Daily Talker: Green Line Expansion Uncertainty

The green line extension into Somerville and Medford could come in at up to a billion dollars more than first estimated. Right now it appears that the cost of building seven new trolley stations, including one in East Cambridge, is running about $1 billion in the red. Officials who briefed the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board on Monday afternoon are now looking to renegotiate with the contractor and alter the plans.

It is now estimated that those three stations could cost $898 million.

“Every option is on the table and that has to include mothball or canceling the project, that’s not where we want to go”, said Pollack.

Frank DePaola, interim general manager of the T, said the federal government could rescind its funding for the project if the transit agency cannot show how it will make up for the shortfall.

The costs of adding new stations soared in part because engineers found unexpected geological conditions and polluted soil, officials told the SNews Service. Additionally state transportation officials are looking at the possibility of using other revenue sources, including federal highway funding and potentially value-capture funding from entities that would benefit from the new transit line.

DePaola said the project’s contractor, Barletta Heavy Division, is fully responsible for workmanship issues. “We were stunned, obviously”.

The planned Green Line expansion may not happen. The contractor will cover the cost of replacing the panes, which will be done in batches.

Veronica Eady, director of the Conservation Law Foundation of Massachusetts Advocacy Center and CLF’s Healthy Communities and Environmental Justice program.

“We can’t afford it the way it’s been now laid out”, said State Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack.

At this point, there’s no time table for what the state will do next, Pollack says.