-time students. The pattern appears familiar.)

This morning (4F at about 10:30 AM), there were 5 or 6 trucks at Andover St, with new ditches for cabling. Another gang was working at I-495, and assembled turnouts for the facing point crossover were sitting E of the RoW. Gangs and machines were working at both Shawsheen bridges. My train also operated slowly between LJ and the doomed retaining wall, but I didn't see anyone actually working on the RoW.

If I was working any of those jobs, I'd be really torn: Nice to have work during what's normally a slow season, but boy, the work would have been easier if the MBTA had started it last summer. It won't take much more of this cold before ditching by hand will be over until April.

jbvb wrote:If I was working any of those jobs, I'd be really torn: Nice to have work during what's normally a slow season, but boy, the work would have been easier if the MBTA had started it last summer. It won't take much more of this cold before ditching by hand will be over until April.

I agree. Best wishes to those who have to work outside in weather like this. I hope they all stay safe and that any injuries of any kind are avoided but in particular those resulting from working outside in conditions like this with cold, hard and difficult materials.

$60M for Merrimack River Bridge overhaul...construction to start Fall 2013 and be complete in 2016.

I'm cross-posting this from the Amtrak Downeaster Thread 'cause I think we're more likely to get the answer of "where'd the $ come from, and what's the expected improvement in trip times?"

http://www.eagletribune.com/haverhill/x ... -this-year

gokeefe wrote:

jbvb wrote:If I was working any of those jobs, I'd be really torn: Nice to have work during what's normally a slow season, but boy, the work would have been easier if the MBTA had started it last summer. It won't take much more of this cold before ditching by hand will be over until April.

I agree. Best wishes to those who have to work outside in weather like this. I hope they all stay safe and that any injuries of any kind are avoided but in particular those resulting from working outside in conditions like this with cold, hard and difficult materials.

Interesting to see how much priority this project now has. Yawkey station had zero construction workers the last 3 days.

Arlington wrote:$60M for Merrimack River Bridge overhaul...construction to start Fall 2013 and be complete in 2016.

I'm cross-posting this from the Amtrak Downeaster Thread 'cause I think we're more likely to get the answer of "where'd the $ come from, and what's the expected improvement in trip times?"

http://www.eagletribune.com/haverhill/x ... -this-year

Thanks for that Arlington. I'm as amazed as you are that this project has appeared "out of the mists" as it were.

Questions for the Membership-at-Large:

1. Is this funding regular a regular MBTA capital expenditure? Is it being redirected from another project?

2. Is this in fact a sudden "change of course" by the MBTA or was this a planned program that only now is being made public?

As I read it, they're repairing (and presumably painting) the existing Haverhill deck/through truss bridge. If they do a thorough job, they might get back to the old B&M 35 MPH passenger limit. This won't have a lot of effect on current passenger operations, as MBTA trains stop at Bradford & Haverhill, 0.4 mi. apart. Downeasters might gain a minute, but schedule-writers have to allow time so DEs can hold out of either station when an MBTA train is at the platform.

I don't have an ETT handy, so I don't know the old B&M freight speed. I am less sure that it can be achieved now, with heavier freight cars. But even 10 MPH OR two freights on the bridge simultaneously would help Guilford significantly, with a follow-on improvement to passenger schedule-keeping.

Today there were about 10 pickups at Andover St., one may have been marked Gilbane. I glimpsed what might have been the westerly signal mast upright at I-495. Crews working at both Shawsheen bridges. I-beam piles driven at the Andover bridge, and an excavator repairing the retaining wall down at river level. An excavator drilling a hole for a deep poured concrete column at the LJ bridge.

jbvb wrote:Today there were about 10 pickups at Andover St., one may have been marked Gilbane. I glimpsed what might have been the westerly signal mast upright at I-495. Crews working at both Shawsheen bridges. I-beam piles driven at the Andover bridge, and an excavator repairing the retaining wall down at river level. An excavator drilling a hole for a deep poured concrete column at the LJ bridge.

All of this in the absolute dead of winter. Impressive.

Does anyone know if work on the Haverhill-Bradford bridge includes either altering or replacing the though-truss section to permit full DS?

jaymac wrote:Does anyone know if work on the Haverhill-Bradford bridge includes either altering or replacing the though-truss section to permit full DS?

My research indicates that the bridge already has sufficient clearance for full double stacks. The Ferry Rd. OH bridge, currently under reconstruction, and the overheads in Andover may be the limiting locations in the block.

DAW

130MM-
Thanks! My concern was that major bridge work seemed like a good opportunity to address possible future DS issues.