green line viaduct ---> Lechmere

you know how the MBTA's green line is having a new tunnel built, does this project include replacing all the track from the start of the viaduct all the way to Lechmere station?

does the T run a train over this section, because won't the rail start to rust if it isn't used frequently, or will they just use a rail grinder before the section opens up again?

I'm almost certain that they are replacing the tracks and I hear that they were fixing up Lechmere station a bit. If the T had a bit more money and better planning they might have fixed up Science Park. Lechmere is planned to be moved across the street so I don't see much use in pumping much money into it.

Across the street to the east? towards the old B&M Yard?

CSX Conductor wrote:Across the street to the east? towards the old B&M Yard?

Yep. I think it's some sort of land swap with GRS. Mutually beneficial for the MBTA and GRS and accomodates an extention out to Somerville and Medford by default(already in the air and pointed in the right direction...)

There's not much talk about when this is going to happen, though. The consortium building the North Point development there (which includes GRS and developer Spaulding & Slye) has some financial responsibility for the station getting built, possibly all of it. They're not slated to break ground on their initial phase until this spring, with many years of development to come. So the current Lechmere will be in place for the forseeable future. I have heard, though, that the MBTA wanted to use this opportuinty (the current closure) to improve track anough to spped up service over the viaduct.

Is the T going to relocate Lechmere off of O'Brien Highway over to where those railroad tracks? Or are they going to keep Lechmere the way it is?
Will Science Park be renovated at all?

Relocating the Lechmere Station to the other side of the O'Brian Highway has been on the drawing boards for the last 40 years. It will probably happen eventually, maybe sooner if the North Point project can give it impetus. However, I don't think there are any plans to renovate the Science Park station in the near future.

With Lechmere being shut down now, it would have been the perfect opportunity to relocate it now.

That would have made too much sense for the MBTA.

It might have made sense if the private (NorthPoint) development associated with the project was starting up at the same time (its still bogged down in the black hole of many Boston-area development projects). Remember, this whole thing is tied to the private development and the fact that the MBTA is depending on them to help fund construction. At this point, I don't think there are any final designs on the T relocation project.

I don't think there is really too much to worry about with this, even so. It is a relocation project rather than a renovation project -- therefore the bulk of the construction work on the new station and associated track work can proceed with very minimal impacts on existing service. Tie-ins from the existing track to the new routings should (ok, perhaps giving the MBTA too much credit) take relatively minimal amounts of time. Maybe a month without service, at the most. They did the Haymarket portal closing tie-in with a weekend or two of closures .... I'm allowing more time for added complexities of being above ground.

When the Orange Line was moved from the Washington Street el to the Southwest corridor in 1987, they only had to close it for a long weekend (I think 4 days) to accomplish the tie–in.

Same thing when the northern part of the Orange Line was moved from the Charlestown El to the current alignment in 1975.

As ckb mentioned, tying in a new elevated structure to an old one is usually harder than tying in a new tunnel to an old tunnel. With an elevated structure you basically have to remove a pretty good sized section where the new structure joins. With a tunnel you just have to cut out one wall, probably put up a few new ceiling beams and temporary shoring, and redo the tracks.

Ron Newman wrote:When the Orange Line was moved from the Washington Street el to the Southwest corridor in 1987, they only had to close it for a long weekend (I think 4 days) to accomplish the tie–in.

Same thing when the northern part of the Orange Line was moved from the Charlestown El to the current alignment in 1975.

Actually I believe they may have done it quicker, between end of service on Friday night and beginning of service on MOnday....but it was so long ago I can't be certain.

I don't recall too many days of shutdown when the T built the temporary Green Line incline between Haymarket and North Station, which had to be tied into the Causeway Street el.

Ron Newman wrote:I don't recall too many days of shutdown when the T built the temporary Green Line incline between Haymarket and North Station, which had to be tied into the Causeway Street el.

The T didn't have to build a brand new incline and portal there, they already had a partial incline and portal sitting unused for 22 years.