MBTA moving Green Line Extension into next phase

State transportation planner Matt Ciborowski (right) reviews a preliminary sketch of the planned Gilman Square Green Line Station with residents David Dahlbacka and Jane Sauer. - Photo by Elizabeth Sheeran

By Elizabeth Sheeran

The Green Line extension chugged a little further along the tracks in September, as the MBTA stepped into the driver’s seat and officially kicked off the design phase of the project.

“We are committed to getting this project done,” said MBTA General Manager Richard Davey to over 100 residents at the Argenziano School in Somerville on September 28, who braved torrential rains to get the latest project update from state and local officials.

Davey said the MBTA will be primarily responsible for building the Green Line Extension as it moves out of the planning phase, but will continue to work with the team of planners at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) who have been involved in the project for years.

He addressed rumors that a recently failed bid to award a key project management contract would force substantial delays, saying he plans to award the contract by January, 2011, and the project is on target to be fully operational by the fall of 2015.

Officials noted the significance of the shift from planning to design. Where discussions in the past have been around “points on a map,” they can now begin to be about deciding the “look and feel” of the new Green Line, said state transportation planner Matt Ciborowski.

Meeting attendees got their first glimpse of architectural sketches for the seven new T stations: From Lechmere, where the station will be relocated to the opposite side of Monsignor O’Brien Highway, the Green Line’s D branch will run to a new College Avenue Station at Tufts University in Medford, passing through Brickbottom, Gilman Square, Lowell Street and Ball Square Stations. A second spur will extend the E-Line from Lechmere to a new station at Union Square.

Project Manager Kate Fichter stressed that the sketches were preliminary designs, and that public input would continue throughout the design phase. She said the MBTA and MassDOT will host a series of station design workshops throughout the winter that would focus on individual stations as well as the extended Community Path and a new maintenance facility, and where residents will be able to weigh in on everything from lobby layout to color schemes.

“We want these stations to work well both for the T and for the neighborhoods around them,” said Fichter. “We want them to be good neighbors.”

The project team outlined station design goals, including accessibility, maintainability, safety, long-term sustainability and integration with the neighborhood. The plans also aim to create seamless connections to and from other means of transportation, especially those that don’t involve cars, since the original mandate for the Green Line Extension was born of the state’s obligation to reduce automobile usage under the federal Clean Air Act.

It was those connections that drew the most vocal comments from residents at the meeting. Some requested better integration with bus routes. Some asked for expanded bike storage at the new stations. And some advocated for more focus and funding for the multi-use Community Path, so that more people can get to the T without having to deal with car traffic.

“One day I dream of getting on the roller blades and going right down to the station,” said Spring Hill resident Jeremy Mendelsohn.

Several residents proposed turning planned fire exits into secondary entrances, to make life easier for riders approaching the stations on foot.

“If every single day I walk by a locked-up secondary egress and have to walk another 1,000 feet to get to where I can actually get into the station, every single day is a day I’m going to think ‘MBTA: stupid design’…It adds to negative feelings about the MBTA,” said Ethan Contini-Field.

Fichter said the design team will take all of the public input into account, including feedback from a second community meeting held in Medford on September 29.

And Mike Lambert, Somerville’s director of transportation and infrastructure, said the City is committed to doing everything it can to move the project forward.

“We have waited far too long and we’ve never been closer than we are now,” said Lambert.

 For more information about the Green Line Extension Project, go to www.mass.gov/greenlineextension.