Green Line Environmental Report Filed Thursday

| October 14, 2009 | Green Line Extension | No Comments

Report is Ten Months Late Due to Somerville Storage Facility Opposition

Story Updated 5:20PM Friday, October 16, 2009

– Ken Krause, Green Line Project Advisory Group member

The Executive Office of Transportation announced today that it will file the Draft Environmental Impact Report on the Green Line Extension project on Thursday, and that it will include two additional options for the site of the controversial storage and maintenance facility.

In addition to the previously recommended site known as Yard 8 in the Inner Belt area of Somerville, the EOT said it will also explore another Inner Belt site, adjacent to the Boston Engine Terminal, and a site that straddles the Inner Belt area of Somerville and the NorthPoint area of Cambridge.

Several members of the Citizens Advisory Board from Somerville have long advocated for the Boston Engine Terminal location, which is where the MBTA commuter rail trains are repaired. The City of Somerville proposed the third location, known as Mirror H, but EOT ruled out that location in a 13-page analysis released last February.

EOT called the addition of the two potential sites “a good solution to move the project forward.” The agency was required to file the DEIR on December 1, 2008, but the filing was delayed due to its efforts to “find a positive resolution” regarding the maintenance facility location.

EOT said it intends to hold a public hearing to get input on the two new options for the maintenance facility. A Notice of Project Change would be required to formally substitute one of the alternative options for Yard 8 as the preferred site for the storage and maintenance facility.

The DEIR is the culmination of 24 months of analysis and preliminary design and engineering for the project, which will extend Green Line service from Lechmere Station in Cambridge through Somerville to Medford.

The report will need the approval of the state’s Executive Office of Environmental Affairs for the project to proceed to the next phase of detailed engineering and final design.

Written comments on the report will be accepted until December 9, 2009. A public hearing on the report also is to be held.

Update:The report was posted to the project website on Friday- click here to read it. The DEIR will be published in the Environmental Monitor on Monday, October 26. The submission will be followed by a 45-day public review period and a public hearing.