Full MBTA Subway Service Back After 3-Day Shutdown

BOSTON — Many commuters into Boston will breathe a sigh of relief Monday morning after the MBTA cleared the Green and Orange lines to resume full subway service near Government Center following a three-day shutdown.

The company in charge of tearing down the Government Center Garage to make way for a new residential tower detected the weakness in Haymarket Square Thursday night and pulled the trigger to stop the MBTA from continuing service around it.

Green Line service between Government Center and the Lechmere station was suspended, and service between North Station and Back Bay on the Orange Line was also suspended indefinitely, the MBTA said.

Shuttle buses replaced the subway cars over the weekend.

Because of the MBTA disruption the Sumner Tunnel, which was set to be shut down for non-holiday weekends through May 2023 for repairs, remained open this weekend.

The MBTA said Sunday night that the Government Center Garage developer installed the necessary supports to uphold the structure, and structural engineers and safety experts deemed it safe.

"Structural engineers will continue to closely monitor the tunnel and infrastructure during daily Orange and Green Line operations," the MBTA said in a statement Sunday afternoon.

This is not the first time stations have been closed due to the construction work in the area.

In January, the Haymarket Station closed temporarily for construction, and back in March, a demolition worker was killed when part of the Government Center parking garage collapsed, suspending all service between North Station and Back Bay.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)