As many as 58 new new oak and hawthorn trees planted along Nonantum Road on the Newton-Boston line were planted directly underneath utility lines …and now they’re being moved, WBZ-TV reports.
Newly planted trees on Nonantum Road to be moved
by Greg Reibman | Jun 8, 2012 | Newton | 6 comments
This is such a disappointment. The entire project has taken years,with construction seeming to go in fits and starts, but it is finally nearing completion.
There is a great improvement in lane markings and crosswalks on the roadway, new lighting and the pedestrian/bike pathway. What a waste of precious resources. I wonder if it was ever contemplated to bury the utility wires underground? Maybe that should have been done.
Unrelated to this issue, but on the same road, has there been any more information regarding the pedestrian fatality at the intersection Of Charlesbank Rd and Nonantum Road a week or two ago?
So our Commonwealth will spend countless hours and resources removing 60 low cost trees? And risk a backhoe operator working under electric lines?
Cut them down and throw them in the chipper for cripes sakes.
These must be awfully low utility lines if hawthorns are a problem. Hawthorns generally are smaller-maturing trees, like crabapples, and should be fine under wires. All the varieties listed in my Sibley’s Guide to Trees only grow to 20, 25, or 30 ft. And typically you only have to worry about reaching electric lines, which are the top line on the poles. The lower lines are usually cable and telephone and not electrified.
Oaks under wires, though, not smart. I hope the trees survive being moved.
I agree max, what the heck are the wires doing above ground when the street had already been dug up? This project has been a big disappointment for me. Years of work, and in the end it’s essentially the same street with new striping. the same awfully dangerous intersections and a goofy lane merge for cars entering from Soldiers Field Road. I can’t believe they reduced a lane in each direction and yet the pedestrian/bicycle area has not gained an inch in width. I’m an avid supporter of public spending on infrastructure, but this is clearly not the way to do it.
I agree with Max and Y. These lines should have been buried when the roadwork was being done. So that was mistake #1. Mistake #2 was DCR planting these trees under the overhead wires. This type of nonsense undermines public confidence in government, because no one will ever be held accountable.
I walked by the trees again this morning. I’m puzzled about the wires. They seem to either originate, or terminate, opposite the Community Rowing driveway, and looking east toward Brooks Street, Brighton, there do not appear to be any spurs coming off the lines going anywhere. The lines do continue on past Brooks into Brighton, but if the terminus is near Community Rowing, what purpose do they serve? If, on the other hand, they originate there, they come up out of the ground (or, invisibly, down from the heavens). So why are the wires even there? Did the “underground contract” only cover the Newton segment of Nonantum Rd.?