The MBTA paused almost all of its contractor work on its tracks for 48 hours beginning Thursday because the company manages its response to federal restrictions that have been put in place due to a sequence of close to misses between trains and workers, in response to inside communications obtained by the Herald.
Deputy Chief of Engineering and Maintenance Megan Chann introduced the pause on all contractor work requiring observe entry in an inside e-mail despatched late Wednesday evening to company workers. The e-mail got here the identical day a handful of close to misses on the Red Line have been made public and per week after federal regulators cracked down on the MBTA.
Contractor work is permitted on work orders that don’t want observe entry and “in established diversion areas under the direction of construction and logistics,” Chann stated within the e-mail.
“The safety of all of our work crews is our top priority, so we appreciate your patience as we work through this response,” Chann wrote within the 11:30 p.m. e-mail.
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo stated the company is working to determine “more rigorous levels of protection for work crews on our rights of way.”
“The first priority is to ensure safety for our internal workforce supporting critical inspections and maintenance,” Pesaturo stated in an emailed assertion to the Herald. “In order to focus on this first phase of work, the MBTA has paused (for 48 hours) all contractor work that is not taking place inside an established diversion area.”
The pause on contractor work comes as MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng continued to push again on federal restrictions barring lone staff from accessing tracks, a state of affairs the Federal Transit Administration barred due to the close to misses.
In a Wednesday letter to FTA Chief Safety Officer Joe DeLorenzo, Eng sought to make clear the MBTA’s “transition plan to address the immediate concerns around our most recent near misses and to respond to the [FTA’s] immediate action letter” despatched on Sept. 14.
Eng stated the MBTA proposed “one specific amendment to the lone worker prohibition for the FTA’s consideration.” It isn’t the primary time Eng has pushed the feds to permit for the continued use of single workers on tracks; he argued that place in a separate letter final week.
But Wednesday’s message to DeLorenzo outlines particular eventualities wherein Eng views using lone staff as obligatory, together with to take care of disabled trains, hand throw a change for a change flashing out of correspondence, or a dropped observe circuit, amongst different issues.
“If any one of these circumstances arises and the response to a lone worker is deemed necessary by the [operations control center] supervisor, the responding personnel must be given level one protection with positive communication and verbatim repeat-backs with vehicle operators to establish the protection,” Eng stated within the letter.
A spokesperson for the FTA didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Eng’s letter follows the Sept. 14 letter from the FTA, which got here in response to 4 close to misses. In that letter, DeLorenzo stated the FTA had “determined that a combination of unsafe conditions and practices exist such that there is a substantial risk of serious injury or death of a worker.”
Among the restrictions was the prohibition on lone staff, also referred to as degree 5 safety, which the FTA stated it was prohibiting “until the MBTA can demonstrate that sufficient procedures are in place to protect these workers.”
“Failure to comply with these requirements may result in suspension of all activities that place workers on the ROW, including maintenance and inspection, until FTA is confident that the MBTA can ensure workers are adequately protected from collisions on the ROW,” the letter from the feds stated.
Pesaturo stated the MBTA is seeking to set up “more rigorous levels of protection for work crews on our rights of way.”
“Eng is rebuilding and reorganizing the workforce, top to bottom, to ensure we have the right people in place at all levels to implement the changes required to bring meaningful, long-lasting systemic solutions,” Pesaturo stated in an announcement. “T management is working to ensure that improved safety procedures are being implemented and that the workforce has proper guidance and support.”
The request from the MBTA to proceed some use of lone staff is “completely appropriate,” stated Stacy Thompson, government director of LivableStreets.
“I unfortunately think that the FTA is following an old playbook, where they sort of just stopped work, ask agencies to send them more paperwork and don’t offer meaningful solutions,” Thompson stated. “… I’m quite pleased to see the T pushing back a little bit on a somewhat heavy handed approach that is frankly not helpful at the moment.”
Other MBTA responses to the restrictions the FTA put in place due to close to misses embody shifting cell tack inspections to nighttime hours.
“MBTA will work to establish ‘maintenance diversions’ for night work to ensure no vehicles enter areas designated for on-foot work with physical barriers and a designated person in charge to supervise and coordinate appropriate safety controls,” Eng stated.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”