Major Step Brings Green Line Extension Forward

– Allison Goldsberry

The Massachusetts Transporation Department announced this week that a land exchange agreement has been approved to facilitate extending the Green Line north of Lechmere Station to Somerville and Medford, while also advancing the NorthPoint mixed-use development project.

“The agreement between the MBTA and Pan Am Railways approved by the MassDOT Board of Directors allows for construction of a new Lechmere Station on the east side of O’Brien Highway in East Cambridge across from the current station location. The project will lead to new jobs and economic development for the area,” said a statement from the MassDOT.

Development of the new Lechmere Station was crucial in extending the Green Line to Medford and Somerville.

Currently, two stations are planned for Medford, one in Ball Square on the Medford/Somerville line and another in the Medford Hillside neighborhood on College Avenue.   The expected completion date for the project has been pushed past the legal deadline of December 31, 2014 to October 2015.

Plans for a stop at Route 16 are uncertain. Transportation officials have declined to provide a completion date for the Route 16 stop and have said it will be part of a second phase of the Green Line extension that will be completed “shortly” after the first phase, which will bring the Green Line to College Avenue.

The once $600 million project is now estimated to cost $954 million. And that’s just for six planned stops. The seventh, a stop at Route 16, could cost another $130 million, pushing the total cost of the project over $1 billion.

– Photo by Alexander Svirsky, MassRoads.com