Early Stages Green Line Construction Could Begin This Year
Design work is scheduled to be complete in March, and phase one of construction could begin this year, the Boston Globe reports.
"Our goal is [to] get into construction this calendar year," Michael McBride, Green Line extension program manager, told the Boston Globe recently.
The first phase of construction on the Green Line extension project, which will cost about $20 million, according to the Globe, will include bridge reconstruction, demolition work and site preparation.
The Globe also reports that design work on the entire $1.1 billion project is scheduled to be complete by March. The whole fixed rail transportaiton project, which would add seven new Green Line stations in Cambridge, Somerville and Medford, is predicted to be complete around 2019, if it goes forward as planned.
Read the Boston Globe article here.
As work on the Green Line extension progresses, the MBTA faces a $161 million budget deficit in the next year and is planning to raise fares and cut service.
Project planners are hoping to receive federal New Starts funding to pay for much of the project.
That said, winning New Starts funding looks like a daunting task.
According to a Massachusetts Department of Transportation status report released in July, "[T]here will be ongoing operating expenses associated with running the expanded Green Line that must be borne by the MBTA. We are therefore concerned about the effect that the enormously constrained financial condition of the MBTA system will have on our chances of success within the New Starts program."
News of just how "enormously constrained" that financial condition is has been brought to the fore this month (see the above-mentioned service cuts and fare increases).
MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo emphasized to the Globe that it's the state, not the MBTA, that is funding the Green Line project.
However, in recent months, Rep. Michael Capuano and some members of the MBTA board have also painted somewhat pessimistic pictures of Green Line extension funding.
kevin thomas crowley
9:09 am on Saturday, January 28, 2012
i read in one of the articles referenced in the above story that the T will be taking or buying 39 pieces of private property. owning one of these properties is often quite lucrative if it has to be taken by eminent domain,or even bought by a free spending T employee. often these properities are bought by people in the know, politicians and their friends. when route I-93 plans through somerville were nearly complete,a lot of the property to be bought or taken by eminent domain was bought by local pols and their friends. ultimately they made a killing. not only did they know the secrets, but they also knew the buyers, lackies of other politicians.
say it isn't so kevin. yeap, one of the most vocal and vituperative politicians of the protests by residents to depress I-93 through somerville was an elected state official who also insured part of the project. he made a lot of money on that deal. of course citizens did not find out about these land deals and the insurance scheme until long after the highway roared through their neighborhood.thank god for investigative journalism.
keep your eye on who profits from these land takings and other profitable schemes related to the construction of the 'Dreamline'.
history will repeat itself and there are no investigative journalists to report it .
Jonah Petri
11:06 am on Saturday, January 28, 2012
If I remember correctly, most of the land takings are tiny slivers of property along the right of way, not whole properties. The article you read (I assume it was this one: http://somerville.patch.com/articles/mbta-board-debates-green-line-extension-financing ) was very unclear as to the extent of the takings.