Charlesgate

[BostonUrbEx]

Charlesgate. Motherfucking Charlesgate. Not only does it's exit ramps at the Storrow cause the Storrow to hog up the river's side, but underneath it smells like piss. I bet the homeless and crazies all gather here at night to have pissing contests for spare change. The Muddy River looks like a log jam for expelling trash. It's a trash jam. Is there a reason it just stagnates like that and the trash just collects? Is it possible to raise up the elevation so that the water flows into the Charles and disperses? By the way, did I mention the unbearable smell of piss when walking Comm Ave? Well now I mention it again, because I don't want you to forget it while reading this because you surely won't forget it while walking around here.

So what's my solution? Remove it. Just remove it, I don't care what you do. Now I understand it's probably an important part of commuting in the area. Something I rarely do by car in Boston, especially this area. So I don't really have much input other than some scaled down ramps to flow into other surface streets in a more dispersed manner. Storrow West has a ramp to Mass Ave North, once the alignment is all fixed up so the Storrow is huddled along the edge furthest from the river, remake that ramp, and add one to go from Mass Ave South to Storrow West. You could keep feeding Charlesgate W (parallel surface road) from Storrow East, and keep Charlesgate E feeding into Storrow East.

I don't have much else to add unless we start going into tunneling ramps or beefing up Back St so it is a proper feeder road.

With some proper pedestrian overpasses for the Storrow (nice and wide, walkable grades, minimal stairs) the Charlesgate Park could be something nice and tie the Comm Ave Mall and Kenmore area into the Esplanade. If/when the Pike is decked over, it might be possible to connect it to the Back Bay Fens, but until then I think it will be decent enough.

[Lurker]

I-90 needs more on/off ramps. The whole road network around the Back Bay Fens should be restored to the original configuration only with a massive car diet (the same is true for the J-way and A-way) and signal overhaul. The Bowker needs to be obliterated and people need to learn other ways of getting to Fenway Park/the LMA/from Boylston Street in Brookline/Storrow Drive into Boston. The butchering of parkways into highways has only ENABLED the traffic problems the city has.

[Ron Newman]

I'd leave the Storrow ramps alone but remove the overpass over Beacon St. and Comm. Ave. Move the overpass traffic onto Charlesgate East and West. Keep the ramps that climb up over the Pike, since even before the Pike there was a bridge over the railroad tracks there.

[czsz]

Is there a reason it just stagnates like that and the trash just collects? Is it possible to raise up the elevation so that the water flows into the Charles and disperses?

It's always been that stagnant; that's why it was called the Muddy River.

[ablarc]

I believe it's not really a river at all; more a linear-shaped lake, an Olmstedian conceit.

[Lurker]

There's a gatehouse sandwiched between the Storrow/Bowker ramps which controls the flow of water out of the Muddy River into the Charles. I assume that whenever the Charles is backed up by the Charles River Dam, due to the tide in the harbor, the Muddy River Gatehouse blocks the flow of the Muddy River into the Charles, causing the sea of trash and green slime to build up under the Bowker.

[Ron Newman]

Olmsted didn't create the Muddy River, though he certainly made major changes to it. The town of Brookline was originally called Muddy River Village, way back in the 1600s.

[Pierce]

I believe it's not really a river at all; more a linear-shaped lake, an Olmstedian conceit.

The devil you say-- it was a conceit of the engineers that stuck a dam at the mouth of the Charles.... In Olmsted's day the Muddy River was tidal, and that tidal influx/outflow were seized as natural infrastructure for stormwater detention, treatment and release.