I didn’t think I’d be writing another article for Village 14 so soon. At 11:55am today, as I was working at my computer, I heard a very loud “bang-thud” followed by our electricity’s going out. At first I thought it was a tree falling on power lines and peered out my backyard to see if it had happened there or maybe on Quinobequin Road. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary out back, and hearing my husband calling 911, I ventured to the front of the house where I ascertained that an 18-wheeler had attempted to turn from Tamworth Road onto Radcliff and had, being too tall, brought down several electrical poles. Live wires were all around. Thankfully, no one was injured.
The police arrived in about 10 minutes and began diverting traffic, relieving me and others from waving away drivers that were looking to turn onto Radcliff from Quinobequin. Eversource showed up about 12:40pm. Very fortunately, this disruption occurred during daylight hours. It is also fortunate that we have a generator that had kicked in immediately. You will probably see this on the evening news, since there were Channel 7 helicopters flying overhead. Our next-door neighbor Bob Brustowicz was interviewed by Channel 25.
Is this newsworthy for Village 14? Everyone loses power during extraordinary weather events and/or accidents. But this was an accident waiting to happen. For months (it seems like years under current Covid circumstances), our short residential street of five houses has become a superhighway of diverted traffic from remedial work on Chestnut Street. We have quietly endured the trucks and cars turning from Quinobequin onto the formerly grass-covered (now mud-covered) berm at Radcliff as they attempted to negotiate the re-entrant curve onto Radcliff. We have watched as our driveways have become dangerous or nearly impossible to enter as commuters pile up in morning, afternoon and evening pulses. We have seen dangerous speeding as well. But now, enough is enough!
We know when Chestnut is finally finished, we will all benefit. But we have been patient and this accident could have been prevented. Why, I ask, has there been no police detail set up to direct and/or divert traffic and to keep eighteen-wheelers on major arteries which they can easily negotiate? Someone needs to own this responsibility and to fix it now.
Hi Sallee (and Bob if he is reading this!) – Councilor Downs, Chair of Public Safety & Transportation, has already reached out to city staff after today’s incident with the truck to explore long-term options in the New Year to try to avoid this kind of situation arising in the first place, if possible. As always, Councilor Crossley and I will support her in those efforts to find a solution. Have a good New Year’s Eve!
Thanks, Bill, for the info and Andreae for the action. I also called the Mayor’s office this morning to voice my concern!
I just clicked on this strand. As it happens, this morning my wife and I biked along Quinobequin, stopped at the Duck Pond as we often do, and turned around to climb Radcliff Road en route to Waban Square. Once again, the traffic was diverted onto those side streets that Sallee mentioned. A big truck, out to collect compost from residents’ small bins, turned off Tamworth and scared the heck out of us. Sallee is quite right to worry about the situation.
Bill mentioned me because a while ago I complained to the Ward 5 councilors about the ceaseless construction on Chestnut Street from Beacon Street to Route 9, projects stretching seemingly across many years. Sometimes the same stretch gets repaved after one kind of repair only to be torn up for another. The right hand apparently is unaware of what the left hand is doing. Such work cries out for coordination among Eversource, National Grid, and Newton’s Departments of both Public Works and Transportation.
The endless work on Chestnut is the relining of the water main (circa 1890), which will be followed by repaving. So the city is doing the underground work first, then the repaving.
The neighborhood and Ward 5 councilors have been pushing the city to include safety measures that would make it less attractive to speed and easier for children and others to cross the street. Currently, the plan is for temporary “paint and post” traffic calming. I am not sure that in the long run it isn’t just as cost effective, if not altogether cheaper, to move curb to make our crossings safer, since sidewalk and new curb ramps have to be done also.
I’ve seen the “paint and post” approach used to test out different traffic calming configurations with the idea that, if they work, you move to permanent pavement and curb investments. But if the the street is being repaved anyway, it might be, as Andreae suggests, that it’s more effective to move directly to the physical improvements.
Maybe this needs a new thread, but since Andreae and Paul have changed the subject of this thread, I will comment on what I think of the patch-work approach I have seen in Newton’s streets. I have not been able to understand the seeming municipal deference to the utility providers of Newton. We have natural gas lines, water lines, sewer lines, storm drain lines, electric power lines, cable lines, and telephone lines running on and under our streets. (Sorry if I left something out…I do not profess to be a civil or even an uncivil engineer ;) . ) Why do we not have a municipal coordination agreement, like a City Utility Coordination Commission, with all the providers (private and municipal) cooperating in coordinated upgrading/repairing of our streets and sidewalks? How many times have the same streets been opened, paved, then opened and repaved for additional utility work? Why can’t the City flex its muscle to demand that private industries meet our schedules and not be beholden to theirs! We could fine each utility that does not live up to its scheduled commitment. Is State regulation to blame? Do all Massachusetts cities and towns suffer the same fate? This approach seems to be LITERALLY throwing money down the drain!
@Sallee…wait until you see Washington St between Newtonville and West Newton. It was paved this summer….and it’s scheduled to be dug up again. Derby St in West Newton was paved this summer and less than a week after it was done, it was cut open for a water line going into a newly built house. It’s not like this house was built overnight….they were working on it for months. Total lack of coordination between the City and it’s own utilities! It’s a shame.
Pleasantly surprised to learn Sallee shares my view that the city should be taking a much harder line on private utility companies digging up our streets on their own schedule instead of on ours!