CONFIDENCE APPEARS to be mounting at the MBTA that the nearly $2.3 billion Green Line extension project will come in under budget, allowing Somerville and Cambridge to recover the combined $75 million they donated to the initiative in 2016 and still leave money left over for other needs.
Joe Aiello, the chair of the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board, said on Monday at the panel’s meeting that the Green Line extension is significantly under budget right now. He urged T staff members to seek federal guidance on whether some of the left-over money could be used to help finance initial work on a proposed subway connection between the Red and Blue subway lines.
The idea that extending the Green Line from Lechmere into Somerville and Medford could come in under budget is somewhat remarkable given its tangled and tortured history. In its early stages, the price tag of the project ballooned from $2 billion to $3 billion and forced state transportation officials to redesign and revamp the project to eliminate roughly $1 billion in costs.
A T spokesman declined to comment directly on the Green Line extension’s current financial situation, but agency reports suggest the project is trending in a favorable direction with service set to begin later this year. “Overall trends for the program remain within overall program budget,” the T said in a recent report.
According to the report, the T has set aside more than $200 million for contingencies for unexpected cost increases. The agency also confirmed this week that it has received another $103 million under the American Rescue Plan to help transportation projects previously funded with federal money cope with delays and setbacks caused by COVID-19. That means more than $300 million is available to cover any additional funding needed over the next six months. T officials say the new federal funds can be used to replace local, state, and certain other federal funds.
Aiello said he expects some of the $300 million will go to cover some unexpected contingencies, but he believes a good chunk of money will be left over at the end of the project.
Aiello said he assumes a portion of any leftover money would go to Somerville and Cambridge, which contributed $50 million and $25 million, respectively, to the project in 2016 when it was struggling to obtain financing. The terms of their donations called for their money to be returned if it wasn’t needed. Somerville has supplied $30 million so far and Cambridge has supplied $15 million.
Meet the Author
Editor, CommonWealth
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
“When Somerville and Cambridge agreed to the unprecedented requirement for financial contributions to the GLX project, the financial agreement with MassDOT included a provision stating that in case the project came in under budget our two cities would have some or all of our contributions refunded,” said Meghann Ackerman, a spokeswoman for Somerville. “We are hopeful that that will be the case, but with several months of construction to come it’s too early to know for sure if what, if any, reimbursement we will get.”
A spokesman for Cambridge could not be reached for comment.
SHARE
