The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) this month began construction for the first phase of a project to extend the T's Green Line through Medford and Somerville.
The project has been broken up into four phases, the last of which is scheduled for completion by 2020, according to Hayes Morrison, director of transportation and infrastructure for the City of Somerville. The first phase is a $12.9 million effort that will be carried out by Barletta Heavy Division, Inc. It will include the rehabilitation of the Medford Street Railroad Bridge in Somerville, the reconstruction of the Harvard Street Railroad Bridge in Medford and the demolition of a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) facility at 21 Water St. in Cambridge.
According to Tufts' Director of Community Relations Barbara Rubel, much work remains before the new stations can be completed. The first step, the reconstruction of a bridge over Harvard Street, began this month.
"These two bridge projects could take up to a year," Rubel said. "They are adding a set of tracks alongside the existing commuter rail tracks. These two bridges need to be able to accommodate the additional set of tracks."
In mid?March, the Green Line Extension Project Team held meetings in both Medford and Somerville to present overviews of the construction that will take place over the next few years.
The Green Line Extension Project has been working for the past 15 years to establish a plan, and the state of Massachusetts recently acquired the funds necessary to carry them out, according to Morrison.
The demolition of the Cambridge MBTA facility will become the site of a new Lechmere station, Rubel said.
The project will create two more distinct branches of the line and include seven new stations, including the relocated Lechmere Station.
The mainline branch will include the existing Lowell Line and stretch from the new Lechmere Station in Cambridge north into Medford.
Another branch will operate within the existing Fitchburg Line to Union Square in Somerville.
Six of the new stops will be in Medford and Somerville. One near Tufts on College Avenue and is scheduled for completion between 2018?2020, and five stops in Somerville - including stops at Union Square and Washington Street - should be completed by 2017.
Morrison said that when finished, these new stops will change the daily commute for Somerville citizens.
"Right now, 15 percent of the population of Somerville is within a half mile of an MBTA station," Morrison told the Daily. "When the Green Line is complete, 85 percent of the population will be within half a mile of a station. It will change the way we travel, making it much easier for people to walk or bike to transit."
Morrison said that the City of Somerville hopes that half of all commutes and trips will be made using forms of transportation other than cars by 2030.
"The completed Green Line will make this possible," she said.
Although the initial phases of the plan may cause traffic disruptions for commuters in the areas where construction will cause road closures and detours, citizens should still benefit in the long run, Morrison said.
"I think all construction projects have hard impacts," she said. "But the ends in this case justify the means. Somerville has awaited the Green Line for over 15 years."
