Green Line Extension to Medford Moves Forward
Environmental Review Process Begins, Citizens Appointed to Advisory Group
A Green Line train at Cleveland Circle. Photo courtesy MassRoads.com.
– Allison Goldsberry
The Green Line extension to Medford and Somerville is moving forward with the beginning of the environmental review process and a new project advisory group.
The Patrick administration announced last week that Vanasse, Hangen Brustlin, Inc. (VHB) has been hired to complete the required Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) and preliminary engineering for the project.
The process should take eighteen months, and, according to Project Advisory Group member and Medford resident Ken Krause, will determine key things such as station location and design, potential eminent domain, and traffic and noise impact.
Other members of the Project Advisory Group include Cambridge and Somerville residents and Medfordites William Wood, Carol Sharpton, and City Councilor Fred Dello Russo.
The group was formed to provide local feedback on the project and will meet monthly throughout the environmental review and preliminary engineering process.
In a statement, the governor’s office said the state is committed to keeping the project on time and will try to speed the process along by designing trains now and completing aerial surveying work, which could “shave months off the project.”
The governor’s office recently came under fire by local officials and the Conservation Law Foundation when it announced in August that the Green Line Extension would be pushed back two years to 2016 because the state is seeking federal funding for the $800 million project.
The project has already been delayed from 2011 to 2014.
The first meeting of the Project Advisory Group will take place from 4PM-6PM on Thursday, October 25, at the community room in the Visiting Nurse Association Center, 259 Lowell Street, Somerville.
The meetings are open to the public and Krause said a ten-minute public comment period will be set aside at each meeting. In addition, news will soon be posted to a website just for the project, www.GreenLineExtension.org.
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