Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

Sigh: CH2M Hill, which was hired in May for $57 million, was removed from its GLX oversight role because it was acquired by Jacobs Engineering, one of the finalists for the design-build contract.

The MBTA has to go to the second-choice bidder (from May), HAKS Engineering, and retain them to replace CH2M Hill.

Patch.com says:
Green Line Extension project manager John Dalton is "confident" that the contractor change will not have an impact on the overall project timeline, Pesaturo said.

The $2.3 billion project will add seven new stops in Somerville and Medford; construction is slated to be completed by the end of 2021. The three shortlisted design-build teams are required to submit proposals by September.
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Early work continues...MassDOT email says:
Early Work Continues Along the Lowell Commuter Rail Line

Work continues along the railroad right-of-way in Medford between Harvard Street and north of College Avenue, seven days a week. This work remains critical to support the next phases of work leading into construction in 2018.

Each weekend, work crews access the right-of-way at the end of service Friday evening and continue work through start of service Monday morning. This weekend, Saturday, September 8 and Sunday, September 9, as workers make progress with excavation, drilling will be necessary involving varying noise levels.

Neighbors will also experience increased construction vehicle traffic in the vicinity of Colby Street and Tufts University, as materials and equipment are delivered to and removed from the railroad right-of-way. The GLX Team apologizes for the inconvenience this work may cause, and has instructed work crews to minimize inconvenience to the community.

The GLX Project is progressing smoothly and we thank you for your patience and support as we work to execute this signature project.
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It is also the case that Tufts has backed off from an air rights building over the T station, in favor of one abutting, but not over (Same donor, Cummings Foundation, of alumnus & Cummings Properties owner). As of now, they've only picked the footprint, not a design:

Cummings-Footprint-938x535.jpg


Full story in Tufts Daily.
 
Presumably they're not building that bridge over Boston Ave, then.
 
The New Lechmere site also looks "active" this morning...or at least somebody is making look "clear and ready" (not sure if it is the T or Northpoint doing the work). Maybe somebody can get a shot looking down from the D Line as it descends and curves from the viaduct into Old Lechmere?
 
I had to google the moving company whose trucks are parked in the background to figure out where that was. :) I recall they're upgrading that track for PAR freights since the track from Yard 8 that goes around behind BET is going away?
 
They are still selecting the new contract, right? If so, then who is working on this construction?
 
ant8904 said:
They are still selecting the new contract, right? If so, then who is working on this construction?
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This is all enabling work (site grading, drainage, utilities, track relocation) that was underway and not effected by the contract revision. The new design & construction contracts (design-build) for the stations & tracks themselves are being selected this fall.
 
Ken Krause has posted a video shot from the Lowell Line (wrong-railing it outbound on the inbound Lowell track) through Medford from after the future Ball Sq (not shown) to past the future Tufts Sta.

The "pre-work" is technically Commuter Rail work:
1) moving the CR to the (compass) northeast to create two track's worth of space on the southwest side.
2) Adding an interlocking near the work's outermost end (end of the video)

Video begins at Harvard St (the blue Tufts Science & Technology Center)
ends at the back of the red house at 113 Burget Ave

The future GLX will be approximately where the CR train is actually running at the moment of filming, while today's outbound CR track (seen empty in the video) is either in the "slot" that will carry the GLX outbound or the future CR inbound the dividing line moves around to accommodate stations.

The goal of the pre-work is to move the CR tracks into the part of the right of way that you see being prepared with widening, retaining walls and ballast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx_B29BtUX8
 
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It looks to me like they've erected a tent and bus shelters on the "new Lechmere" site or maybe slightly beyond (into future North Point space)

Is this going to be the temporary bustituion of the E and terminus of the 69/80/87/88? And for how long?

I guess the temporary site could be clear of both the future site and the existing site, and therefore able to facilitate both New Lechmere's construction and turning Old Lechmere over to developers. Is that the plan?
 
The T is reviewing bids now and is on schedule to award the contract 11/17, per most recent FMCB meeting.
 
FitchburgLine said:
The T is reviewing bids now and is on schedule to award the contract 11/17, per most recent FMCB meeting.
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My guess is that the construction of the temporary terminal is part of the land swap deal with Pan Am, rather than part of the GLX itself.

The T can't take possession of the old Pan Am ROW (from New Lechmere to Yard 8/Brickbottom) until it has delivered possession of the Old Lechmere site for development by Pan Am & NorthPoint.

So if the T wants to have its land "in hand" by the time of GLX NTP, they need to consummate the land swap, which involves:
- Constructing a temporary 69/80/87/88 & GL Bustitution Terminus
- Making the bus ops changes
- Vacating Old Lechmere
- Taking possession of the land for the GLX
 
Nice view from the GLX project Facebook feed of the "Early Works" Tufts Interlocking Project to move the Lowell line (to free space for the GLX and to allow single track operation through the GLX project area)

This picture was taken from the College Ave bridge at Tufts in Medford looking inward (from roughly here: https://goo.gl/maps/hrdJNZLMBtK2)

Near the "rail horizon" in this photo (about 2000' inward/distant from where the photographer stood) you can see the tracks cross in the leftmost slots of the Harvard Ave bridge, and jog rightward to their current slots while the new interlocking is built on the new leftside alignment. If you look closely, the tracks on the photo's horizon are *not* connected to the new interlocking. You can also see the vertical mast of the new signals as a shiny vertical tower in to the immediate left of the blue science building. If you can find the signal mast, you can also see the two new signals (as black circles on an arm you can barely see) extended out over the future CR alignment.

Once the ballast is laid on the now-dirt side all the way out to 1000' beyond College Ave (where they've had to install a retaining wall to get enough room), and the signal is installed at the outer bound (as shown in the lower diagram below) the rails will be closed for the weekend, cut, dragged and connected to the interlocking.

In all that's about 3000' worth of Lowell Commuter rails (2000' on the inward side of College Ave that you see and 1000' outward that there's no photo of) that will be realigned on the left so that the GLX can be constructed on the right.
22728845_10154841276661681_8664610498243878025_n.jpg


Below, top, is a diagram that describes the foreground of the picture above, and below, bottom, is a diagram of the work that is happening "behind" the photographer who took the photo above.

datadyne007 said:
Tufts Interlocking Neighborhood Presentation from 5/31:

http://greenlineextension.org/documents/PubMtgs/Tufts_Interlocking_Neighborhood_053117.pdf

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Updates from the MBTA financial review board:
-2 bids came in at or under the affordability limit
-Pilot vehicles for the Type 9s are expected by February 2018 with the rest arriving by December.
 
Big Update on GLX Phase II (from College Ave to a new terminus at Mystic Valley Parkway)

The deal was that they were taking $169m of Federal CMAQ money from 2017 - 2022, that had been earmarked for the MVP terminus, and reallocated it to cover overruns in Phase I of the GLX (Lechmere - Union Sq/Collge Ave)

This was a good deal all around, really:
- Pushing MVP into phase II was better than letting NIMBYs kill it.
- Delay will allow the NIMBYs to age-out of the neighborhood and be replaced by pro-transit newcomers; persuadable NIMBYs will hopefully see the GLX open and be won over as converts.
- Unreaslistic to think they coulda spent the $169m until Phase I was underway
- Once College Ave is open everything should lock quickly into place for MVP

As part of this deal, two things were promised:
1) That Federal CMAQ money beyond 2022 (say, 2022 to 2027) would be earmarked to constructing the tracks and new terminal at Mystic Valley Parkway (on the Somerville / Medford line on parcels mostly owned by Tufts)

2) That in 2017 to 2022 planning and design would continue on the MVP station so that it would be "shovel ready" in 2022.

So they have, in fact, delivered on the planning for 2017, delivering a 24 Page PDF as a Notice of Project Change (just today) and planning hearings for November 2017.

The biggest change that I can see is simply that the MVP terminus has been subjected to the same value engineering that, in the rest of the GLX, resulted in barrier-free, single-level station with a minimum of structure and shelter.

The NPC summarizes the design changes like this (bolding is mine)
MassDOT and the MBTA recently reevaluated the conceptual design of the proposed Mystic ValleyvParkway Station to match the recent design changes proposed for the Green Line Extension fromvLechmere Station to College Avenue, as well as to minimize property impacts.

As described in thevJanuary 2017 NPC for the core Project, many of the station design elements were modified to reducevanticipated costs while maintaining core functionality and benefits. MassDOT and the MBTA propose the following changes to the conceptual design of Mystic Valley Parkway Station:

• Lower Green Line tracks from Commuter Rail level to street level to provide full platform access via a single-story terminal station. This redesign would eliminate the need for elevators, escalators, and stairs in this location, and reduce long-term station life-cycle and maintenance costs.
• Replace the canopy with multiple pre-fabricated weather shelters along the station platform.
• Construct pedestrian grade crossings for access to the low-level platforms.
• Increase capacity for bicycle parking to 120 spaces in a secure storage enclosure (a “pedal & park” facility.)
• Remove all customer parking from the station design.
• Add an electrical substation (location to be determined) to provide additional traction power capacity, identified by the Green Line Extension Project since the 2009 DEIR.
• Shift station access drive north to reduce impacts to an adjacent business located at 200 Boston Avenue in Medford.(Approximately 84 surface parking spaces at 196 and 200 Boston Avenue could be impacted by the
proposed improvements, which would be replaced at a location to be determined.)
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They made expansion across the Mystic River significantly harder (since the station is literally sitting at Rt. 16 at grade), in exchange for a much cheaper and simpler project, which seems reasonable to me.
 
FitchburgLine said:
They made expansion across the Mystic River significantly harder (since the station is literally sitting at Rt. 16 at grade), in exchange for a much cheaper and simpler project, which seems reasonable to me.
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Me too.

I'm also convinced that the Green Line was never getting across the Mystic: The bridge work on the two spans (over the parkway and over the Mystic) was going to be too expensive.

If West Medford is ever going to get frequent transit, the money will be better spent on whatever it takes to put a 3-track tunnel under Route 60 for two side "NSRL" platforms and a center freight-clearance and express track. I don't see how you'd ever squeeze that and a two track GLX into West Medford Square.

And if there's going to be a NSRL-to-GLX transfer station somewhere, it seems like Tufts or Gilman or Washington St are better places.
Beyond that, for at least the useful life of the MVP station (til, what, 2065?) there are going to be more-deserving, more-receptive places to run a green line branch to places not slated for NSRL service, like beyond Riverside, or on the Urban Ring to Chelsea.
 
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