Council asks what the O'Connor Way bike lane cost to build and tear out. It passed 11-0, with the transportation chair voting present

The City Council on Wednesday asked the Wu administration to say how much it spent on a South Boston bike lane that was installed in August and removed in October. City Councilor Ed Flynn's Section 17F order passed 11-0 under a suspension of the rules (docket 2103). City Councilor Sharon Durkan, who chairs the committee that handles transportation, voted present. City Councilor Brian Worrell was not present.

Section 17F, part of the state law that governs Boston's government, lets the council formally ask the mayor for information. The order asks two questions, with answers requested within a week:

1. the total the city spent to plan, design and build the lane on O'Connor Way in August;
2. the total it spent to remove the lane and repave the street in October.

For residents, the question is about cost and process: a roughly 100-foot lane outside a senior housing building went in and came out within about two months.

What happened on O'Connor Way

The two-way lane was installed in front of a 46-unit affordable senior building in Andrew Square. Neighbors and the Andrew Square Civic Association objected to lost parking and emergency access, and the city is now removing it, Boston 25 News reported. Flynn has said the city's interim chief of streets, Chris Osgood, told him the lane was being removed. The Boston Cyclists Union told Boston 25 it looks forward to working with the city on a permanent solution for the street and a connected bike network.

Filing his hearing order on Oct. 28, Flynn told colleagues the lane had "no connection to any network whatsoever" and said residents reported that an ambulance could not pull up to the building in August (watch at 1:13:20). He said the Office of Neighborhood Services held a meeting with residents without inviting South Boston's elected officials (1:14:10). These are his accounts; we have not found a city statement on the incidents he described.

What our records add

The vote. The order passed 11-0-1:

• Yes (11): Breadon, Coletta Zapata, Culpepper, FitzGerald, Flynn, Louijeune, Mejia, Murphy, Pepén, Santana and Weber.
• Present (1): Durkan.
• Not present (1): Worrell.

Our records don't show Durkan explaining her vote; we will add any remarks once the city posts the meeting video.

The hearing order is in Durkan's committee. Flynn's Oct. 28 order for a hearing on how the lane was approved and removed (docket 2048) went to the Planning, Development and Transportation Committee, which Durkan chairs. No hearing date has been posted.

A new e-bike grant went to the same committee. On Wednesday the council referred a $798,000 MassDOT microtransit and last-mile grant, passed through the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, to fund e-bike subsidies (docket 2083). On Oct. 21, Flynn and City Councilor Erin Murphy were the two no votes when the council accepted a $3.25 million grant for Bluebikes e-bikes, 10-2 (our story).

Two more Flynn requests have no recorded result yet. His 17F orders on permits for an Oct. 24 O Street block party (docket 2104) and on agreements between BPS and the police (docket 2105) were on Wednesday's agenda, but the city's record showed no action on them as of Thursday morning.

17F answers often run late. The council's 17F requests often wait weeks or months for a response (our Oct. 24 story).

What's next

• Around Nov. 11: The one-week window for the administration's answer. Responses appear on the council agenda as a message from the mayor; the next regular meeting is Nov. 18.
• Thursday, Nov. 5, 2 p.m.: Durkan's committee holds a hearing on the city's bike network plan and truck safety (our preview).