Baker-Polito Administration, Transportation Officials Visit Green Line Extension Project

Governor Charlie Baker, Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, Massachusetts Transportation Secretary and CEO Stephanie Pollack, MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak, and others joined Green Line Extension project staff at Lechmere Station to tour ongoing GLX work last week.

In conjunction with the MBTA’s $8 billion Building a Better T program, GLX will extend the Green Line approximately 4.7 miles north along two branches from a relocated Lechmere Station to Union Square in Somerville and College Avenue in Medford. To date, the project is over 50 percent complete and progressing as scheduled. When complete, GLX will provide service in areas that did not previously have access to reliable public transit, and will significantly reduce vehicle emissions on the road by supporting anticipated increased ridership.

“The Green Line Extension is a transformational project for the region, and will improve access to jobs, housing, and education across eastern Massachusetts,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “We are proud of our administration’s work to set this project on the right track and are thrilled to be able to spotlight ongoing construction today. We’re grateful for our collaboration with local and federal partners and for the hard work of the GLX project team as we look forward to the project’s completion.”

The total project cost is nearly $2.3 billion, which includes other project components such as real estate, professional services, contingency, and the procurement of twenty-four new trolleys to augment the existing Green Line fleet. Construction is staffed daily with approximately 650 management and field staff personnel with over 2.5 million design and construction job hours expended as of August 2020. Nearly 77,000 square feet of retaining walls have been installed within the project corridor, 39,000 cubic yards of concrete have been installed, the installation of caissons supporting the viaduct is 100 percent complete, and the installation of viaduct steel is nearly complete at 95 percent. The complete reconstruction of two bridges at Broadway and Washington Streets has been finished with these bridges reopened.

When complete, GLX will have installed 100,000 railroad ties, 21,000 linear feet (nearly four miles) of pilings, 22 million pounds of steel girders, seventeen miles of permanent track, and two miles of multiuse community path.

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