Some tidbits from the latest status report on MassDOT transit commitments: Project cost is now estimated at $953.7 million. The New Starts application is still in progress. Preliminary Engineering will begin winter 2011. The Green Line will open by Oct 2015, 10 months beyond the legal deadline. (MassDOT will propose an interim offset project that the public will be able to…
"MAPC seeks community input on Green Line extension" MAPC, which is the regional planning agency for Metropolitan Boston, will lead the community visioning process and examine how a future Mystic Valley Parkway station could foster transit-oriented development in the area, while minimizing negative impacts to the local community. View an overview of the MAPC study (PDF).
By Ken Krause, MGNA
It doesn’t appear that Green Line Extension (GLX) project planning will get off to a fast start in the New Year.
Approval of a contract for the crucial next phase of the project does not appear on the agenda for the first MBTA/MassDOT board meeting of 2011, scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 5.
In October, the MBTA issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for Preliminary Engineering, Project Oversight and Project Management for the project that would essentially complete the design of the stations and maintenance facility, the final step before construction can commence. Responses were due on Nov. 22, and project officials had said they hoped to presented a contract for board for approval in January. It appears that such approval will now have to wait until at least the February board meeting.
Topics included the GLX Station walks, the GLX Station Design sub-committee, and the Community Path. Meeting notes (PDF)
Medford Patch: "Residents Walk the Proposed Green Line Extension" Twenty citizens braved the cold and wind Saturday morning to look over the sites of future stations at Ball Square and College Avenue. The aim of the walk was to gather citizen concerns ahead of the station-area meetings that would begin in January, which will be conducted by the MBTA to best…
Tufts University professor Justin Hollander, from the department of Urban Environmental Policy and Planning, has created the inTeractive Somerville project "to engage Somerville residents, particularly those who ordinarily do not get involved in city planning, in helping to shape the future of the city in anticipation of the Green Line extension into Somerville." Here's a sample:
Here's the video of the November 8 meeting.
Click to see why the Community Path is such a critical link.
Boston Globe: "Slow progress on Community Path" Advocates have been pushing for the state to see the Community Path as an integral part of the Green Line extension but "there's nowhere near enough funding," said Alan Moore, a member of the Friends of the Community Path who spoke at the meeting.
"Somerville's small industrial shops threatened by Green Line"