Green Line Extension Projects 2021 Opening

SOMERVILLE, MA – Construction on the Green Line Extension project is expected to begin in 2018, with new stations opening in Somerville and Medford in 2021.

It's a far cry from the 2017 opening set two years ago, but the mood was optimistic at Somerville High School Wednesday night. Emboldened by a new leader and a concrete timeline, the Green Line Extension seemed to take new life as residents heard the latest on the embattled project – even if they know all too well they've been here before.

The meeting began as a coming out party of sorts for John Dalton, a former manager for the Chicago Transit Authority who was handed the reins of the $2.3 billion project last month. Dalton comes with an impressive resumé of project leadership in Chicago and Dubai and has at least one champion in Somerville mayor Joseph Curtatone, who believes his success can carry over to the Green Line.

"He is the person this project needs to bring it home," Curtatone said, calling the project one his community "deserves."

Curtatone lamented the $50 million Somerville is being asked to contribute to the effort – which he said he hoped the Board of Aldermen would approve Thursday – and got in a not-so-subtle dig at those previously responsible for its glacial pace.

"We didn't screw it up," he said.

There's still much to be done between now and the timeline outlined by Dalton. The project is $75 million short, a new team must be hired and it still needs approval for a key federal grant. Despite that, Dalton assured residents that the project is moving forward. It will extend the Green Line from a new Lechmere Station in East Cambridge to Somerville's Union Square and College Avenue in Medford.

Dalton touched on some of the redesign, including a reduction in station size, walls and bridges, as well as a name change for two of the stations – they will now be called Magoun Square and East Somerville.

It was a scaling back of the Somerville Community Path, a key commuter thoroughfare for bicyclists and pedestrians, that would ultimately draw the most ire from residents.

Dalton promised that the alternative "meets the spirit of the original community path" and commiserated with the crowd about his own love for cycling.

"I can appreciate the need for a path," Dalton said.

Originally about 10,000 feet, the path was reduced approximately 3,000 feet in the overhaul. A crucial 3,000 feet for many who spoke Wednesday night, who said it would limit accessibility to bicycle and on-foot traffic, as well as increase the danger for cyclists who had to alternate between riding on the path and on the road.

Ken Carlson, chair of the Somerville Bicycle Committee, said safety is a main concern of his group in light of recent bicyclist deaths. He cited the October Porter Square crash that killed his friend and colleague, Bernard "Joe" Lavins.

"It is going to cost lives," he said of the decision to not extend the path. "[This is] money versus lives, money versus safety."

Patch File Photo