Haverhill Line Upgrades (Western Route)

[davesnothere]

Just got a resident robocall from the North Andover Police (also on their Facebook page)

Please be advised that from Saturday 5/23/15, 5 AM until Monday 5/25/15 at 7 PM the Railroad Crossing at 141 Sutton Street will be closed for repairs. This will be around the clock for the duration of the project. Traffic will be detoured along North Main Street and Ashland Street during the construction. A secondary detour will be established at Marblehead Street should the volume of traffic create a hazard on Ashland Street. Police Officers will be assigned to the area from both the North Andover Police Department and the Massachusetts Transit Police Department. Please be advised that all commercial trucks and buses should avoid the area during construction. We expect the railroad to have the intersection open by 7:00 PM on Monday evening. Thank you for your cooperation and patience.

[BostonUrbEx]

Finally! Bye bye 10 MPH speed restriction?

[davesnothere]

Drove by McCauley today, didn't have time to stop. Saw a boom post hole auger truck off to the side by the crossovers. Further north (RR east) by the Shawsheen River bridges, I saw a front end loader and equipment removing stacks of old ties that seem to be piled up (on the way?)

[octr202]

They removed some scrap ties from places over the weekend. I saw some of the big front end loaders with tie tongs/forks driving around Andover on Sunday.

Given the single track, it's hard to tell how far they've dumped ballast and tamped/lined/etc. to finish up from the tie replacement. Around WJ it looks like there is fresh ballast, but it hasn't reached Andover station yet.

[octr202]

In the upgrade to existing track project, the tie replacement on the active track switched back to the Reading-WJ section this week. As of yesterday they'd started replacing ties starting just east of Reading station, working towards WJ.

Through the Andover station stretch, ballast was dumped yesterday, as far as I could see in either direction.

The Guilford Sightings yahoo group had a report of a crew working at McCauley, what was done is hard to tell from a passing train. It's possible they've done some more work extending the new track west closer to Ballardvale, though what they intend to do with it when they hit the platform is beyond me.

[Rockingham Racer]

It should not be that big a deal to double the track through the Ballardvale station. But the way this whole project has progressed--or nor progressed--it would not surprise me to hear that double-tracking there won't be done just yet. I'd love to know how much of the grant money for this project has been spent to date and how much remains to be spent. I believe there's a deadline some time in 2017 to spend the money on said project.

[BvaleShihTzu]

It should not be that big a deal to double the track through the Ballardvale station. But the way this whole project has progressed--or nor progressed--it would not surprise me to hear that double-tracking there won't be done just yet. I'd love to know how much of the grant money for this project has been spent to date and how much remains to be spent. I believe there's a deadline some time in 2017 to spend the money on said project.

No, unfortunately it is a huge deal operationally. Since Andover and Ballardvale platforms are on opposite sides of the current single track, double-tracking means that (a) new platform builds at one or both stations -- which would be great, but would require land takings plus cost of building (b) trains stop at one station but not the other or (c) trains switch tracks on every trip at Macauley, complicating dispatching and reducing the value of the double-tracking.

The execution of this project is appalling -- absolutely none of the laid track has any value yet they keep laying more useless track. Absolutely no sense of urgency or surfacing of a desire to improve service.

[octr202]

Well, as I've outlined before, you can't remove the temporary platform extension at Ballardvale and still allow commuter trains to serve both Ballardvale and Andover - the platforms at the two stations would then be on opposite tracks, without any way to cross over between stations. McCauley interlocking is a trailing point crossover only, and with where the signals have been installed, they're not leaving room for a second crossover to make it universal. That's what makes the extension of the new eastbound main track towards Ballardvale (from both directions, since they've also built it towards the grade crossing at Ballardvale from Lowell Jct) so perplexing - it's not going to be useful without a full rebuild of Ballardvale station. I've heard nothing at all about new/renovated stations for Ballardvale or Andover, so I'm a bit perplexed as to why they're focused on this particular track construction and not something more useful. At least the new eastbound main from McCauley towards Lawrence would be useful as a second track to allow Downeasters or freights more working room around commuters, even if the commuters still need to be on the existing track to stop at Andover.

I'm assuming that major station projects (even adding limited "temporary" platforms on the opposite track at either station) will not be simple projects (as space is tight) and I'm sure that neighbors and abutting property owners will make the process difficult.

[eustis22]

is there any reason they can't use the old Andover Station as a platform?

[Rockingham Racer]

I still think there is room for a platform on the west side of Ballardvale. In any case, whoever came up with this plan was not much of a planner apparently. And I thought Andover was getting another platform on the east side. Even in the B&M days, I believe Boston-Bound people had to cross the eastward main to get over to the westward main at Andover. Memory is a bit scarce cause I'm talking 50 + years ago.

[octr202]

To answer the questions:

1. Old Andover station is now private businesses. It's been subdivided into separate offices. Used to be a nice little ice cream shop in there, and you could sit on the old platform and watch trains. Now it's an office of some kind. I don't think there'd be room for a working platform there alongside the station w/o using what appears to be now private property. I don't know who owns the station now (whether it was sold or leased) but since the MBTA moved the station east, it wouldn't surprise me if they sold off the old site.

2. I believe there was talk of putting an eastbound platform in at Andover as part of the plan to redevelop the DPW yard. That project was killed by anti-tax "do nothing" interests at town meeting, coupled with opposition to some of the proposed locations to move the yard. As of now I think it isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

3. You could probably squeeze a platform in on the EB side at Andover, but it will be tight to keep it on the ROW. Access will be difficult as passengers will have to walk around via Pearson St to cross the tracks (not that Pearson even has a sidewalk across the tracks).

4. Ballardvale - you probably could squeeze a platform on the westbound, but before the apartment building's parking lot. Again, would be very tight, and would be right in the backyard of some homes. This would mean taking down trees that help screen the station from the houses. Physically doable, but likely to stir up political opposition. And - the only way to access would be to install a pedestrian grade crossing within the station (no way the town would allow an overhead ped bridge in the historic district) - not sure if the T would still put those in.

RR - I'm guessing that it would be impossible today for the MBTA to build a new situation where passengers board across an active track. If not for the safety aspects (I realize that can be worked around), currently both stations are accessible via mini-highs. I'm not sure how you'd maintain that access with a platform across an active track.

[BostonUrbEx]

McCauley interlocking is a trailing point crossover only

They should've planned to make it a facing point, and then add a trailing point at CPF AS.

Facing point would allow for full double tracking without new platforms, and the trailing point at AS would reduce the length of track freights can't run on (since they tend to avoid Lawrence's high platform).

[jbvb]

In the past couple of weeks, the mid-day tie replacement has led to bustititution Haverhill - Reading, though I haven't kept track of the details of exactly which trains and whether the bus terminated at Andover, No. Wilmington or Reading.

Regarding the MBTA spokesperson quote in the newspaper article a page or two back, I'm beginning to think they're planning to try to pass off "look, we built all this {disconnected, rusty} track" as "substantially complete" at some point between this Fall and 2017.

[octr202]

Most of the work seems to be concentrated between WJ and Reading now. I did notice today that they may have surfaced part of that stretch - most of this week it has been slow ordered for the whole section, which in the evenings was creating 10-15 minute delays. Seemed faster and also smoother this morning, so hopefully that is the beginning of the end there. From WJ to Andover, looks like it's all over save for picking up scrap ties. Still a lot of equipment around, but whether that's for possible new track construction or just left over from this project, I don't know.

As for the new track, in some places there's fairly substantial weeds growing out of the new track. I wonder how much of it will need it's own tie replacement before it ever sees revenue service. Starting to agree with jbvb...the only goal of this was to expend money, not to build anything useful.

(As a side note, to and from the train each day I cross the Route 28/N Main St. bridge over the tracks in Andover. That bridge was originally supposed to be replaced in 2010, so it's not just MBTA projects moving in slow motion (or reverse) around the area.)

[Slushbucket]

There was a switch panel installed this morning on the running track just north of Frye Interlocking under the 495 N overpass and onramp (not directly beneath, but close). CR trains had to run on the yard track through Lawrence, which meant slow orders from the Andover St. crossing to Frye.