Local Group Designs Alternative Route 16 Green Line Stop

MGNA: Alternative Design Preserves Boston Avenue Businesses

– Allison Goldsberry

The Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance (MGNA), a local group of citizens that supports the Green Line extension to Medford, has created an alternative design for a Route 16 station that they say prevents the need to take two Boston Avenue office buildings.

The current state plan for extending the Green Line to Route 16 and creating a station would impact a bridge and office buildings located at 220 and 222 Boston Avenue.

According to Ken Krause, an MGNA member and Green Line Project Advisory Group member, the MGNA has come up with a design that would preserve the two Boston Avenue office buildings. MGNA members Doug Carr, an architect, and John Roland Elliott, an engineer, created the designs, which keep the commuter rail tracks within the existing right of way, slightly curve the planned Green Line tracks, and change the orientation of the station platform.

The MGNA says its alternative design for a Route 16 station and tracks preserves 220 and 222 Boston Avenue, keeps $182,000 in property tax revenue in Medford, reduces the project cost by $15.4 million, and saves the cost of relocating displaced companies and employees.

The group presented its plan to the Medford City Council on Tuesday night and is filing it as a public comment on the state’s draft environmental impact report (DEIR). MGNA members will attend a Green Line public hearing Wednesday night to present their plan.

In its comments on the DEIR, the MGNA praised the state for minimizing the impact on residential property owners, but said the state has not done the same for business owners.

“We applaud EOT for designing the stations in a manner that minimizes residential property takings and for not displacing any Medford residents. However, the same effort has not been made for minimizing commercial property takings, particularly at the Mystic Valley Parkway Station,” said an MGNA statement.

According to Krause, project manager Steve Woelfel stated numerous times during the City Council meeting that the Route 16 station design presented in the DEIR was the “worst case scenario” and state has already has been working on designs that would eliminate the need to acquire the office buildings at 200 and 222 Boston Ave.

Two potential Green Line stations are proposed for Medford. One station is planned for the intersection of College and Boston Avenues and another for Route 16. The Route 16 stop is contingent upon the receipt of federal funds for the project. The state is planning to complete the project in two phases, with phase one of the project- the extension of the Green Line to Boston and College avenues- slated to be completed by 2014. The state has not given a date on the completion of the Route 16 stop but said it will be constructed “shortly” after phase one.

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View the MGNA alternative design

Past coverage of the Green Line extension from InsideMedford.com