Charles River Bike Path Flooded in Watertown

In the past month, while out for runs in the mornings on the bike paths along the Charles River, I noticed that the water level had been getting quite low.

No longer.

The Aguageddon -- make that the H2OMG -- looks to be flooding the bike path along the Charles River on the north side in Watertown.

I know where I'm not going for a run Tuesday morning.


Image of flooded Charles River:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seangraham/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Head of the Charles This Weekend

The Head of the Charles Regatta returns this weekend with its exciting boat races, big crowds of cheering fans, corporate sponsor tents -- and inevitable tearing up of the lovely fields along the southern side of the Charles River at Herter Park and Artesani Park.  One major change from previous years:  there will no longer be a Saturday afternoon practice time, since that short time slot had resulted in as many as 700 shells working out on the river in two hour time window!

The Boston Globe has a series of stories on the event, along with a schedule of the Saturday and Sunday races and a viewer's guide.  

Where to watch it?



My favorite spot is from the downstream base of the Eliot Bridge on the Allston side.  At that location, the boats are nearing the end of navigating a hairpin corner -- and this spot is late enough in the race that many faster boats are trying to pass the slower ones.  (The slower boat is required to yield the inside lane to the faster boat...  but that doesn't always happen.)  The result:  inexperienced, slow boats end up close to running aground on the outer corner at the Cambridge Boat Club, and the occasional boat scrapes the supports of the Eliot Bridge; once I even saw a boat make a much harder collision with the bridge.  Fun for spectators, but not for the coxswains who need a stiff drink at the end of the race.

Lots of people like to stand along the top of the various bridges along these corners and peer over the side:  the Weeks Memorial Footbridge, the Larz Anderson Bridge, and the Eliot Bridge.

In case you didn't figure it out:  avoid Memorial Drive all weekend, and also avoid much of Soldiers Field Road while you're at it.

Bicycle Misinformation in Boston Globe

The Boston Globe's City Weekly section ran a story today about the bicycle pathway conditions along the Charles River (part of which is signed as the Dr. Paul Dudley White Bikepath).  The conditions are based on "a Globe staffer [who] recently cycled about 15 miles of it."  Nice story idea, mostly got the story right, but there are a number of mistakes -- and a truly dangerous suggestion that is just-plain wrong.

1.  The big mistake?  The accompanying graphic, based on the Globe staffer/cyclist's information, describes the location where the bikepath crosses the Eliot Bridge as:

Bad crossing, no matter what side you're coming from. You'll need to carry your bike over metal barrier that separates traffic lanes.

Ummm... NO.  There are tunnels underneath the Eliot Bridge on both sides of the river so that the bikepath continues, uninterrupted, past the bridge.  The text of the article (where it continues, six pages later) is accurate:

There are paths under the Eliot Bridge, but they're frequently muddy and wet from large puddles.

Yes, sort-of, but certainly not when the Globe staffer presumably took his/her ride -- because it has hardly rained in the last five weeks! Nonetheless, I can tell you as a commuter who has taken the path along there many times, these tunnels are mostly passable most of the year. You just need to have fenders over your bike wheels if you don't want to get mud splattered in the middle of the winter or the week after a significant rainfall.

The big problem is that the Globe's graphic suggested that cyclists should carry their bikes across the Fresh Pond Parkway / Soldiers Field Road at the location of the Eliot Bridge!  That is an extremely dangerous suggestion that the Globe should immediately retract.

2.  While the Globe's cyclist/graphic is correct to identify the Cambridge Street crossing at the River Street Bridge (Allston side) as in need of a pedestrian/cyclist crossing signal, he/she completely missed the similar lack of crossing signals at the Arsenal Street Bridge (both sides in Watertown and North Brighton) and North Beacon Street Bridge (both sides in Watertown and Brighton).  MassBike has identified all of them as top priorities for improvements to the bike path, since the latter two bridges connecting Watertown and Brighton are extremely dangerous intersections.

3.  The bikepath between the Eliot Bridge and the Larz Anderson Bridge, on the North Allston side, is misleadingly labelled as "Good" condition in the graphic.  There are actually two paths on the westernmost section:  a paved one next to Soldiers Field Road and a gravelly one along the riverside.  The graphic follows the path of the gravel path, which is not IMHO in "Good" condition.  (Note that the same kind of split path is not misleadingly labelled between Arsenal Street and North Beacon Street Bridges on the Watertown side.)

4.  The secluded section of the bikepath east of the Arsenal Street Bridge on the North Brighton side is not dangerous at night because it is secluded; it is dangerous at one section (immediately west of the Northeastern Boathouse) due to poor drainage, poor snow/ice removal, and uneven surfaces.

5.  There is an eastbound hazardous bump/step in the pavement on the Cambridge side east of the BU Bridge that is not identified in the Globe's graphic.  (I haven't ridden this little stretch in a while, so it might have been fixed...)

It is nice to see a story of its kind in the Globe, even though I think the Globe's reporter would've done better to have a MassBike expert ride along with them on the route.  Hopefully it will help MassBike expand their base to push for modest improvements in the bikepath.  


Oh, and the Boston Globe correctly labelled the "Weeks Footbridge", unlike me (I mistakenly called it the Weekes Memorial Footbridge).  I can verify from its sign that Weeks is the correct name deriving from the former Senator and Secretary of War:

New CRI Boathouse Under Construction Along Charles River

Construction has recently started for Community Rowing, Inc.'s (CRI) new boathouse along the Charles River, next to Daly Field. The Boston Globe's City Weekly recently ran a background piece:

Of the 10 boathouses along the Charles between Watertown and Boston, Community Rowing is the only one that will be open and fully accessible to the public, said Magian. "We don't have it gated off to the water, unlike other boathouses," she said.

Indeed, increasing public access to the river is a big reason why the project got such strong backing from state legislators, Magian suggests.

The project sits on three acres of land leased from the Department of Conservation and Recreation. Here's what it will look like from Nonantum Road (picture from PNF):



Site Construction Status

Here is a view from the southeast corner of the site:



Here is a view from the northwest corner of the site:



I'll try to update with new pictures every month or two from the same vantage points.


Dangerous Design for Bicycles on Charles River Bikepath

I sent in a public comment to CRI's small project PNF last fall, where I noted that their design of an angled vehicular entrance to the parking lot was extremely dangerous to bicyclists riding in the same direction along the Charles River Bikepath. Cars would just whip into the parking lot, probably slowing down little if at all because they only have to navigate a 45-degree angle off of Nonantum Road. They also would have poor visibility of bicyclists behind them as they turn. Bicyclists probably will have the right-of-way in such a design, but that won't help the cyclists squashed by speeding trucks pulling trailers with a dozen boats entering the parking lot from Nonantum Road westbound.

Here was my suggested modification:

I contacted John Fitzgerald of the BRA (project manager for this) recently to inquire if the suggested modification was implemented into the final design. He said no -- apparently BTD wasn't worried about it, even though one of CRI's consultants admitted at the public meeting last fall that they had some of their own concerns.

Boston Globe Needs to Get a Map of Charles River Bridges

The Boston Globe has managed to invent a bridge along the Charles River: the Memorial Bridge. No, I don't think they mean the Weekes Memorial Footbridge -- I think they really meant Memorial Drive, not Bridge:

"Memorial Bridge in Cambridge will be closed between 7 and 9 tonight for the filming of a movie, State Police said this afternoon.

The bridge will be shut down in both directions between JFK Street and Western Avenue. Motorists should seek other routes because traffic is expected to be heavy, police said."

The names of the bridges along that stretch of the river are, from West to East: Larz Anderson Bridge, Weekes Memorial Footbridge (soon to be Harvard Special Use Shuttle Bus Route), and Western Avenue Bridge.

Anyway, that filming for a Denzel Washington movie was supposed to be happening last night, not tonight. Maybe the event got postponed due to weather...


NOTE (added 7/24/07): they fixed it to say "Memorial Drive" in the text of the story -- but you can see that the URL itself still has "memorial_bridge" in it.

Brighton-Allston Bicentennial Riverfest Last Saturday

Last Saturday was the Brighton-Allston Bicentennial's Riverfest at Herter Park along the Charles River. Event co-chairs Catherine McGarty and Tim Schofield put on a great event with lots of activities oriented towards families. Many, many volunteers contributed their time, too, so that the event seemed to happen without a hitch.

View of the festivities from the Charles River:


Boat ride on the Charles, with tour guide Charlie Vasiliades:

Many adults quickly figured out that this boat was the only place in the event that had a (cash) bar.

Pony rides:


And, of course, the requisite "moon walk" -- actually a castle:

Good and Bad Along the Charles River

This morning, I ran past the newly-paved section of the Charles River bike path on the Brighton side between the North Beacon Street Bridge and the Arsenal Street Bridge. Approximately 40% of the bike path between those two bridges has just been re-paved (there was a work crew on-site), comprising the worst parts of the path, i.e., those that had very large bumps due to tree roots pushing up the asphalt. Beautiful! My daughter may not appreciate the change: she loves to yell "Bump! ... Bump! ... " both on the bike and in the running stroller.

On the Watertown side of the same stretch of the Charles River, however, was an ugly site: the street (Greenough Boulevard) was completely flooded -- about as bad as I had ever seen the flooding there, even though last night's rain was far from heavy. This occurred despite repair work during the last six months or so, which supposedly improved the storm drains on the north side of the Boulevard. Watertown Public Works crews were busy digging a large trench to clear up the mess and hopefully solve it this time, since the previous effort appears to have done more harm than good.

As of 5:00 pm today, Greenough Boulevard was still closed to vehicular traffic, although the bike path is open.

Fire Along Charles River at Arsenal St Bridge

11:40 am today there was a modest-sized fire burning in the "wetland" grasses along the banks of the Charles River immediately northeast of the Arsenal Street Bridge. Fire and police crews were on the site setting up equipment, which required extremely long fire hoses to bring water into the site from Greenough Blvd west of Arsenal St.

For the immediate future, avoid Greenough Blvd/Memorial Dr between N. Beacon St Bridge and Eliot Bridge, and the Arsenal St Bridge altogether.