Mass Rail Trail News August 13 2011
Tom Connors
GLX pushed back three years
The GLX, which has recently been working on station design, has delayed opening until at least 2018, if not later. The announcement Monday, August 1, comes after the Metropolitan Planning Organization had approved Green Line for the projected 2016-2018 budget, and after a host of separate delays. These include having to put the design phase back out to bid, controversy involving the design of the Washington Street and Inner Belt stations, and the resignation of State Secretary of Transportation, Jeffrey Mullan.Green Line Extension from Lechmere to Medford delayed 3 years
A possible route to more funding would be if the extension project received funds from the federal “New Starts” program, run by the Federal Transit Administration. However, the future Assembly Square Orange Line was recently denied a mere $25 million in federal dollars, signaling that an even greater grant for a similar project might also be denied. The FTA is also strongly considering cutting their funding for the T by 30 percent amounting up to $80 million a year.
The cost of the GLX is currently projected at $965 million, but at a recent meeting of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, it was revealed the pushback would inflate the cost to $1.2 billion. The debt of the MBTA is over $8.6 billion, with repayments set at $400 million per year.
The MBTA's woes in one paragraph
The longer the T has played triage with its budget, the worse its budget has become. After closing a $130 million gap this year, the T is facing a $160 million deficit next year. Over the next four years, the agency is projected to rack up $900 million in cumulative deficits. And it’s not just the T’s worst-in-the-nation debt load that’s to blame. In 2016, when its annual deficit hits $330 million, basic operating costs will eat up nearly 90 cents of every revenue dollar available to the T.For MBTA, ‘nuance’ means ‘broke’
Since the T can’t even afford to maintain the system it already owns, there’s no way federal transit officials will spend hundreds of millions of dollars making the system bigger and more expensive to maintain.Mile by mile, bridge by bridge, Eastern Trail supporters are closing in on their goal.
While the 2011 projects were funded in past years, these new sections will open in the coming months:
• South Portland will extend its trail at Wainwright Field Sports Complex to the Scarborough line, a $200,000 project to finish paving 0.3 miles.
• The Old Orchard Beach section will expand 4.37 miles into Saco and run over Route 1.
• The 5.7 miles stretching from Biddeford to the Kennebunk town line will be expanded to 6.2 miles with the new turnpike bridge.
Dan Stewart, MDOT bicycle and pedestrian program manager; Bob Hamblen, president of the Eastern Trail Alliance; Ben Doty, an intern for Stewart; and Bob LaNigra, vice president of the alliance and trustee of the Eastern Trail Management District, start a 15-mile ride near the new bridge over I-95.
Photos by Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer
“Use was immediate,” said Bruce Gullifer, Scarborough’s community services director, referring to an Eastern Trail bridge over the Scarborough Marsh.
Holliston Receives State Rail Trail Grant
Holliston was among 42 towns to land money from the Department of Conservation and Recreation during a ceremony on Thursday.
News of Holliston's grant came down on July 26 state Rep. Carolyn Dykema and state Sen. Karen Spilka released a joint statement.
The town received just under $50,000 to help build a half-mile section of the town’s portion of the Upper Charles Rail Trail. The town will be required to match an additional 20 percent.
Spilka noted that Holliston will use the grant funds to work on the section of trail that the town is in the process of acquiring with $800,000 in supplemental funds she helped the town land in 2006.
“And the recent grant from the Recreational Trails Project will help ensure proper maintenance of this important project,” Spilka said.
“This is a wonderful way for the towns of Hopkinton and Holliston to move ahead and provide access to outdoor recreation for the whole community,” Dykema said. “It’s great to be able to assist our residents and communities through these grants.”
Neighboring Hopkinton also received a grant worth about $17,000.
Rail Trail parking issues to be addressed in Westford
Selectmen last week authorized the posting of permanent no-parking signs along Route 27 near access points to the trail after Ross told selectmen that more than 1,000 people use the trail every day.
Westford Police Officer Michael Croteau had authorized temporary no-parking signs along Route 27 in mid-July after complaints from residents that trail users unloading bikes were causing driving hazards for motorists, who had to swerve into oncoming traffic to avoid hitting them.
Rhode Island: Bike path extensions at opposite ends of state
The popular South County bike path has now been extended another eight-tenths of a mile to link South Kingstown and Narragansett — falling on the heels of a new 8.5-mile stretch of specially marked roads that connect the East Bay Bike Path with the Blackstone River Bikeway.
That’s more than nine new miles of scenic, newly paved paths for cyclists, runners, walkers and those who like to roller blade to take advantage of while the weather is great.
Bicyclists pass through the “Tunnel Gallery,” a former railroad tunnel included in the recent expansion of the William O’Neill bike path in South County, taking users safely under Route 1. The path now reaches into Narragansett. The “Tunnel Gallery” is a grafitti art project in progress.
Golden Spike Celebration on the Northern Rail Trail
Over 150 people gathered in Danbury , NH to celebrate the completion of a new rail trail section that now links the Grafton and Merrimack County portions of the Northern Rail Trail – resulting in NH’s longest rail trail at 46-miles in length. To commemorate this achievement, a ribbon was cut to open a new 8.5 mile trail section, and a golden spike was hammered into the railbed to signify and celebrate the joining of the Northern Rail Trail sections.
Visitors site back and listen to Robert Ward, FNRT Merrimack Co. President, share the history of the Concord to Lebanon railroad, and the construction of Northern Rail Trail.
Cochituate Rail Trail Striving for Late 2012 Opening
Cochituate Rail Trail Committee to submit 25% design plans to MassDOT on Aug. 9. Friends of Saxonville has donated $43,000 towards the completion of the trail.
- By Rachel Lomot
- Email the author
- August 2, 2011
The Cochituate Rail Trail may be open to the public by the end of 2012, according to the [Framingham] Cochituate Rail Trail Committee.
The Committee met last week and said it will submit on Aug. 9 a 25% plan to MassDOT.
After the design plans submission, a public hearing will be scheduled and design plans can be formally created. The design phase could be started and completed in 2012, according to Committee Chair Mark Lamkin, pending no funding or design problems.
The Town of Framingham purchased the land for the Cochituate Rail Trail in 2001. The plan went forth by combining the new rail trail and a new sewer system into one project. The Framingham Department of Public Works has installed a new sewer system under the Rail Trail land, as well as two new bridges.
The first of the bridges (North Bridge) is completed and in place. The second bridge (South Bridge) installment has been postponed until larger construction is completed. The sewer portion of the project is expected to be completed by the end of this calendar year.
The design of the new trail is now in the hands of the Cochituate Rail Trail Committee, project manager Gene Kennedy, and Bill Paille, who works with the Weston and Sampson infrastructure company.
The project is funded via town money, grants and donations.
The Friends of Saxonville, a non-profit organization, has generously agreed to donate $43,000 towards the completion of the trail, said Lamkin.
During the first week of July, Lamkin told the Committee he walked the trail.
"When walking, I noticed several drainage issues," Lamkin said. "There were three drainage issues, stemming from some private property run-off and storm water.
"It is a trail safety issue. We do not want people to get off the trail and run into a drainage ditch," said Committee member Andrea Carr-Evans at the last meeting. She feared with snow run-off, drainage issues may get worse.
"If we know there is a drainage problem, but it is ignored, who is responsible to fix it?," asked Carr-Evans.
The Committee agreed the responsibility would fall to the Framingham Department of Public Works.
Another issue discussed at the meeting was road crossing on the trail. One of the crossing, by TJX Corp. has complicated the design phase.,
Five different design arrangements were made. Lamkin said at the last meeting that the original design for the crossing was picked and the project can return to making headway once funding is finalized.
When the trail is closer to completion, the Cochituate Rail Trail Committee plans to hold a public walking tour of the new trail.
To keep tabs on the project visit www.crtrail.org.
To see the current design plans, visit: http://www.crtrail.org/files/2007113-Final_Bid_Drawings.pdf?select0=2007113-Final_Bid_Drawings.pdf.