Five days into a sixteen-day shut-down of train service along the Ashmont branch of the Red Line, city and state officials continue to adjust their plans to help Bostonians and commuters move around the city as workers scramble to finish accelerated track improvements that prompted the diversion.

The object is to replace aging ties, rails, and ballast with new equipment along both the right-of-way on the main subway line and the Mattapan trolley line. Workers have been hammering away at the job since early Saturday morning.

On Tuesday, Phillip Eng, the general manager of the MBTA, said in an interview that the project is on track to be completed on time, by Sun., Oct. 29.

“I feel good about the ongoing effort,” said Eng, who took over at the transit authority in April. “It’s an urgent matter from a public perspective. It’s also urgent because this is some of the oldest track infrastructure that we have. We wanted to accelerate this sooner, but we took more time to plan this properly.”

He added: “We have much greater confidence that when we finish, we’ll bring [the Ashmont branch] to a level that trains will be running at regular speeds, and the public can rely on this particular section knowing that the travel will be safe and quicker.”

In the meantime, those who usually ride the trolley and/or trains are being transported by shuttle buses to and from the JFK-UMass station to Ashmont and Mattapan Square. City transportation officials have deployed extra enforcement officers to discourage double-parking at bottleneck locations along the avenue.

Matt Moran, a team director at Boston Transportation Department, said that the city agency began planning for the Ashmont branch shutdown’s impacts on city streets about one month ago. Moran, who lives in Savin Hill, helped to post flyers alerting residents and businesses along Dot Ave on Saturday. Along with other BTD staff, he is constantly monitoring the traffic situation via closed circuit monitors and is on a text thread with MBTA staff and personnel from Yankee Coach, which operates the fleet of buses that is shuttling passengers along the avenue.

“We have a text chain to make sure there’s clear and consistent coordination for trouble spots,” Moran said.

The Monday afternoon and evening commute was “a bit of a struggle,” he said, prompting the worst conditions during the shutdown so far. It led to modifications made on Tuesday, including temporary parking restrictions in select locations.

One of the worst choke points was at the already notorious Glovers Corner intersection of Freeport Street, Hancock Street, and Dot Ave. On Tuesday, a line of orange cones was placed to prevent parking along the Dot Ave curb on the southbound approach to Hancock, creating a 1,000-foot “queue-jump” for motorists. A similar curb restriction was put in place on the northbound approach to Columbia Road on Tuesday.

A back-up on the expressway on Monday was blamed for pushing additional motorists onto the avenue. BTD officials are able to remotely adjust traffic signal cycles with pre-programmed codes — and did so at the intersection of Columbia Road and Dot Ave during Monday’s debacle. The BTD has also put out cones to block left turns onto Buttonwood Street— a popular cut-through off of Columbia Road— in an attempt to prevent dangerous and troublesome turns that were making matters worse, he said.

In Fields Corner, city officials also used cones to create a temporary bike lane along Park Street to enhance safety conditions.

“The first few days are usually the most difficult,” said Moran. “I don’t see one day as more challenging than the other, but weekdays tend to be more problematic with additional commuters and BPS school buses on the road.”

A view of the work going on near Butler Street station on the Mattapan trolley line. Lee Toma photo

A large percentage of the BPS school bus fleet is housed right along Dorchester Avenue in a huge yard off Freeport Street. BTD is coordinating closely with BPS, said Moran, who added that none of the shuttle bus stops along Dot Ave were shared with BPS pick-up or drop-off locations.
Councillor Erin Murphy says she’s concerned about the inconveniences facing constituents but has noticed a concerted effort to adjust on the go.

“The flags I’ve noticed around the neighborhood are a positive effort toward ensuring that commuters know where to connect with buses and shuttles. I hope additional outreach assists our seniors, students, workers, that neighbors are adequately apprised of all the options available to them, and that all the work is completed in timely fashion,” she said.