Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

Should put some bright lights there & maybe 2 security cameras!! :unsure:
 
In the pics of the tall elevator shaft, is that going to be an office tower there? :unsure:
 
Charlie_mta said:
That would be a good location for TOD, which would hopefully be laid out to provide some pedestrian oriented retail/shops along this path.
Click to expand...

Agreed - this area is begging for TOD. Lechmere and Union Square already have major development under way, while Gilman Square through Medford/Tufts are established neighborhoods where selective infill is the name of the game. But East Somerville has a lot of underutilized nearby land, especially as McGrath gets grounded and thus narrowed. A few of the businesses are essential, albeit not fixed to this exact spot (Cataldo ambulance, Eversource), but there's a lot of work truck parking and auto body shops that don't below right next to a brand new transit station. Replacing those first few lots along Joy Street with residential + two-sided retail arcade would make a huge difference.
 
West of Sycamore. I don't think I've seen hi-rail electrical trucks before.
1641359902527.png


Community Path, again west from Sycamore Street. There's a pronounced dip on this section; I wonder if that's to slow riders before the street crossings.
1641360001335.png


Same section of path, this time viewed from Central Street:
1641360107654.png


Same view, from a few feet to the left:
1641360227281.png


And the view west from Central Street. Those stone stairs at left led to Somerville Junction station, which closed sometime in the 1940s. There's a second smaller set of stairs next to the cone at right.
1641360277577.png


Looking southeast from Lowell Street. The terminal of the 2015 Community Path extension is at right; you can see how it'll connect to the next extension.
1641360904838.png


Now we're at Magoun Square station, where the walkway looks ready for its finishings:
1641363763763.png

1641363871827.png

1641363879701.png


The station elevators viewed from inside the Maxwells Green complex:
1641364153461.png


Perhaps my favorite shot of the day, from Cedar Street. There are four locations with crossovers on GLX revenue tracks: just inbound of Union Square and Medford/Tufts to turn trains, north of Red Bridge to get trains to the yard, and this single trailing-point crossover at Magoun Square. Having a crossover at about every other station is typical for both light rail and heavy rail for operational flexibility. This crossover would allow turning trains at Magoun Square if necessary - hopefully, when connecting the Route 16 extension to Medford/Tufts.
1641364424221.png
 
At Cedar Street you can rotate 180 degrees and see Ball Square station. The stations are only 2,600 feet apart, but their diagonal alignment on the street grid means their walksheds are more separate than the distance would suggest.
1641366446127.png


Ball Square station is progressing nicely. I'm fond of the elevator shaft artwork - it's an inexpensive way to add color and charm to these fairly basic stations.
1641366804061.png

1641366873739.png

1641366881667.png


The wood framing in this photo and the last one is for the concrete pad of the secondary entrance, which will have a lockable overhead gate at one end and fare machines at the other.
1641367375796.png


Bike cage:
1641367492161.png


There are three substations for the GLX: Red Bridge (which I did not manage to photograph), Pearl Street, and Ball Square.
1641367659469.png


From College Avenue you can not only see Ball Square, but a little bit of Magoun Square as well. The tracks aren't actually kinked; you're just seeing a mile of track in one-third of a frame.
1641368038740.png


Tomorrow I'll finish up the photos.
 
Last edited:
Neither the Pearl St or Ball Sq substations have their transformers connected yet. The conductors will end up routed inside through the cutout on the wall above them.
 
The EGE said:
At Cedar Street you can rotate 180 degrees and see Ball Square station. The stations are only 2,600 feet apart, but their diagonal alignment on the street grid means their walksheds are more separate than the distance would suggest.
View attachment 20237

Ball Square station is progressing nicely. I'm fond of the elevator shaft artwork - it's an inexpensive way to add color and charm to these fairly basic stations.
View attachment 20238
View attachment 20239
View attachment 20240

The wood framing in this photo and the last one is for the concrete pad of the secondary entrance, which will have a lockable overhead gate at one end and fare machines at the other.
View attachment 20241

Bike cage:
View attachment 20242

There are three substations for the GLX: Red Bridge (which I did not manage to photograph), Pearl Street, and Ball Square.
View attachment 20243

From College Avenue you can not only see Ball Square, but a little bit of Magoun Square as well. The tracks aren't actually kinked; you're just seeing a mile of track in one-third of a frame.
View attachment 20244

Tomorrow I'll finish up the photos.
Click to expand...

You’re doing the lords duty
 
I sincerely hope that they'll put some new & improved Charlie machines at the stations there!! :)
 
The EGE said:
Agreed - this area is begging for TOD. Lechmere and Union Square already have major development under way, while Gilman Square through Medford/Tufts are established neighborhoods where selective infill is the name of the game. But East Somerville has a lot of underutilized nearby land, especially as McGrath gets grounded and thus narrowed. A few of the businesses are essential, albeit not fixed to this exact spot (Cataldo ambulance, Eversource), but there's a lot of work truck parking and auto body shops that don't below right next to a brand new transit station. Replacing those first few lots along Joy Street with residential + two-sided retail arcade would make a huge difference.
Click to expand...
There's a new Brickbottom master plan that just came out. It's still at the preliminary stage so years off but that whole area is definitely earmarked for serious residential and commercial development. Cataldo is a strange one for me. They are both sides of Washington, their site by the station entrance has got to be worth a fortune, I wonder if they'd consider consolidating on the north side location. They've also got to be concerned about the traffic chaos that will be caused by lowering McGrath. Also Oliveras are making ongoing improvements to their restaurant so there'll be no change at that site (not that I want to see Oliveras move). The whole area seems to be thought out poorly compared to other stations. The public safety building will bring a lot more cars to the area, and having Ambulance, fire, and police emergency vehicles surrounding a T station with heavy bike and pedestrian traffic by nature, seems daft.

Anyway, thanks again for the super thread!
 
Can anyone offer up any insight into the order of finishing touches done on stations to explain how much work we have to go before things look almost done? As in when stations are going to look almost operational. I noticed in photos that the boards for train times are up, however benches and station signage are not there. The elevator glass is installed, however, the yellow warning strip on platforms is not. Is there reasoning behind this? I think once station signage is up and finishing touches to stations are there, this will start to seem real.
 
Different subs are doing work on their own schedules, which depend on other subs, obtaining materials, and finding enough workers. Someone in the GLX office probably has a Gantt chart or equivalent that shows the current state, but it’s not publicly available.

If you look at the Magoun platform from Maxwell’s Green, you can see a coordination board listing the day’s subs and their work.
 
RandomWalk said:
Different subs are doing work on their own schedules, which depend on other subs, obtaining materials, and finding enough workers. Someone in the GLX office probably has a Gantt chart or equivalent that shows the current state, but it’s not publicly available.

If you look at the Magoun platform from Maxwell’s Green, you can see a coordination board listing the day’s subs and their work.
Click to expand...

In addition, supply chains are really messing with construction schedules. Some items that would essentially be off-the-shelf before are months out. Even if we had a schedule from a few months ago, there's a chance it'd be pretty out of date/order by now...
 
AndrewOnTheMBTA said:
Can anyone offer up any insight into the order of finishing touches done on stations to explain how much work we have to go before things look almost done? As in when stations are going to look almost operational. I noticed in photos that the boards for train times are up, however benches and station signage are not there. The elevator glass is installed, however, the yellow warning strip on platforms is not. Is there reasoning behind this? I think once station signage is up and finishing touches to stations are there, this will start to seem real.
Click to expand...
The only thing I can say pretty definitively is that signage is usually one of the very last steps before opening. Once station maps and line diagrams are going up you're usually within a month of opening.

Scroll down on this website and click through some of the MBTA Platform Gantt charts and you can get an idea of the order, its a different station but still green line.

bhs.brookline.k12.ma.us

Expansion Project Calendar

Noise By-Law Application for Construction from October 22, 2020 to April 21, 2021 Noise By-Law Exemption for Construction from Wednesday, January 22, 2020 to Friday, May 22, 2020 Noise By-law...
bhs.brookline.k12.ma.us
 
Interlocking south of College Avenue for Medford Branch trains to swap tracks:
1641425198173.png


There's not much to see from street level on College Avenue and Boston Avenue because the sidewalk is fenced off for construction. So, up to the 7th floor of the Dowling Hall garage we go. Here's the emergency exit stairs for Medford/Tufts station:
1641425395237.png


The station is coming along nicely. It appears that the yellow platform edge is installed, but covered by plywood for protection, as appears to be the case with most of the other stations.
1641425601141.png


I haven't seen this kind of scaffolding around the other headhouses - I'm not sure if it's different exterior materials or a different phase of construction.
1641425653074.png


That completes our walk-through of the GLX. The next time I visit, I hope to hope pictures from inside the opened stations!

For many of these locations, I've taken pictures at the same spot for several years in a row. If you want to see a time series of a specific view, just let me know!
 
The EGE said:
At Cedar Street you can rotate 180 degrees and see Ball Square station. The stations are only 2,600 feet apart, but their diagonal alignment on the street grid means their walksheds are more separate than the distance would suggest.
Click to expand...
In the early planning phases, they were making noises about serving Ball and Magoun Squares via a single station at Cedar St. Which would have been incredibly inconvenient for anyone who didn't live on Cedar St, and the idea was quickly dropped.

Excellent photos, thank you for doing this!
 
RandomWalk said:
Different subs are doing work on their own schedules, which depend on other subs, obtaining materials, and finding enough workers. Someone in the GLX office probably has a Gantt chart or equivalent that shows the current state, but it’s not publicly available.

If you look at the Magoun platform from Maxwell’s Green, you can see a coordination board listing the day’s subs and their work.
Click to expand...
This is kind of what I was thinking - thanks!
 
Ruairi said:
There's a new Brickbottom master plan that just came out. It's still at the preliminary stage so years off but that whole area is definitely earmarked for serious residential and commercial development. Cataldo is a strange one for me. They are both sides of Washington, their site by the station entrance has got to be worth a fortune, I wonder if they'd consider consolidating on the north side location. They've also got to be concerned about the traffic chaos that will be caused by lowering McGrath. Also Oliveras are making ongoing improvements to their restaurant so there'll be no change at that site (not that I want to see Oliveras move). The whole area seems to be thought out poorly compared to other stations. The public safety building will bring a lot more cars to the area, and having Ambulance, fire, and police emergency vehicles surrounding a T station with heavy bike and pedestrian traffic by nature, seems daft.

Anyway, thanks again for the super thread!
Click to expand...

Any tall TOD around East Somerville station will certainly have to contend with Boston’s only billionaire who occasionally works in Somerville via his helicopter landing pad! Air rights battle, anyone?

I just happened to catch him today - you guessed it: Herb Chambers, landing at his Mercedes/AMG dealership (across from McGrath hwy).
065A4474-954A-4A11-90BD-B0706C455EA8.jpeg
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top