MBTA presents redesigned community path extension

On April 20, 2016, in Latest News, by The Somerville Times
The proposed design alternatives for the Community Path would bring down costs, but many are asking if there is too much compromise built into the plan.

The proposed design alternatives for the Community Path would bring down costs, but many are asking if there is too much compromise built into the plan.

By Josie Grove

At the latest presentation about the redesigned Green Line Extension, MassDOT and its consultants presented a redesigned Community Path featuring nearly $80 million in savings. “The cost of the path turned out to be $100 million. $10,000 per linear foot, or $53 million per mile,” said Jack Wright, the interim project manager. The redesigned path will cost around $20 million.

The estimated cost for the entire Green Line Extension shot up nearly $1 billion over budget last summer, and the extension was cancelled. The redesigned extension aims to help cut the project’s costs to bring it under budget, so that the extension can move forward. “The MBTA and our consultants are doing our best to deliver a project that we can afford,” said Frank DePaola, general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

The length of the line and location of its seven stops must stay constant to retain $1 billion in federal funding, but everything else, including the station designs, vehicle maintenance facility, and the area around the tracks, will be subject to cuts. It is not clear whether or not the Community Path is part of the full funding grant agreement with the federal government, and if the path must be built in order to retain that funding.

Interim GLX project manager Jack Wright at last Wednesday’s meeting. ~Photos by Josie Grove

Interim GLX project manager Jack Wright at last Wednesday’s meeting. — Photo by Josie Grove

The path will carry cyclists and pedestrians from the existing path at Lowell Street to Poplar Street. The redesigned path covers the same length, but will sit in the recessed area near the train tracks, rather than at street level. “It’s intended to meet the spirit of the original community path,” said Jack Wright, the project’s interim manager. “It doesn’t do it as well as the community path does.” Most of the $80 million in savings come from eliminating the need to move earth and build walls, as it relies largely on existing retaining walls around the rail corridor. Having the Community Path at street level was “a very grand idea, but also a very expensive idea,” said Wright.

About 3,000 feet of the path’s 10,000-foot length will go out of the rail corridor. The redesigned path crosses Central Street and comes down the east side of the corridor until School Street. Path users will have to cross the street twice to continue along the path.

At Walnut Street, the path will pass beneath the station, through a tunnel between 80 and 100 feet long. Wright and other engineers explaining the design were quick to point out that the tunnel would be lit with LED lights and contain emergency call boxes.

The original design had a ramp to go up onto McGrath Highway, but the new path ends just before the highway, at Poplar Street. There is not a ramp there in the new design, but it would be possible to add later.

Wright admitted the redesign had disadvantages, but said it was necessary to build a cheaper path. “I want to emphasize at this point that the goal of the team is to get the GLX back being built, to bring the Green Line service back to Somerville,” he said. “Everything else behind that service is somewhat secondary.”

“The path itself is at least as important to us as the Green Line,” countered resident Justin Maloney. “It’s really difficult to get anywhere,” he said, citing Somerville’s hills and many one-way streets. Maloney and many other residents were dismayed that the path leaves users on McGrath Highway. Heather Van Altz said, “I can say for sure there is no bike lane on McGrath highway today.” Dick Bauer agreed, saying, “To have it end up on McGrath highway defeats the purpose.”

Many residents were still angry that the Green Line Extension is having to find cost savings. “I think Somerville deserves a $100 million community path,” said Mike Connolly of the Cambridge Residents Alliance. “Somerville has sacrificed for everyone else’s transit convenience.”

“We can’t envision not needing that $80 million,” Wright said of the cuts.

Others at the meeting were impatient for the path, saying they had been waiting decades for the Green Line. More than one asked for a date by which the GLX would be finished. “As far as giving a date, the most important factor here is the board has stopped the GLX project for now,” Wright said. “If it gets started again, we can start talking about a date.”

Bill White, the president of Somerville’s Board of Aldermen wants a commitment to go forward with the GLX. “If the board of directors presents to us some cuckoo truncated project…my advice to the mayor would be to go ahead, guns a-blazing, to pursue our rights under the Clean Air Act.”

The MBTA’s board of directors will decide on May 9 whether or not the project will go through.

 

11 Responses to “MBTA presents redesigned community path extension”

  1. MarketMan says:

    Ridiculous!

  2. Rumpleforeskin says:

    Preposterous!

    😛

  3. Noel Efturn says:

    Balderdash! Preposteri are now extinct.

    By the double-barrelled jumping jiminetty, says I! (* twirls handlebar moustache *)

  4. Owen Deed says:

    I know plain old horse hockey when I see it! And believe me, I’m no sports fan. 😀

  5. Idoknow says:

    If anyone doesn’t understand what is happening history is repeating itself. Mr. Wright and Mr. Poirier who have been chosen to figure out how to keep the project going have experience from the Big Dig as the same team who
    when overruns occurred figured out how to keep the project going so
    there respective companies(Keville) and MHD could continue to reap $$$’s. Respectfully when Governor Patrick had Bechtel and Parson Brinkerhoff thrown off the project in late 2006, Keville took over the Bechtel\PB employee’s and increased their bottom line at the taxpayers expense. The GLX is no different as Mr. Wright is a former MBTA employee with a heavy pension and also a pension from Mass Highway, but back to ensure his friends and colleagues continue to collect a paycheck. In addition, Mr. Poirier’s wife Kimberly is ‎Director of Labor Relations at MBTA and how does this work when there is overlapping interest in the paycheck?? You decide?

  6. Nat says:

    Worry about finishing the Greenline extension first before worrying about some stupid path….

  7. A Moore says:

    It appears more and more that the only people who will benefit from this are the people designing it. By not designing it right from the start according to what money is available and the usual costs overrun it has either stalled this or ended it. Time will tell. With the government this deep into debt it has to have some impact on these projects.

  8. Abba says:

    So we can find the money no problem to completely reconfigure the Route 2 highway in Concord, and we can find the money no problem to widen the Route 128 highway in Wellesley, but we can’t find the money for a 1.9 mile bike path that would connect an existing 12+ mile bike path from Bedford to the miles upon miles of Charles River and Boston Emerald Necklace bike paths, creating a safe bicycle superhighway to Boston that gets bicycles off the roads and out of the mix with cars? Pathetic.

  9. Freebie says:

    The original cost of $100 million for the bike path alone? How on earth?

    The new plan should be implemented. If we build this path it will get heavy use by our many commuters going into Kendall, heck it might even cut into MBTA fares – oops!

    And I see the construction signs on Beacon Street this week – the cycle track construction begins!

  10. Genie Geronimo says:

    The 80,000,000 price to construct a 3,000 foot retaining wall is a complete fabrication. Anybody familiar with construction knows this. The original cost would never have been that high. If the MBTA (or these clowns) is too inept to manage this then maybe they should get someone local to do the job.

  11. A Moore says:

    First off whatever price is worked out will not be the real price of the job. You can be sure it will be higher. The contractors that bid these jobs have that in place in the contracts. This whole thing has been handled wrong. Should have designed it the cheapest way possible and then add in the most important things depending on the money left over. The longer it is delayed under the existing conditions and amount of money to work with the more unlikely it will be built. The cost factor should have been part of the designing process and well thought out as that is why they get the big bucks.