Green Line Extension Lechmere to Medford

Gilbane New England reports first viaduct footings have been drilled (this appears to be in the area of the future storage yard beyond Lechmere)

That looks to be on the south side of the Fitchburg Main and BET leads, looking north.

View is loooking north from the west side of the Fitchburg mainline.

D

Just read a 6/9 Boston Metro article on relocating Lechmere station. The writer states that the station was named after the defunct store chain. Used to hear the question a lot when riding as to why the T kept the Lechmere name on the station when the store was not around anymore, mostly from younger riders.

Both the station and the store are named after the location they're found in: Lechmere Square.

Too many people assume the station was named after the store, especially young adults.

MBTA3247 wrote:Both the station and the store are named after the location they're found in: Lechmere Square.

And the square was named for a British loyalist who owned a lot of the land in the area during the Revolution. Not sure why the name stuck -- would have thought they'd try to rub out any trace of loyalist, especially since an invading battalion was allowed to come ashore on his land.

Correct. And the Lechmere Canal was nearby.

Tufts has released drawings of its proposed air-rights building:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php? ... 3151441680" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The "Lechmere store" opened in Lechmere Square, later moving to where the Cambridge Galleria is now. It originally sold horse harnesses and related items. Horse drawn streetcars were long gone from the Boston area although some horse drawn private vehicles were still in use.

The Metro paper has made other mistakes, too. For example once the paper mentioned that "tourists fell for a credit card scam" when they just used their cards normally, and were not enticed into doing anything unusual.

Arlington wrote:Tufts has released drawings of its proposed air-rights building:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php? ... 3151441680" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Rather impressive. Is Tufts paying for this and the station within? If this is the case, maybe the saved money could be used to build the Mystic Valley station. I think that's the most logical end to the line especially if the 2024 Olympics are going to happen. An end of line station with a large parking lot is necessary to anchor this project just like Riverside. It's a mistake not building this all the way to the Parkway.

bostontrainguy wrote:An end of line station with a large parking lot is necessary to anchor this project just like Riverside. It's a mistake not building this all the way to the Parkway.

I agree that it really should get out to Rt 16. But I strongly disagree about the parking. Alewife is 2 miles away from the Rt 16 terminus and Mystic Valley Parkway is already congested and unpleasant at rush hour between Rt 2 and I-93. I believe it would be more cost effective to add more parking levels to Alewife if that is found to be structurally feasible. The value is in the walk-ups from the very dense area around the GLX stations. Lots of rentals, lots of college kids/refugees from the high rents of Camberville.

UNLESS that parking garage is on 128 in Bedford/Burlington (which will never happen, no matter how sorely it is needed)

The "promise" of the GLX was that at its Tufts, MVP,, or W. Medford terminus, it would be like Boston College on the B is, except much better at bus and Kiss-and- ride: fundamentally walkable and neighborhood-oriented. The 30% design of the MVP terminus provides a drop off and bus loop (on the UHaul site) and no daily parking.

Anderson Woburn is the only large scale park and ride contemplated anywhere in the GLX-Lowell corridor to/for 128.

rethcir wrote:

bostontrainguy wrote:An end of line station with a large parking lot is necessary to anchor this project just like Riverside. It's a mistake not building this all the way to the Parkway.

I agree that it really should get out to Rt 16. But I strongly disagree about the parking. Alewife is 2 miles away from the Rt 16 terminus and Mystic Valley Parkway is already congested and unpleasant at rush hour between Rt 2 and I-93. I believe it would be more cost effective to add more parking levels to Alewife if that is found to be structurally feasible. The value is in the walk-ups from the very dense area around the GLX stations. Lots of rentals, lots of college kids/refugees from the high rents of Camberville.

UNLESS that parking garage is on 128 in Bedford/Burlington (which will never happen, no matter how sorely it is needed)

16 they were thinking of much more as a private TOD redevelopment opportunity and not a parking sink. The U-Haul lot and warehouse, the Whole Foods/Sav-Mor plaza, and some of the poorly utilized industrial crud still remaining on that first block of Boston Ave. between the parkway and North St. is where there's a redev gold mine to be had. Tufts has already planted itself on that block with its Engineering Center building and some of the factories are being redone, so they are likewise going to be the ones leading the 16 Extension by the nose trying to play the role of mini-Harvard reshaping this block. Since the acreage of available land isn't massive, Tufts is going to be thinking tall with 4-6 story buildings all-around. It's not massive amount of acreage for building a dedicated parking sink, and they get much more value for their money building dense. So I doubt you'll see anything more than the ground floor + 1-2 subterranean levels of the new buildings having parking geared specifically to the commuters who work at those buildings.

The boards & photos of the sample materials from last night's Gillman Sq (School St) and Lowell St station-design meetings have been posted as a Facebook album by the official GLX outreach.