The latest Kenmore Square bus station delay is apparently inexplicable
The Boston Globe’s Ms. Tania deLuzuriaga has an article today on the much-delayed and much cost-overran Kenmore bus station in the heart of Kenmore Square. Ms. deLuzuriaga writes that the “projected completion has been pushed back until at least late 2008.”
Eight months ago the MBTA told the Globe’s then traffic reporter Mr. Mac Daniel that the station was “10 months behind schedule” and wouldn’t “be complete until the 2007 Red Sox season is well over, even if they [were to] make the playoffs.” True, the 2007 Red Sox season will be well over by late 2008.
Back in March an MBTA spokesman had his talking point down pat for Mr. Daniel:
“It’s extraordinarily difficult to do this kind of construction while keeping the station open the entire time,” said Joe Pesaturo, spokesman for the T.
A different spokesperson gave Ms. deLuzuriaga all kinds of excuses that turn out to be non-excuses:
Design problems, unexpected complications with utility lines, and difficulties working around the crowds of people who swarmed the Kenmore T Station during baseball’s postseason, have meant a much longer timeline for the project, officials with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said.
Actually, according to “the MBTA’s assistant general manager for design and construction” the design problems “didn’t push back the project’s overall completion date” (I’m quoting Ms. deLuzuriaga’s article).
So scratch that one.
Then we have my favorite issue, the utility lines:
When contractors began work [in early 2005, I assume], they ran into scores of undocumented utility lines that had to be moved or worked around, which delayed work, said Charlie O’Reilly, the MBTA’s assistant general manager for design and construction.
“Scores of undocumented utility lines?” The Kenmore station underwent major renovations after a massive flood in 1996. How could there possibly have been undocumented utility lines left after that incident? 2005 was also after the construction of Hotel Commonwealth at 500 Commonwealth Avenue immediately south of the station had been completed (the south exit from the station is in fact in that building). Hotel Commonwealth was built after an entire block had been demolished to make way for it. How, how could there have been “undocumented utility lines?” I really don’t get it.
Besides, those lines were supposedly encountered early in the process, so how could they possibly have contributed to the delayed completion date being pushed back from November 2007 - the estimate that was made back in March this year - to late 2008?
Red Sox play-off crowds? The Sox played eight play-off home games, three of which were weekend games. How could those five games possibly have delayed the project by an additional year (and here’s a question that has gone unasked by media since the 2005 season: Who are the people who’ve been parking at the construction site during Red Sox games? Must be sweet for them that the project has been dragging out season after season).
Basically, the T can’t muster any explanation at all for why the project has been delayed by yet another full year. I guess that leaves us with the tell-all reason that Boston talk-show host Howie Carr favors: Don’t kill the job.
There is some good news (or perhaps lies):
MBTA officials say they plan to move the temporary bus shelters on Beacon Street across the street to the depot by January, although construction on the glass structure will continue until at least March.
That could, if nothing else, reduce traffic congestion on Beacon Street.
