BOS:311

EMERGENCY FORMAL COMPLAINT & ROADWAY AUDIT DEMAND: Severe Pavement Deformations, Asphalt Buckling, and Complete Crosswalk Inaccessibility at the Columbia Road and Dudley Street Left-Turn Corridor Date: September 19, 2026 From: Anthony Meeks, Resident / Volunteer Community Advocate To: Jascha Franklin-Hodge, Chief of Streets; Public Works Department (PWD) Commissioner; Boston Transportation Department (BTD) Commissioners; City of Boston Infrastructure Cabinet CC: Mayor Michelle Wu; City Councilor John Fitzgerald Jr. (Dorchester/Upham's Corner); Senator Christopher Worrell; City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune; City Councilor At-Large Julia Mejia; City Councilor At-Large Erin Murphy; City Councilor At-Large Henry Santana; Commissioner Christopher R. Goods; Commissioner Nicholas Grove; Amanda Curley (Dorchester Neighborhood Services Coordinator); Mid-Dorchester Office of Neighborhood Services; Ronald Mitchell (Editor, Boston Banner); Stacy Thompson (Executive Director, LivableStreets Alliance) --- Dear Commissioners, Chiefs, Directors, and Elected Officials, This is an explicit, high-priority formal complaint and emergency demand for immediate roadway leveling, asphalt stabilization, and professional engineering intervention at the critical left-turn corridor from Columbia Road onto Dudley Street (specifically targeting the left-turn lane, the dedicated left-turn signal sequence, and its intersection with the pedestrian crosswalk). Local business merchants and residents within the Upham's Corner and Dorchester communities have formally requested this immediate intervention due to an escalating, structural infrastructure emergency that the city has continuously neglected. The City of Boston has previously acknowledged that this specific travel corridor is exceptionally dangerous. Despite this official recognition, a flagrant lack of operational responsiveness remains. Furthermore, these severe and hazardous road conditions are entirely missing from active city maintenance schedules and have been explicitly stated as missing, neglected, and unresolved across multiple items of prior formal correspondence submitted to city departments. The asphalt within this high-crash zone has suffered catastrophic failure, resulting in severe warping, buckling, and hidden crowning. Because these prominent ridges are structurally camouflaged against the darker road surface, they remain completely invisible to individuals until they are actively walking over them. Compounding this hazard, motorists waiting at the dedicated left-turn signal or initiating their turn when the arrow clears are forced to navigate these severe deformations. Drivers are inherently focused on the signal timing and oncoming traffic, making it impossible to safely react to the sudden, severe pavement ripples. As a resident volunteer community advocate, I have personally witnessed our neighborhood’s most vulnerable and special populations—specifically senior citizens, young students, and physically or visually challenged individuals—repeatedly trip, stumble, and fall over these hidden asphalt ridges directly within the designated pedestrian crosswalk while trying to clear the intersection before the signal changes. Furthermore, the transit data confirms that this exact left-turn corridor is utilized hundreds of times daily by heavy municipal vehicles, including the MBTA Bus Route 15, alongside the general driving public. When unsuspecting motorists strike these severe, completely un-signaled bumps at legal driving speed while following the left-turn signal flow, their vehicles experience an immediate, violent kinetic jolt. This sudden impact poses an unacceptably high risk of acceleration injuries to the cervical spine, creating an active public liability for debilitating neck and whiplash injuries to the driving public. It is both disingenuous and deeply hurtful to this community that despite an expansive distribution list tracking these hazardous conditions,

Car parked blocking the sidewalk, in front of a no parking sign. Wants to make a donation to the City of Boston.