Governor to Kick Off Phase I of Green Line Extension Tuesday
Workers will reconstruct the the Harvard Street railroad bridge in Medford and Medford Street railroad bridge in Somerville, and tear down a building in Cambridge.
Gov. Deval Patrick will be in Somerville Tuesday to kick off the construction of Phase 1 of the Green Line Extension.
The governor will be joined by Rep. Michael Capuano, Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone and Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation Richard Davey, according to an announcement from the Green Line Extension team.
Phase 1 of the Green Line Extension consists of reconstructing two bridges and tearing down one building.
Workers will reconstruct the Medford Street railroad bridge in Somerville and the Harvard Street railroad bridge in Medford. Doing so will allow both Commuter Rail and Green Line trains to use the bridges. Crews will also knock down an MBTA-owned building at 21 Water St. in Cambridge, which will help prepare that area for the new Lechmere Station.
In other words, you won't see any trains or stations when Phase 1 is complete. You can read more about Phase I here.
Work on Phase 1 will cost $12.9 million, according to the Green Line Extension team's announcement. That's less than one percent of the total cost of the $1.3 billion Green Line Extension project.
Here are the other phases of the Green Line Extension project, along with their costs and projected completion dates (taken from this year-old document, which is already a bit out-of-date but gives a rough idea of the project's scope.)
- Phase 2 and 2A: Complete service to Washington Street and Union Square Stations. Cost: $340 million. Completion date: End of 2016.
- Phase 3: Construct new maintenance facility in Somerville's Inner Belt area. Cost $167 million. Completion date: End of 2017, early 2018.
- Phase 4: Complete service from Washington Street Station to College Avenue Station. Cost: $449 million. Completion date: Middle of 2018 (although that's an optimistic date; it is scheduled to be complete between 2018 and 2020.)
- Additional: Purchase of 24 new Green Line vehicles. Cost: $139 million.
The MBTA and Massachusetts Department of Transportation are seeking $557 million in funding from the Federal Transit Administration's New Starts program for the Green Line Extension.
Tuesday's kick-off event takes place at 1:30 p.m. at 180 Somerville Ave. (in the back of the Target parking lot).
Tony H.
8:48 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Massive waste of money!!! Somerville is already getting the new Assembly Row Orange Line station and the Orange Line already needs $1 billion in improvements according to the most recent study. Why build a new line the T can't maintain before focusing on the existing? This is disgusting.
Antoine
12:07 am on Wednesday, December 12, 2012
It's not a massive waste. The one station you said is in a tiny corner of Somerville cut off by highways and rivers. It's for a future development.
http://www.somervillestep.org/background/map_T_service.html
If you click on that, you'll see how much Somerville gets the shaft.
The problem is not putting money for a project like this. The problem is first: Why it cost so much to build a light rail line on existing tracks? And second: Why isn't money already there for maintenance?
If you look at other countries (like Spain rather than China to be comparable), you'll see money is there to serve better and maintenance is a separate issue. And at half the cost.