Casey Arborway, Dec. 11, 2016

Casey Arborway Milestone: Shea Square Stoplights to Go Live Thursday

Jamaica Plain's "Little Dig" -- AKA the Casey Aborway -- is scheduled to pass a key benchmark this week. Shea Circle, the part of the Arborway where Franklin Park meets the main entrance to Forest Hills Cemetery, will take a giant step toward becoming Shea Square. The stop lights in the new configuration are to be turned on for the first time on Thursday. Transportation planners say a signalized intersection will be more efficient than the large circle it is replacing. Here's what the finished product should look like:

Here are the details on which traffic movements will be affected the next two weeks, as outlined by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation:

On or about December 15th the traffic signal will control Shea Square for the first time.

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Detail: Toole Square final plan

Casey Arborway Milestone: First New Trees to be Planted

Remember the winter of 2015? If the 100-plus inches of snow didn't depress you, there was the chopping down of more than a hundred trees around Forest Hills for the Casey Arborway project. Now for the good news, nature lovers: The first trees of the mammoth project will soon be planted. The Department of Transportation announced Tuesday that week after next contractors plan to start planting trees in the area where the permanent median of the Arborway will be. It was just one line in MassDOT's latest "Three-week Look-ahead," but it should bring a smile to everyone who hated seeing those 160 trees cut down.

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Detail of official Casey Arborway plan showing new entrance to Forest Hills T north of New Washington Street.

Explainer: Why is Forest Hills Down to One Track?

If you've passed through Forest Hills Station since Saturday, you know only one of the two tracks is in use. Why? The short answer is for Casey Arborway construction. The platform will stay down to one track through December. The MBTA has said it has a plan for rush hour so the closure won't cause added delays.

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Commuters leave the T platform at Forest Hills Station on Aug. 29, 2016. Soon only one track will be used to boarding and disembarking.

T: Closing Forest Hills Track Should Not Create Delays

JP residents recently learned that one side of the platform at Forest Hills T will be closed starting next week through December. An MBTA spokesperson says the change "should have no impact on customers other than the fact they will be boarding on the southbound side." Joe Pesaturo of the T said the agency does not anticipate delays during the closure. One side of the platform will be closed to accommodate work on the Casey Arborway. Pesaturo, in a voice mail to Jamaica Plain News, said the T has a plan so that during rush hour as many trains can enter and leave on one side as do currently on two.

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From Sept. 3, 2016 through December, only one of Forest Hills' two platforms will be in use.

One of Forest Hills Platforms to Close Through December

UPDATE: The T explains that it has a plan so that during rush hour it can keep to the regular Orange Line schedule. ~~~~~

Fellow Orange Line riders, get ready for some additional chaos in your favorite subway line. The T will be shutting down one of the two platforms at Forest Hills soon as part of the Casey Arborway Project. Here's the laconic announcement posted by the T:
All train service will board on the southbound platform at Forest Hills beginning Saturday, Sept. 3, and continuing through December 2016, due to the Casey Overpass Project.

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The signals at Washington and New Washington on June 29, 2015.

Casey Arborway Project Completion Delays Total One Year

The completion date for the Casey Arborway, which had already been pushed off three months, has now been delayed another nine months. That means the mammoth project is expected to be finished a full year later than originally forecast, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation announced Wednesday. The project is behind schedule due to issues with jet fan procurement, according to officials at a public meeting Wednesday evening held at English High School. The necessary jet fan system is expected to be received in August and installed this fall, and consist of six mounted fans that ventilate and cool the tunnel system, according to MassDOT officials. In the meantime, officials will juggle the schedule of what gets done when so crews can work away from jet fan areas, including Shea Circle, west of South Street and south of the Arborway.

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A milestone in the construction of the Casey Arborway — Removal of the span over Washington Street.

Public Meeting to Provide Update on Casey Overpass Project

On Wednesday, MassDOT will hold a public meeting to provide an update on the Casey Arborway Project. This will be the first public meeting on the progress of the project since before the Casey Overpass' closure and razing.  

The meeting will take place on Wednesday, June 29, at the English High School auditorium (144 McBride St.) from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. All residents, abutters, business owners and commuters are strongly encouraged to attend. Department of Transportation officials will speak on the upcoming phase and provide a general schedule of the project, which is supposed to have the majority of the major work done by the end of September 2016. The removal of the structurally deficient Casey Overpass was a contentious and hotly debated topic.

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Final conditions as planned for Casey Arborway project.

Casey Weekend Work Begins Saturday, Goes Through June

With spring here, the pace of work on the Casey Arborway is picking up. State officials announced on Thursday that weekend work on a massive water main will start on Saturday. This project within a project is to dig out the room for and install a 40-inch water main. Transportation officials say the work will be done each Saturday and Sunday between this weekend and June 1. Work hours are supposed to be 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

"All work will take place within the existing work zone and there will be no impact outside of the construction zone," the Department of Transportation wrote in a community notification.

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Students from the Neighborhood School on Peter Parley Road in Jamaica Plain were inspired by the demolition of the Casey Overpass to create a play (with music and dance) that looks creatively at transportation and neighborhood design decisions. The play, Changing Lanes, will be performed at Roxbury Community College’s Media Arts Center on March 11th and 12th.

Casey Demolition Inspires Local Children’s Theatre Production

When students and teachers at the Neighborhood School, a K1-6 school in Jamaica Plain, returned to school last September, they had all noted a change in the fabric of the community. The demolition of the Casey Overpass had begun over the summer and the construction of new surface roads brought daily traffic jams that touched almost everyone in our community. As the students of Level 4 (grades 5 and 6) explored the neighborhood in search of a theme for the school’s biennial school play, they kept coming across the effects of the demolition of the Casey Overpass. Boston Police Officer Carlos Martinez, a friend of the school at Precinct E-13, told some of the students that he’d noticed that people were switching to back roads, and sometimes driving too quickly. The students had seen this on Peter Parley Road, the street in Jamaica Plain that the Neighborhood School calls home.

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MassDOT Says Flat-Roofed Forest Hills Busway Will Handle Snow

The schematic drawings of the new Washington Street upper busway canopy and platform published last week caught many readers by surprise; it was the first time even the most active observers had seen the replacement shed. Some questioned the practicality of a flat roof. The Jamaica Plain News asked the Department of Transportation for more clarification and Michael Verseckes, a MassDOT spokesman, sent the News the birds-eye plan. He said in his message that the elevations and plan were all that MassDOT had to show the community; "The finalized design of the canopy will be done in accordance with Mass Building Code and snow, wind and seismic loadings." First and foremost the most significant part of this plan is that it moves buses away from South Street and Asticou Road; the biggest flaw of the 1982 station plan.

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