The city of Milton filed a lawsuit towards the MBTA, citing its failure to repair a damaged staircase that has been closed for a decade, impeding entry to a trolley station platform.
The criticism, filed Friday in Norfolk Superior Court, follows quite a lot of communications from city officers and state lawmakers calling for the MBTA to restore, quite than demolish, the staircase because the company doesn’t have a right away plan for changing it.
“Milton’s efforts have been ignored by the MBTA, leaving Milton with a perpetually decrepit staircase in a station used frequently by its residents and the residents of Dorchester and Mattapan,” the criticism acknowledged. “After years of attempted resolution and serious frustration, Milton files this suit as a last resort.”
Before the MBTA closed the pedestrian stairway for public security causes, it offered a key connection from Adams Street right down to the station. A “worsening safety hazard” was created when commuters had been left with out that apparent entry path, the criticism mentioned.
In a Sept. 14 letter to the city, MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak mentioned the T is within the means of transferring ahead with demolition of the staircase, as half of a bigger Mattapan Line transformation challenge that may ultimately change your entire Milton station.
The T plans to rent a demolition contractor by the top of the yr, however no date has been established for when the steps will probably be razed. In the meantime, he mentioned, the staircase will stay closed and barricaded.
“Unfortunately, the Adams Street staircase cannot be repaired and reopened at this time because it would require extensive repairs to make it fully accessible,” Poftak mentioned. “This would impact all station connections and ultimately require a full station replacement.”
An MBTA spokesperson mentioned Saturday that the company had no additional remark.
Improvements to the Mattapan Line will probably be remodeled the following decade. The line’s “historic” trolley fleet runs on 2.6 miles of observe between Ashmont, on the Red Line, and Mattapan station, the MBTA’s web site mentioned.
In August, state Sen. Walter Timilty, D-Milton, wrote to Poftak and MassDOT Secretary and CEO Jamey Tesler to precise his “extreme disappointment” with their dealing with of the Mattapan Line challenge, which he mentioned is “at least two years” delayed.
“The proposed demolition of the staircase at the Milton trolley stop without an immediate initiation of the project to reconstruct and restore the stairs to the highest possible safety standards is utterly unacceptable,” Timilty mentioned.
“Moreover, to suggest that Milton will not see improvements until the redesign and rebuild phase takes place sometime over the next decade is dismissive to the demands and safety needs of the citizens who traverse the Mattapan trolley line each and every day.”
In its lawsuit, the city mentioned it was not searching for financial damages, and was solely after one factor.
“Milton wants the MBTA to do its job: Repair and reopen the staircase at the Milton station,” the criticism mentioned.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”