On Saturday, April 30th, the Science Park Green Line station will be closing so that an extensive rehabilitation of the station can be completed. The station will be closed to train service during the six month period that the renovations will require. During this time, service between Lechmere and North Station will be replaced with bus service.
During this period, buses will leave Lechmere and North Station every 4 minutes during peak hours and special events at the TD Bank Garden, every 10 minutes during off-peak day hours, and every 12-15 minutes during night hours. At Lechmere, the pattern of bus traffic through the station will be reversed, with Green Line shuttle buses entering the station on the passenger entrance side from Cambridge Street in the direction of Harvard Square. Bus service for the 69, 80, 87, and 88 routes will enter the station in the opposite direction (from McGrath in the Boston-bound direction), but will board in the normal location. Service for these buses will be unaffected. Green Line shuttle routes may be altered during the Fourth of July, but the exact details of any route changes are not yet known.
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| Map of shuttle service. Source: MBTA |
This project is important for a number of reasons. The station improvements that will be undertaken will make Science Park fully accessible and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Two new elevators will be constructed to bring customers from street level to the platform, the platform itself will be widened, and the interior stairs will be completely replaced. The platform canopy roofs will be completely replaced, two new paid entrance lobbies will be constructed, and various upgrades to lighting, signage, and landscaping will also be performed.
The MBTA has cited multiple reasons for closing the station during construction. It has been determined that the safest way to complete the improvements will be to close the station during the majority of the construction work. Were the station to remain open, construction would require a temporary pedestrian track crossing to be used while one station entrance would be closed, and platforms would need to be narrowed and remain uncovered. Closing the station allows the work to be completed with minimal risk to the public.
In addition to enhancing safety, the station closure will allow the work to be sped up significantly. The project will be completed six months earlier than it would be were the station to remain open, allowing the delivery of fully accessible platforms to be accelerated significantly. The station closure will also allow demolition required by the project will to be performed during the day, mitigating the noise problems that would have been created by night time demolition.
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| The proposed South Elevation showing elevator, lobby, stair, and canopy improvements. |
While I expect that work on Science Park will be completed efficiently, safely, and without incident, I also recognize that the closure of Lechmere station to train service could negatively impact commuters who ride the Green Line each day. I am here first and foremost to represent the concerns of the residents of East Cambridge and East Somerville, and I encourage you to contact me should you have any comments, questions, or concerns during the course of this project.
2 comments:
Closing Lechmere station for six months is going to be a disaster! As an East Cambridge resident, I am shocked that the MBTA would do such a thing. Though I sympathize with those who want accessibility as soon as possible, having the construction take a year would be so much less disruptive than closing both stations for six months. Is it too late to have the MBTA rethink this decision? Less than a week's notice is unacceptable!
I agree that the MBTA did not properly take into consideration the residents and business in the Lechmere Square area (and those on the bus lines that leave from there). In fact, no posters were put up for town meetings about it beforehand - and most residents and businesses only found out about it AFTER the fact. Very very poor communication. I believe this may have been done to prevent the feedback which the MBTA knew would be so negative. So just throwing people to the wind is supposed to be better? It is no wonder why people look for alternative ways to travel and not use the public transportation "available" to them -- we are all FORCED to look for other options. (Note: I am a business owner in East Cambridge right next to Lechmere Station. Our employees have complained bitterly about this, and we have seen time at the office be shortened. We no longer think being next to a T stop has any significant impact to our employees since it's not dependable, and therefore we would consider moving to Woburn or Waltham.)
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