Reaching Out

Saturday, January 31, 2009

The Department of Conservation and Recreation, which despite its name is responsible for a number of important bridges, has been doing its homework with the public, winning high marks for keeping people informed about imminent work. We stopped in at a couple of them to listen. Also, Better Government, money for Charlestown, and transportation advocacy ....

Mid-month, the department had a rather well-attended meeting at the Boston Public Library on Gov. Deval Patrick's Accelerated Bridge Program. Comr. Rick Sullivan said it was the third or fourth public presentation of the overview, but the first of several planned for the general public.

Patrick's "bold issue" for bridge involves public safety and job creation, he said. "The new incoming administration of ... Obama really mirrors this program Gov. Patrick laid out a year ago."

"The governor's vision creates a pot of money of $3 billion that the Legislature has supported," Sullivan said. Some $900 million of that is assigned to DCR bridges, the rest to those of the Massachusetts Highway Department.

Mass Highway will rehabilitate 190 bridges and preserve 305; DCR will rehab 29 and preserve 50.

Jonathan Gulliver, interim director of the bridge program, said the money, voted last June, became available in October.

Objectives of the accelerated bridge program are to save money by doing the work sooner rather than later, and to complete the work with as much efficiency and innovation as possible.

"We're hopeful all of the neglect that's been happening over the years will be erased by this now," he said.

The public meetings are part of a commitment to transparency. "We don't want to be making decisions about projects in a vacuum," Gulliver said.

Innovative techniques in getting the work done include design-build (as oppose to the traditional design-bid-build), incentive/disincentive agreements, bundling of separate contracts, rapid construction techniques, and new ways of estimating. The disincentives include heavy penalties if milestones are unmet.

The goal of using new ways of estimating is to do better than in the past, avoiding overruns, and to estimate no more than 10 percent off the actual cost.

An oversight council of seven members, the chairman yet to be named by the governor, will track progress. DCR bridges, he said, are particularly heavily traveled.

The department is looking for a consultant on bike and pedestrian issue, he said, and for the Charles River Basin bridges, where more than half of the department's investment will go. A consultant has been hired for the first bridges scheduled for work, the Boston University bridge and so-called Craigie, which is actually the Craigie Dam Bridge and Craigie Drawbridge.

Another consultant -- DCR isn't growing, so a lot of this work will be done on contract -- will be brought in to do "active sequencing and management," and to reduce the impact of the work on the community.

A separate program covers maintenance and safety improvements to Storrow Drive and Soldiers Field Road. Under that, 5,500 linear feet of guard rail will be replaced, bike paths and lanes will be reconfigured, and there will be new walkways and landscaping.

"We're looking forward to having a renewed fitness center," Gulliver said.

About $100 million will be spent on bridges in state parks, and five pedestrian bridges will see work, including the Magazine Beach Memorial footbridge.

About $25 million in work is under way, started last summer, including projects on the Bowker Overpass, B.U. Bridge sidewalks, and Storrow Drive -- interim repairs there.

All the bridges to be fixed will be bid over the next several months if design is ready, department official said. Design will be done on the remaining 33 through 2011. They'll be taken to 25 percent of complete design, then "run through risk management."

Public response is sought all along the way, they said.

More info on the web: mass.gov/acceleratedbridges . More later from the interactive meeting at the Stata Center on B.U. and Craigie.

 Actor Joe Pantoliano, second from left, is founder and president of No Kidding, Me Too! (www.nkm2.org), an organization dedicated to removing the stigma of brain disease, or mental illness. He was in Boston on Friday night showing an almost-finished version of his documentary on the subject to an approving audience. Wearing a green Red Sox cap, he discussed the film afterward on a panel with Grafton Nunes, at left, dean of arts of Emerson College, and three of the people who appeared in the film.

 Little Doings

 Amid the bigger doings at this week's Boston Redevelopment Authority meeting -- like approval of John Rosenthal's One Kenmore/Fenway Center complex, Suffolk University's reuse of 20 Somerset St. for its arts and design school, and approval of most but not all of Boston College's master plan -- were some little grants given out in Charlestown.

The BRA board authorized disbursement of a total of $90,000 to 13 nonprofit community organizations, as recommended by the Charlestown Neighborhood Council. The funds from the Charlestown Mitigation Fund, from $925,000 given by the developers of the CANA (Central Artery North Area) parcels around City Square there. The money's supposed to address the social impacts of the projects, says a BRA document.

In this, the seventh disbursement from the fund (leaving now a balance of $313,500), here's who got what:

Special Townies $6,300, Kennedy Center $13,391, Warren Prescott Foundation $3,588, Monument Square Walk $1,433, Little League $10,067, Youth Football $14,916, Youth Hockey $7,471, Youth Soccer $3,138, Charlestown Lacrosse $12,641, Bunker Hill Parade $4,271, Charlestown Working Theater $7,304, Gardens for Charlestown $2,042, and Charlestown Historical Society $3,438,

Down the Road

Our Transportation Future, made up of more than 20 business, environmental, planning, labor,
and municipal leaders, has come together to make the case for increased investment in
transportation in Massachusetts. "The time to act is now, and we are looking to you to help
get the word out," Ann Donner, director, said in a recent letter.

So Our Transportation Future has launched a beefed-up web site about apparently growing support for an increased gas tax and other elements of transportation reform. Supporters can find out what's happening and support the effort.

The site is www.ourtransportationfuture.com.

Better Government

The Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research's 18th annual Better Government Competition is focusing on the topic of the moment -- health care.

Proposals are being sought that will improve care through public policies, programs, or practices that can: control costs, deliver services more efficiently, increase quality, improve clinical outcomes, lower administrative costs, decrease waste and unnecessary treatments, or increase access.

The compitition is open to anyone. First prize is $10,000, and the deadline is April 13, 2009. More info at www.pioneerinstitute.org/bgc/template2009.doc, or from the steward of the program, Shawni Littlehale, at slittlehale@pioneerinstitute.org.