The Word on the Street

Concrete cutting machine slicing up Mass. Ave. on March 31.

Mass. Ave. construction just resumed yesterday, but saw-cutting of the street has already reached Henderson Street, within sight of the Cambridge line in East Arlington.

The blade on this concrete cutter goes deep

An impressive circular blade slices deep into the pavement and underlying foundation in a line that parallels the curb closely. Click on any image for a closer look.

When the earth-moving equipment comes through later in the year to dig up the sidewalk, this cut will be clean, and the sidewalk work will not tear up the edge of the driving surface.

My day began with Mass. Ave. construction. Here’s the view down Henderson Street near my house, looking towards Mass. Ave.:

Henderson Street was closed today while a crew worked down at the Mass. Ave. end.

You can just see that something is going on at the other end of the street. As it turns out, this was Mass. Ave.–related, though I could not tell exactly what it was.

Contractor J.H. Lynch at work at the base of Henderson St. the morning of March 31.

Unlike the saw-cutting, this project is not mentioned in the work plan that MassDOT released last week. But it was all done by end of day.

Construction resumed yesterday after a hiatus of nearly 4 months. I saw the contractor setting up for saw-cutting just east of Capitol Square yesterday morning but could not stick around to watch.

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