Public Works - TS (Streets & Sewers) assigned this issue to Public Works - DA (Inspections)

Thank you for reporting your concern to City of Cambridge via Commonwealth Connect. We have reviewed the information you provided our staff and will be investigating this issue further.

Hi you should be calling the traffic department's engineering division. Public works only gives out no parking signs for utility contractors.

This is for a utility contractor. Riley Bros is doing electrical work on the street.

It’s till 3:30 then people can park ???

Yes Nick, parking is allowed from 3:30 pm until 7:00 am the next morning.
But many residents are still forced to work from home because of the pandemic, so instead of driving their cars to work, they need to remain parked on city streets during the daytime.
That makes it all the more important that construction permits be issued in a way that is considerate of residential parking. Can they complete this work on one side of the street at a time, and only block off parking on that side? That alone would cut in half the number of parking spaces that are affected by this permit.

A few months ago contractors did the same thing no one complained and people worked from home then there are only a few houses from Mass ave to Orchard all of them have driveways why can’t they use to park vehicle from 7-3:30 and what do they do when street cleaning is on one side and other side is either full or no parking?

Nick,
1) If this happened in the past, it was much longer ago than you are remembering. I've lived on this street throughout the pandemic.
2) "No one complained before" is never a valid argument. That's true whether it's a restaurant violating sanitary code, a gym that is not following emergency health guidelines, or a contractor putting up no parking signs for an entire month but not actually doing any work.
3) "only a few houses", "all of them have driveways" - Have you looked at how many levels are in each residence? And thought about how many people live in each level? There is one building already with multiple units on each level, and one or more people living in each unit. If all of their cars fit in these driveways, why don't they do that already? Because they don't fit. Remember, this is Cambridge resident permit parking only on Beech Street, day and night — the passenger cars you see parked here belong to residents (or their temporary visitors).
4) "What do they do when street cleaning is on one side?" Exactly! That's a problem. What do they do? They contact the city (using this app) whenever a contractor does what this one did, and then the city works with the contractor to balance what the contractor *actually* needs to do their work, against the impact it will have on residents. So when street cleaning day comes — today! — an unnecessary problem is avoided.

Which is exactly what happened. The contractor is out there right now removing these signs. He told me that they won't be doing any work this week or next on this street.

Anonymous-DPW?
I’ve lived on Orchard Street 10+ years and I agree that Cambridge construction has been overwhelming and me working from home and homeschooling my children during these times is not easy.
This pandemic is not easy for no one and as well for these contractors that have to go work every day leaving their family with no option to stay home to make a hard earn living I spoke to the contractors a week ago and didn’t have much of a timeline because contractor states emergency work comes in to play during the winter months.
So I guess “Parking” is a big issue??
We should complain to city, city council, dpw, and to whoever keeps approving all of this work.
Stay safe!
Anonymous-Nick

Thank you for reporting your concern to City of Cambridge via Commonwealth Connect. We have reviewed the information you provided our staff and will be investigating this issue further.
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At this point in time, there is signage posted on the even side of the street that is *completely* incomprehensible. The signs are either attached to trees or to orange cones on the sidewalk, but they are posted at very irregular distances — in some cases 2 feet apart, in others 20 feet apart. This is all for the same contractor.

Walking down the even side of the street starting from Mass Ave, the signs indicate (in this order) that parking is not allowed during working hours between the dates:

1/7-1/15
1/13-2/13
1/7-1/15
1/4-1/25
1/7-1/15
1/19-1/22
1/14-1/24
1/19-1/22
12/14-1/14

This is all in the span of enough parking for about 6 vehicles. (Those are not typos; some are for 4 days, some are for 1 month; one sign starts in December, one ends in February.)

Last week, I attempted to walk over and speak with the person in charge from the contractor, and they absolutely do not understand or care about the parking signs. They are happy to simply pick them up and move them around at will, or change the dates as they see fit with white tape and a sharpie.

Please have the contractor remove and replace all signage, with consistent dates that reflect actually planned work periods (which are not inconsiderately long so as to avoid planning on their part).

Public Works - DA (Inspections) assigned this issue to Public Works - JN (Streets & Sewers)

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