By Andrew Firestone

The wheels of the Green Line Extension churned on this last Thursday, May 26, with some hope for progress in the near future. Community members met to hammer out details for working with the new design team Gilbane/HDR and were met with other funding updates.

Among the positive points of the meeting, which took place with the community Design Working Group, was the introduction of architect Michael Epp, a longtime veteran of the transit-building process across the state. Epp, who is directing the station design, said he felt “privileged” to be working on the project, a passion of his ranging on station work for the Orange, Red and Silver Lines over the past 35 years. “This is going to change people’s lives, and it’s going to change them for the better.”

Epp, who heads the team under contractor Kleinfelder/ SEA Consultants delivered a visual presentation utilizing the design blueprints created by former contractors Vannasse Hangen Brustlin, who brought the design process to 10 percent completion before the project was re-bid. He vowed to customize station design to what the community expressed. “They should spring from their neighborhoods,” he said, underscoring the “modest” design plans. “They shouldn’t look like a space ship that got dropped into the neighborhood.”

Epp also said that the computer-generated, three-dimensional design would serve as an important tool in the upcoming public forums discussing the stations. “If you live within sight of the tracks, and you want to know what the view out of your window looks like, we’ll be able to do that. We want you to know what you are going to get,” he said.

The meeting also included some stifling news for the future of the proposed Rt.16 stop in the City of Medford. The Metropolitan Planning Organization of Boston is considering dropping the stations from their long-range plan. The $185 million allocation, for 2016-2020, would fund Phase II of the planned continuation of the Green Line into Medford, from College Ave. to Rt.16.

STEP member and Community Activist Wig Zamore was not overly worried. “When the MPO has a project list that they vote and they start to model, then you’ll know,” he said. “Until then it’s all up in the air anyway.”

About future funding for the nearly billion-dollar project, Zamore was candid. “The state is intending to put the full amount of bond authorization in the next state transportation bond bill, which should be pretty soon,” he said. “That will cover 100 percent of  the project.”

However, Zamore also noted a huge caveat: with a possible shortfall of $760 million in federal funds for the project, “[The state is] not interested in paying for 100 percent of it. They would rather the federal government pay for half of it, but they are going to have to up the bond authorization almost immediately. They cannot submit a long-term regional transportation plan to the federal government on August 15 or September 1 of this year unless they fix that.”

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation came under scrutiny when they only approved a small portion of the total $95 million for their 5-year contract with the new design team. The Green Line Extension opening has already been pushed back to October 2015, almost a year after the legal deadline. The MassDOT is legally required to build the Extension.

Other questions answered at the meeting included word on the possible land-takings under eminent domain. “It’s one of those things that a little bit of a misconception in that people say ‘well what happened? This thing stopped,’” said Michael McBride, Project Manager for HDR/Gilbane.

“Well, what happened is it got into the federal process and there are guidelines. Those guidelines say that you can’t proceed with the property until [the] environmental document is finalized. So those things will kick off again,” he said, of the six full property takings and 45 smaller “sliver parcels.”

For those who live near a proposed station, public workshops regarding the design process kick-off Tuesday, June 7 for the College Ave. Station. For more information, visit www.somervillestep.org/green_line/