Longfellow Bridge Repairs: Red Line to be Disrupted

The shoo fly track takes shape, with twin guard rails for added rigidity.

Electrical conduit tubes are stacked up at the far (Boston) end of the track, suggesting that temporary power feeder cables will be laid in this trackway.

As of 1/12/16 switch work on the existing tracks has not begun

Last night a track panel was laid on top of the stub end on the Cambridge side. Still no sign of curved track nor a turnout. Picture taken from my perch in Tower One.

I saw a ballast tamper on the south end of the bridge today.

I was on the outbound train today at around 4PM. The train took the new outer track. The old outbound track is firmly disconnected on both ends (no switches or anything). Surprisingly, the ballast tamper and another track maintenance car are stored on the disconnected track.

During the next closure(s) the inbound track will be swung over and connected to the former outbound track on the bridge, hence how the track equipment will be "liberated" from where they are.

They must have gotten track work done last night. My outbound at 4pm yesterday crawled over the bridge, but 8am outbound today was at normal speed.

Here's the view from Tower One today, with the temporary northbound track in service.

A Cambridge bound train runs on the temporary track alongside Boston bound motorists. The motorists should already be accustomed to the Jersey barrier that has walled off the track area for several weeks. On Tuesday Oct. 19, inspectors (wearing yellow safety vests) have been riding some if not all trains over the bridge. A train has just left Charles Station and takes the temporary shoo fly track. The inbound track in the foreground will be connected to the old outbound track over the bridge which is the center track as shown. At least one driver announced a 10 MPH speed over the bridge which would have added two minutes to that portion of the trip. Station announcements mentioned "delay due to track work on the bridge."

New alignment, as seen from Charles/MGH.

They cancelled this weekend's diversion. Regular service will run.

Yes, the announcement said that the planned weekend work could be completed overnight. They had originally scheduled one contingency weekend shutdown in case of weather delays.

The remaining work mainly involves finishing the construction barriers to separate the work area from the active tracks.

Looking forward, there's likely some sections near the north end of Charles/MGH that will be hard to work on while service is operating. It will be interesting to see if they can complete the work under this area solely on weekend shutdowns.

The view from Tower One today.

Note the pile of rail. I believe the schedule is for the new shoo-fly to be built starting next week.

The railbed for the future permanent Boston-bound (but temporary Cambridge-bound) track is nearly complete, and is being painted yellow today (anyone know why?). The shoo-fly will go upstream of this railbed for the upcoming Stage 4 of construction.

ETA: The yellow was just a primer. It's now painted gray.

And now there's track going in on the new (permanent) inbound trackway (soon to become the temporary outbound trackway). As seen from Tower One.

Today's view from Tower One. Just now, workers have drawn the line that will be the bound for the temporary Boston-bound shoo-fly track ROW. You can see it in the picture just above the two white trucks -- it's the one on a diagonal, with another one just above it that will be the temporary fence protecting the vehicle lane.

Also note that at least on the Cambridge end, the rail has been placed on the ties of the new permanent track.

The new shoo-fly (temporary Boston-bound track) is mostly in-place now, though not connected on either end of the bridge.

When was the last time a Charles River bridge had four tracks Grab your pictures now, it won't be that way for long! The switchover to the two upstream tracks and removal of the two downstream tracks will occur over the next month.