Green Line Ground Breaking Tuesday

Photo by Alexander Svirsky, MassRoads.com.

– Allison Goldsberry

On Tuesday, December 11 the first official construction of the Green Line extension to Somerville and Medford will begin.

A ground breaking event with Governor Deval Patrick, State Transportation Secretary Richard Davey, and Congressman Michael Capuano, and other state and local officials will take place at 180 Somerville Avenue in Somerville.

According to an email from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the first phase of construction includes the reconstruction of two bridges, the Harvard Street railroad bridge in Medford and the Medford Street railroad bridge in Somerville. Both bridges will be rebuilt to accommodate the existing Commuter Rail tracks and the new Green Line tracks.

A building owned by the MBTA will also be torn down to clear a way for the eventual extension of Green Line tracks from Lechmere Station. The building is located at 21 Water Street in East Cambridge, according to the MassDOT.

The first phase of construction will cost $12.9 million and will be done by Barletta Heavy Division, according to the email.

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 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.