Tunnels to stay dirt-caked for now
Driving through the Big Dig tunnels, you may have noticed the wall decor: a gray and charcoal-colored mélange of caked-on dirt, on top of more dirt, with a touch of exhaust to fill in the blank spots.
Massachusetts Turnpike Authority managers say they feel your aesthetic pain. And they can't do anything about it.
The brand-new walls on the $15 billion tunnel project will continue to look as though they belong in bathrooms in the former Soviet Union, at least until the weather gets better.
"They're a mess," said Mac Daniel, Turnpike Authority spokesman. "Even executive director Alan LeBovidge has complained about their sootiness. But there's a method behind this madness."
Daniel said it's too cold in the tunnels in the winter months - even colder and windier than it is above ground - to clean them without the risk of making roadways icy when the excess water drips down.
During warmer months, crews will clean the tunnels once a week, Daniel said. He could not immediately break out the cleaning costs from the rest of the operational budget.
So crews will not begin cleaning the walls until the turnpike groundhog emerges from the Big Dig tunnel and declares winter over. Then, we will get a few months of clean walls before the cycle of filth begins anew.
A glaring problem
Davis Dassori of Hingham said congestion in the short tunnel from Leverett Circle to Interstate 93 southbound is worse on sunnier mornings than it is on cloudy commutes because drivers leaving the tunnel "are unexpectedly dazzled" by the sun's magnificent rays as their vehicles emerge.
"It's quite striking," he said.
Dassori worries that the glare and congestion could spur fender-benders and wonders: Why not use the digital message boards to warn people to lower their visors as they leave the tunnels? It's at least more meaningful than the current messages, which tell drivers to keep their lights on for safety, he said.
Daniel praised the idea, but then rejected it.
He said federal authorities have cracked down on the Turnpike Authority in the past for using the message boards to congratulate the Red Sox and transmit other nonessential messages. The message boards are supposed to be for real emergency information. Otherwise, "they just become another roadside message, which, after a while, are ignored by motorists," Daniel said.
The authority has plans to remove the current messages and reserve the boards for more urgent driver information, Daniel said.
'Get on the train!'
After months of infuriating delays on the commuter trains, it's rare to hear from a rider who complains that the trains are running on time.
But Michael Medwar of Franklin wrote in about a semiharrowing trip home from a recent Celtics game.
Medwar waited about 15 minutes for an Orange Line train from North Station, leaving him no margin for error when he arrived at Back Bay in hopes of catching a 10:40 p.m. train home.
"I ran as fast as I could up the stairs [those trips to the gym have finally paid off], following three younger people in front of me who were also running," wrote Medwar, who is 37.
He didn't check which track; he just ran, and hoped. Finally, he saw the train pulling away. "The conductor was yelling 'Get on the train!' "
Medwar, no doubt gasping, made it. But what about the other basketball patrons, presumably less fit, who wanted to take the Franklin Line? Were they stranded for another 75 minutes, waiting for the last train? Medwar wants more people to take public transit to big events, but worries they won't if the subway and the train are not in better synch.
In fact, the T does make some effort for events. For example, managers scheduled an extra Lowell line train to ship people back up to Boston following last night's scheduled Dropkick Murphys concert at the Paul E. Tsongas Arena. But getting to the train station after an event by shuttle, bus, or subway can be tough when there is a big crowd or when the T is running fewer trips as part of its off-peak schedule.
Spokesman Joe Pesaturo said there is a balance when it comes to holding trains, noting that long delays can annoy people expecting an on-time departure.
But riders can request a train "hold" if they can find a subway official and tell him or her to call commuter rail dispatchers, he said.
Medwar said he understands that the T cannot hold commuter trains indefinitely, but how about a few more Orange Line trains after a game? "It just seemed to me that we were waiting on the platform for so long."
Can't get there...
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