Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

I'll add my support for the most crucial piece being Lechmere <--> Washington Street. McGrath is on my no-go biking list. Depending on where I'm going, I usually end up taking Cambridge Street. Having the ability to actually bike through that area, rather than detouring around would be huge for me, and I'm sure other cyclists as well.
 
ceo said:
The Minuteman isn't a good comparison, as it didn't involve any heavy construction, basically just laying pavement and putting up some guardrails. (Edit: and it was actually built in 1992.)
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Nor is the pre-existing Community Path. Alewife-Davis and the first 1000 ft. of the Minuteman out to Thorndike Field were plopped on top of the finished shallow-depth Red Line tunnel and its construction was joined at the hip with the Red extension through common funding pot, just like GLX. But with vastly easier construction because of zero retaining wall or culvert work required.

The Davis-Cedar and more recent Cedar-Lowell extensions were stock rail trail jobs just involving landscaping of the landbanked ROW. An order of magnitude lower cost than Alewife-Davis and more comparable (indexed to inflation) to a typical paved/lit rail trail. Cost would be even less than the Fitchburg Cutoff path which had wetlands where the SCP extension did not, and much less than the Cutoff's rail-with-trail extension to Belmont where security fencing drives up the design costs.

It's doubly useless to make an apples-apples comparison of the GLX-SCP leg with either of the existing halves of the SCP when each existing half was very different from each other. And useless to make comparisons with the other paths in the area connected to the same system and same Alewife point of origin when they cover the whole spread of construction methods. As well as each of them having different utilization profiles and degrees of criticality as recreation vs. general-purpose transit links.

  • Minuteman -- Standard rail trail. Above-average grade separation reducing street crossings and liability therein, but more bridge decks to maintain. No lighting. Only small stretches where the landscaping and seating amenities switch to "park-grade" vs. nature walk. Alewife-Arlington Heights has a transit profile on general utilization. Lexington much more recreational.
  • Watertown Greenway -- Standard rail trail. Above-average grade separation, but on underpasses instead of overpasses. No lighting. Lots of landscaping and benches planned. Pricier drainage issues and EIS'ing to square around the Waterworks. More invasive (but out-of-scope for current phase) construction to come for providing final link to Alewife. Will have a commuter/transit profile when finished since fills in a critical short-distance accessibility gap between two major bus terminals.
  • Fitchburg Cutoff -- Bigtime wetlands on Phase I. Active ROW security on Phase II and commuter rail station structures to interface with. Varying degrees of transit-related use (between rail stations and adjacent TOD) vs. recreational.
  • Bedford Narrow Gauge/Yankee Doodle Trail -- Crushed stone, rustic surroundings past Bedford Depot, little landscaping. Billerica extension would be cheaper than any of the paved trails. Purely recreational.
  • Reformatory Branch Trail -- Started out even more rustic than Bedford, but now being redone as paved. Purely recreational.
  • Mystic Reservation system -- Riverbank trail, not a rail trail. Limited width available, less landscaping needed because abuts a number of pre-existing DCR parks. More erosion control required. Bona fide commuter use with Alewife, Wellington, future GLX-Route 16, several bus lines linked. Sidewalk/bike lane improvements at Wellington opening up more utilization if better links can be established to Everett and Assembly.
  • Charles Reservation system -- Esplanade to Watertown is all pre-existing, only getting spot upgrades. Severe erosion control issues to tend to for upgrading it into a world-class connector, MassHighway involvement around bridge construction in Allston and Storrow impacts/relocation from the Pike straightening project. Very much utilized as a transit system.
  • Leverett Circle-Lechmere-Brickbottom connections -- Little at all in the way of pre-existing ROW, lots of pinned-in space by water, transportation structures to bridge over. By far the most expensive segment of the whole system, despite being the shortest. Heavy-duty projected transit usage because of extreme traffic density along McGrath/O'Brien.


Each and every one of these is so different it's setting oneself up for a world of confusion, misinformation, and spurious conclusions to try to equate any of them. It certainly does the SCP no favors to confuse the issues in that way in front of an audience, be it from purposeful agenda-pushing or just from a brain fart.
 
ceo said:
The Grounding McGrath project ends at the bridge over the Fitchburg Line, so it won't help the proposed path routing much.
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No, but it's co-mingled with the lane-drop of O'Brien Hwy. to Lechmere Sq. so that'll widen the extremely narrow sidewalks over the bridge and make it much more palatable to pedestrians. Right now you can barely pass another predestrian on the bridge, and have to stand aside to let a regular-size stroller pass. And the road spray is horrible. Doubling the width will be huge. Doing something to control the rash of curb cuts on the blighted gas station + warehouse strip at the bottom of the Cambridge-side hill will help more.

But it's only going to be a degree-of-difference improvement when fixed, not an above-average ped route. And it's certainly not going to do much of anything for bikes. So there is still critical need for grade separation to Lechmere Sq. Breaking the SCP here is a real buzzkill because McGrath/O'Brien even post-makeover won't be a good enough substitute.
 
Yes, it was $50m per mile. I'm sure you've seen the crosscuts so you may already realize why. Nearly every foot of the original path was alongside new backfilled retaining wall with high end sound and access barriers. You're not paying for pavement, but for two miles of retaining wall and viaduct. The actual path, plantings, lights, etc. cost a small percentage of that $100m.
 
Equilibria said:
I agree. I'm not sure why the people presenting last night (and commenting, for that matter) would be referring to McGrath in its current configuration. Not only is that project supposed to have bike lanes, they're supposed to be full cycle tracks separated from traffic by a tree-lined divider. Using McGrath as the path alignment would also bring the path most of the way to Union Square and would link up much better with a Grand Junction path.

I know that MassDOT isn't moving fast on McGrath, but we're talking about 2022 here.
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I'd imagine theres some skepticism that the McGrath project will actually deliver on those promises. As far as I'm concerned, Somerville is right to be skeptical about infrastructure projects by now.
 
Went last night and it seemed odd that the friends of the CP and the GLX rescue team had both been working on alternative CP plans but not working together. Hopefully they can cobble some joint plan together between now and May 9. The solution from Washington to Lechmere seems daft.
 
ceo said:
The Minuteman isn't a good comparison, as it didn't involve any heavy construction, basically just laying pavement and putting up some guardrails. (Edit: and it was actually built in 1992.)
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CEO -- it got built on the old rail bed and then it was unbuilt to lay some big sewer pipes along the brook that the rail bed follows

Then it was rebuilt with the sewer now buried and now they are talking further enhancements

BUT under it all is the Red Line Easement -- the T can still build the Red Line and the bike path would have to try to accommodate it
 
Ruairi said:
Went last night and it seemed odd that the friends of the CP and the GLX rescue team had both been working on alternative CP plans but not working together. Hopefully they can cobble some joint plan together between now and May 9. The solution from Washington to Lechmere seems daft.
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The Friends member and civil engineer who developed that alt plan has done official work for other projects in Somerville before and I think it was a last-minute send to GLX team (literally at midnight before the public meeting). The engineers on both sides are very friendly with each other, I know, and hence the camaraderie you saw at the meeting. However, the official plan needed to be completed a couple of weeks before that public meeting for vetting, making posters, pricing out, etc. The Friends proposal was still very sketchy at the time of the GLX's deadline.
 
Thanks for the clarification KJDonovan. Hopefully they'll work together going forward.
 
The mayor and city manager of Somerville and Cambridge are announcing that they intend to put $50 M and $25 M of their town funding respectively into the Green Line Extension: http://www.thesomervilletimes.com/archives/67215

MAPC is calling it "unprecedented", but having towns kick in some of the cost for big transportation projects doesn't seem that unusual. Somerville and Cambridge intend to get new value capture authority passed in the state house. It seems like a good way to ensure the project happens, but makes maintaining some semblance of housing affordability along the route even more impossible.
 
Scipio said:
The mayor and city manager of Somerville and Cambridge are announcing that they intend to put $50 M and $25 M of their town funding respectively into the Green Line Extension: http://www.thesomervilletimes.com/archives/67215

MAPC is calling it "unprecedented", but having towns kick in some of the cost for big transportation projects doesn't seem that unusual. Somerville and Cambridge intend to get new value capture authority passed in the state house. It seems like a good way to ensure the project happens, but makes maintaining some semblance of housing affordability along the route even more impossible.
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Looks to me as a typical political ploy -- there is no real commitment to any new funds from existing City sources

The only funds mentioned come from land already purchased by Somerville [$8M] and the contribution from the developers of North Point

The rest is based on some nebulous proposal to have the Legislature authorize "Value Capture Tools" -- aka new taxes on development -- probably a non-starter

from the Somerville Times
After discussions with the state, the needed value of new financial participation in the GLX for the City of Somerville is projected to be $50 million and the value of the City of Cambridge’s contribution is projected at $25 million, including financial contributions from the North Point developers, to close the funding gap. Again, any contribution will be subject to Board and City Council approvals.

Furthermore, it is our intention to work, alongside MAPC, with Governor Baker’s administration and the cities’ state and federal delegations to seek legislative action on new and refined “value capture” tools capable of supporting new infrastructure investments around Massachusetts. In addition, we request that the Commonwealth establish a baseline tracking framework for future Infrastructure Investment Incentive (I-Cubed) state tax revenue accruals generated by transit-oriented development around the GLX, so as to not preclude a formal application to use eligible I-Cubed revenues to offset Cambridge’s and Somerville’s proposed municipal contribution, if they choose that option.
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It looks like a couple of the options at the Union/Main Line junction propose making the junction flat instead of the planned flying junction. It wouldn't be as much of a clusterfuck as the Copley junction, since there's no station immediately before or after, but I'm leery about making that trade-off for what looks like a $35M savings.
 
oyhimylm said:
It looks like a couple of the options at the Union/Main Line junction propose making the junction flat instead of the planned flying junction. It wouldn't be as much of a clusterfuck as the Copley junction, since there's no station immediately before or after, but I'm leery about making that trade-off for what looks like a $35M savings.
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At-grade branch split doesn't work. Don't forget, the Union Branch has to go from nearly 20 feet above the Fitchburg Line to track level while making a sharp turn to avoid the Brickbottom Artists' Association building 100 ft. away and only having about 400 ft. of running room after straightening out to get down on the ground before having to pass under McGrath Hwy. The big high swoop of the flyover is the only way to correct for that tight-tight geometry. Unless you envision the at-grade junction with the sharp curve on an incline being some sort of launchpad for sending derailed Bredas flying into somebody's 2nd floor loft as a performance art exhibit.


I wouldn't hold the path people to complete, infallible track engineering accuracy on those concept renders. They only have one job to do, and that's to find avenues for savings on the path. They're not attempting to make a perfectly to-scale track schematic; it's somebody else's job to evaluate their conversation-starters and see what works, what doesn't, and what doesn't obey the laws of physics.
 
This makes me nervous—the timing is clearly to get the board's attention heading into the weekend (they vote on Monday). Makes me think Somerville and Cambridge are not as confident as they'd like to be on the outcome and that this is a...I wouldn't quite call it a desperation move but as MAPC says, an "unprecedented" one.

Somerville City Hall has invested millions of dollars in planning, preparation, and land acquisition—not to mention political capital—on promising this thing happens. If it doesn't, it'd be like Bentonville losing Walmart.
 
whighlander said:
Looks to me as a typical political ploy -- there is no real commitment to any new funds from existing City sources

The only funds mentioned come from land already purchased by Somerville [$8M] and the contribution from the developers of North Point

The rest is based on some nebulous proposal to have the Legislature authorize "Value Capture Tools" -- aka new taxes on development -- probably a non-starter

from the Somerville Times
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I disagree. I know of at least 3 major capital projects within the communities that have been put on hold until the issue of municipal funding is resolved.
 
Councillor Leland Cheung isn't happy (rightly so):

'Skeletal' redesign of Green Line Extension draws criticism at final public meeting

By Natalie Handy
nhandy@wickedlocal.com

Posted May 2, 2016 at 10:31 AM
Updated May 4, 2016 at 8:03 AM

CAMBRIDGE

As the state and MBTA prepare to vote May 9 on whether to continue the Green Line Extension project, residents and public officials alike expressed frustration and disappointment regarding a proposed, scaled-back re-design during MassDOT’s final public meeting on the topic April 27 in Cambridge.

While many meeting attendees spoke in favor of the project, others were not pleased with the new “skeletal” design.

...

Cambridge City Councilor Leland Cheung said at the meeting that this process has been an “absolute train wreck of this management,” and instead of going after the contractors who have wasted taxpayer dollars, the state has gone after residents to accept a “bare-bones proposal.” According to Cheung, residents have spent countless hours thinking about the future of the area, and developers, council, and the city of Cambridge have put up resources that have been “thrown to the wayside.”

...

“I’m so terribly disappointed in terms of what we’re being presented with, and I’m asking you to go back and come up with better,” Cheung said.

The redesigned stations are open-air instead of station houses, and only the Lechmere and College Avenue stations would have elevators to transport people from the street to the tracks. There would be a four-car platform at Lechmere, and all others would be three-car. The stations will be ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant with fare arrays removed and bike storage at all stations. The operation limitations would result in construction efficiencies and improve budget and schedule, according to Wright. Mitigation measures will also be put in place to reduce existing noise and vibration impacts from area railroads, according to the plan.

Despite the ADA compliance, some residents questioned the feasibility for seniors to access the proposed Lechmere Station, specifically when traveling from East Cambridge and crossing the highway. Other residents were concerned with the open-air facilities, especially during harsh weather.

...

Full article: http://winchester.wickedlocal.com/n...nsion-draws-criticism-at-final-public-meeting
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At least someone finally brought up that the real issue was the contractors not the project itself.
 
^ This was brought up at every redesign community meeting. The project will be both rebid to new contractors AND redesigned to save costs. It's not an either or.
 
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