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

T: Closing Forest Hills Track Should Not Create Delays

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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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Transportation
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

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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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Final conditions as planned for Casey Arborway project.
Transportation

Casey Weekend Work Begins Saturday, Goes Through June

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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.
Schools

Casey Demolition Inspires Local Children’s Theatre Production

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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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Transportation

MassDOT Says Flat-Roofed Forest Hills Busway Will Handle Snow

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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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The bus canopy, or what was left of it as of Sept. 21, 2015, as demolition of the shelter proceeds.
Transportation

Taking a Bus at Forest Hills? Bring an Umbrella

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If you commute through Forest Hills Station, you've gotten used to abrupt changes this fall. With rain expected all the rest of this week, that's going to mean soggy wait periods at the upper busway. Crews have removed portions of the canopy over the upper busway, leaving open air where panels once stood. Beginning this weekend the rest of the canopy is slated for demolition. Already, bus stops for all the upper busway routes have been condensed to one lane (the one that happens to already have its roof removed.)

As we recently reported, cabbies aren't happy about new arrangements that temporarily have them exiled down near the corner of Ukraine Way and Washington Street.

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Transportation

‘No One Can See Us Here’ — Cabbies Hate Stand’s Move Away from Forest Hills Station

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The cab stand opposite Asticou Road was originally a straight walk away from the entrance to the Forest Hills terminal. That ended Wednesday when the taxis moved to a new reservation further south on Washington Street at the Ukraine Way intersection. A new traffic lane on Washington Street was created over the summer. The original tree-lined stone-faced terrace was removed and an asphalt sidewalk built against the train wall. All lights and utilities were moved over towards the wall and a new lane paved. But for what purpose? No one could answer that at the Massachusetts Department of Transformation open house held at Curtis Hall last Thursday.

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Transportation

Surprise! Upper Busway Canopy Work Began Saturday

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To the surprise of many, the upper busway opposite the Arnold Arboretum began being taken apart on Saturday. Riders had to look for their bus in the temporary lot further down Washington Street. T personnel were on hand to direct riders transferring off the Orange Line. MassDot notified the community Friday that demolition would begin over the weekend of Oct. 3-5, but contractors are taking down panels two weeks earlier.

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Transportation

What a Difference Four Months Makes — Before, During and After Razing Of the Casey

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Four months - 120 days - and the Casey Overpass is gone. As these photographs show, it is a vastly different Casey Arborway than on May 15 when the bridge was closed. The Bus 39 berth has been shifted to the upper busway opposite Asticou Road as workmen remove the final pier next to the headhouse. On Thursday, Mass DOT will host its regular monthly meeting at Curtis Hall Community Center, 20 South St., at 5 :30 p.m.

The three week work schedule, sent out on Monday, will include the removal of all rubble at the eastern (Franklin Park) and western (Arboretum) ends of the old bridge thus completing removal of the Casey Overpass. Work shifts now to the Forest Hills station and the new upper level busway opposite the Blackwell Footpath at the Arboretum

Drilled shaft caissons in the Hyde Park Avenue parking lot will be completed in preparation for the construction of poured concrete pillars that will support the extended busway platform.

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A protester holds up a sign at a May 7, 2015 meeting on the Casey Arborway.
Transportation

Baker Admin: Casey Arborway Project Should ‘Proceed as Planned’

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Residents who want the state to rethink not rebuilding a bridge over Forest Hills recently learned the new Baker Administration backs the existing, at-grade scheme. The advocacy group Bridging Forest Hills posted to its Facebook page on Thursday a letter from Mindy d'Arbeloff, deputy chief of staff for Governor Charlie Baker. Below is a copy of the letter:

Dear John and Edward,

Thank you for your visit on Monday. A lot of important issues were raised and your groups’ involvement in this project is commendable. We have spent the past couple of days engaged with MassDOT staff, gathering all relevant documentation and evaluating the planning and design processes.

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