The proposed design alternatives for the Community Path would bring down costs, but many are asking if there is too much compromise built into the plan.

By Josie Grove

At the latest presentation about the redesigned Green Line Extension, MassDOT and its consultants presented a redesigned Community Path featuring nearly $80 million in savings. “The cost of the path turned out to be $100 million. $10,000 per linear foot, or $53 million per mile,” said Jack Wright, the interim project manager. The redesigned path will cost around $20 million.

The estimated cost for the entire Green Line Extension shot up nearly $1 billion over budget last summer, and the extension was cancelled. The redesigned extension aims to help cut the project’s costs to bring it under budget, so that the extension can move forward. “The MBTA and our consultants are doing our best to deliver a project that we can afford,” said Frank DePaola, general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

The length of the line and location of its seven stops must stay constant to retain $1 billion in federal funding, but everything else, including the station designs, vehicle maintenance facility, and the area around the tracks, will be subject to cuts. It is not clear whether or not the Community Path is part of the full funding grant agreement with the federal government, and if the path must be built in order to retain that funding.

Interim GLX project manager Jack Wright at last Wednesday’s meeting. — Photo by Josie Grove

The path will carry cyclists and pedestrians from the existing path at Lowell Street to Poplar Street. The redesigned path covers the same length, but will sit in the recessed area near the train tracks, rather than at street level. “It’s intended to meet the spirit of the original community path,” said Jack Wright, the project’s interim manager. “It doesn’t do it as well as the community path does.” Most of the $80 million in savings come from eliminating the need to move earth and build walls, as it relies largely on existing retaining walls around the rail corridor. Having the Community Path at street level was “a very grand idea, but also a very expensive idea,” said Wright.

About 3,000 feet of the path’s 10,000-foot length will go out of the rail corridor. The redesigned path crosses Central Street and comes down the east side of the corridor until School Street. Path users will have to cross the street twice to continue along the path.

At Walnut Street, the path will pass beneath the station, through a tunnel between 80 and 100 feet long. Wright and other engineers explaining the design were quick to point out that the tunnel would be lit with LED lights and contain emergency call boxes.

The original design had a ramp to go up onto McGrath Highway, but the new path ends just before the highway, at Poplar Street. There is not a ramp there in the new design, but it would be possible to add later.

Wright admitted the redesign had disadvantages, but said it was necessary to build a cheaper path. “I want to emphasize at this point that the goal of the team is to get the GLX back being built, to bring the Green Line service back to Somerville,” he said. “Everything else behind that service is somewhat secondary.”

“The path itself is at least as important to us as the Green Line,” countered resident Justin Maloney. “It’s really difficult to get anywhere,” he said, citing Somerville’s hills and many one-way streets. Maloney and many other residents were dismayed that the path leaves users on McGrath Highway. Heather Van Altz said, “I can say for sure there is no bike lane on McGrath highway today.” Dick Bauer agreed, saying, “To have it end up on McGrath highway defeats the purpose.”

Many residents were still angry that the Green Line Extension is having to find cost savings. “I think Somerville deserves a $100 million community path,” said Mike Connolly of the Cambridge Residents Alliance. “Somerville has sacrificed for everyone else’s transit convenience.”

“We can’t envision not needing that $80 million,” Wright said of the cuts.

Others at the meeting were impatient for the path, saying they had been waiting decades for the Green Line. More than one asked for a date by which the GLX would be finished. “As far as giving a date, the most important factor here is the board has stopped the GLX project for now,” Wright said. “If it gets started again, we can start talking about a date.”

Bill White, the president of Somerville’s Board of Aldermen wants a commitment to go forward with the GLX. “If the board of directors presents to us some cuckoo truncated project…my advice to the mayor would be to go ahead, guns a-blazing, to pursue our rights under the Clean Air Act.”

The MBTA’s board of directors will decide on May 9 whether or not the project will go through.