EOT says Green Line project for Medford is on track
Medford Transcript, by Rob Barry
Wed Mar 11, 2009
Medford -
Citizens of the greater Medford area sat in the Brooks School auditorium Monday as Green Line extension project planners assured the public a major document is nearly ready to discuss.
In one of the last two public meetings before filing the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR), residents from the communities abutting the project had the opportunity to voice their support and frustrations.
Local officials have been waiting many months for the Executive Office of Transportation (EOT) to finish the DEIR so that they can develop firm stances on the project's many facets. The report will include a number of studies on how extending the Green Line through Somerville and Medford will affect the abutting environment.
Last month, the EOT officially recommended extending the Green Line all the way from Lechmere Station to Route 16/Mystic Valley Parkway. With the EOT's objective clear, more residents than ever have been turning out at the public meetings.
"Two years ago, the biggest complaint I heard was, 'I have no idea what you're talking about with the Green Line extension,'" said state Rep. Carl Sciortino, D-Medford. "And now there's this great turnout at all of the meetings."
Sciortino said while people directly abutting the tracks may have a few more complaints than others in the community, everyone needs to be respectful of their concerns.
Stephen Woelfel, manager of statewide transit planning for the EOT, filled the audience in on exactly where the project stands.
"We are pursuing federal funding through the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) 'New Starts' program," said Woelfel. "We believe the project is highly competitive and will do well with that."
Woelfel said after some technical assistance from the FTA, the commonwealth would likely submit the Draft Environmental Impact Report for review in spring. Another public comment period will follow the DEIR's filing and by this summer, the EOT hopes to begin preliminary engineering.
Questions linger
City Councilor Frederick Dello Russo said working together and being respectful would be important in moving the process forward.
"And that's what we need to continue to do," said Dello Russo. "As soon as we can get that we'll be able to do the further work that we need to do on the project and those are the mitigation issues."
The EOT has said that extending the Green Line past College Avenue would create a greater potential for land taking. Though the EOT said no homes would need to be seized, several commercial buildings could be.
Making his first public statement on the matter, Joel Swets, executive director of the Cummings Foundation, said taking the buildings at 196 and 200 Boston Ave. is not in the community's best interest.
"If they were taken, presumably, they would be demolished," said Swets. "Both of those buildings have been on that site for more than reportedly 100 years."
The building at 200 Boston Ave. has roughly 700 people coming to work and visit the building daily. It is a home to a number of science and biotech companies.
"The Cummings Foundation believes it is very much against the commonwealth's interests to displace all those businesses," said Swets, "which could then settle outside of Medford and outside the commonwealth."
Area residents also had a number of concerns. People spoke for and against a parking station at the Route 16 terminus and looking into tunneling.
The EOT's plan does not include a parking garage, which it says is to keep the flow of incoming traffic down.
Some also voiced concern over whether the project could move forward without federal funding, but Woelfel assured the group the state would pay for it if necessary and that the money is there.
"I still don't understand why we're not tunneling this from College Avenue to Route 16," said Christine Bennett, of Medford.
In an uncommon moment of total candor, Woelfel explained exactly why the idea of tunneling would be best laid to rest: the elusiveness of federal dollars.
"We're going against hundreds of projects across the country," said Woelfel. "It's a competitive process that's driven by cost-effectiveness. Adding tunneling would cost an exorbitant amount for what it adds to the project."
A member of the Tunnel Workers Union Local #88 then said he strongly disagreed that the cost of tunneling would be anywhere in the billions. He said his people could have the job done in months, not years.