Five Things to Know

Wednesday, July 18

Essential daily information at a glance — including tonight's meeting of the Design Advisory Board for the Casey Arborway.

1. Forecast: Partly sunny. A chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Hot. Humid with highs in the upper 80s. Chance of rain 50 percent. Heat Index values up to 102. 2. Casey Arborway Meeting: Tonight is the fourth meeting of the Design Advisory Group, the neighbors being consulted by the Department of Transportation about how the new, bridgeless Forest Hills is going to look. 6-8 p.m. on the State Labs on South Street. If you can't go, no worries. We'll have a report on Patch by noon Thursday. 3. Twelve Story Residential Building Proposed: The Globe has the latest details on the proposal for a big residential building at 105A S. Huntington Ave. The blocks near the Heath Street T stop have suddenly become the hottest building …

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How Accurate Are the State's Casey Arborway Traffic Projections?

Residents and politicians watching the design of the new Casey Arborway say the state still hasn't put to rest concerns about gridlock.

Some of the residents who pay the closest attention to the massive Casey Arborway project — JP's equivalent of the Big Dig — remain unconvinced the state's traffic analysis is accurate. The most recent meeting of the Design Advisory Group with state transportation officials was supposed to clear the air about traffic concerns. The state plans to tear down the Casey Overpass, which handles 24,000 cars a day, and remake the area with a six-to-seven lane network of surface roads. The state maintains that either of the proposed solutions — building a new, smaller bridge or the at-grade solution — would handle traffic in 2035 about equally well. State Representative Russell Holmes, D-Boston, spoke for the unconvinced at the May 24 meeting. When…

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Allan Ihrer

12:35 pm on Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Why is JP being denied the chance to find and hopefully fix problems with our Casey Arborway At Grade? This is ignorant ignorance. Below are two year 2035 AM/PM commutes. There are very bad spots and not so bad spots. Note, these numbers are based on traffic counts made during a recession when universities + private schools were out for summer vacation. AM westbound commute across Forest Hills …   more ›

Letter to Mayor Menino: Resident "Astonished" By Mayor's Lack of Leadership on Casey Overpass

Jerry O'Connor says Mayor Menino's belated criticism of the Casey Overpass decision shows a lack of leadership.

Dear Mayor Menino: Today I read a couple of news articles that disappointed me so greatly, I wanted to write to let you know personally.  In the articles, you state an opinion on the Casey Overpass project, i.e., that you would prefer a replacement overpass to the so-called “at-grade” solution. The fact that you might prefer one solution over another doesn’t concern me.  As a resident of Forest Hills, I understand the divergence of views as to the best result.  What does concern me is that you waited until now, when the decision has already been made, to state an opinion.  Your representatives have attended the public meetings and working group sessions over the past year.  It defies belief that you didn’t make up your mind on this subject…

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Menino on Casey Arborway Project: "You Better Be Prepared for the Second Big Dig"

Mayor Thomas Menino came out publicly against the "at-grade" plan for reconfiguration of the Casey Overpass area. He would have preferred a smaller bridge with a greenway beneath it.

Mayor Thomas Menino isn't happy with the state's plan to tear down the Casey Overpass and replace it with a network of ground-level streets. Instead, he said he'd like to have seen a rebuilt, smaller Casey bridge with a greenway beneath it connecting the Arboretum and Franklin Park. "Be a little creative," said Menino, who has been mayor for 19 years. "Sometimes you've got to think outside the box." Asked how a big project like this could go against his wishes in his own city, he pointed to state authorities. "It's their project, not my project," Menino said during a lunch meeting with reporters from local community news outlets. He said a project like that might cost a little more than the approach chosen by the State Department of …

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"It Is Not Going to Move Forward" — Opponents of At-Grade Forest Hills Solution Dig In

While the state and supporters of a surface-only traffic pattern for the new Forest Hills urge moving on, there remains a group opposed to the decision.

At a state hearing that authorities aimed to be the last chapter in the "bridge versus at-grade debate," critics made it clear they aren't going away. Thursday night more than 100 people attended a public meeting about what the state is now calling the "Casey Arborway Project." The decrepit Casey Overpass will be torn down and a six-lane system of surface roads will move traffic instead. At a meeting of the Working Advisory Group last week, the state was calling the project the "Casey Parkway." Patch has reached out to Department of Transportation to find out what the official name is. At Thursday night's public meeting at English High, state officials started off by laying out the timeline for the rest of the project. An attached photo …

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Michael Halle

11:24 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Hi Anne, I'm not sure I've heard what this single "common sense alternative" is or was. The last couple of times I've heard Jeff describe what he wants, he's said that MassDOT never investigated a plan with more surface lanes than the now-rejected bridge alternative (presumably two lanes in each direction with a left turn pocket). Previously, Jeff advocated for a bridge with multi-use paths in …   more ›