Upgrades to continue
T readies for winter
The MBTA plans to plunk another $30.3 million into upgrades on its aging Red Line tracks, where officials say they intend to finish work steeling the line against the type of elements that brought it to a halt two winters ago.
The work — which is expected to start in September and interrupt train service on the Braintree and Ashmont lines for several weekends through December — is part of the T’s so-called winter resiliency efforts, which kicked off following the record-setting season of 2015.
The T plans to pay a contractor, Barletta Heavy Division, Inc., $18.5 million to perform the work, plus spend another roughly $11.8 million more in materials and other costs to add new third rails, heaters and signal capability across miles of above-ground Red Line tracks extending south to the Braintree and Fields Corner stations.
The costs are in addition to the roughly $85 million the MBTA spent last year toward upgrading equipment ahead of the winter. Brian Shortsleeve, the T’s acting general manager, said the T has also launched ongoing projects every weekend over the last year.
“Nothing’s more important to the MBTA or Gov. (Charlie) Baker than making sure we continue to execute on the program we started last year, in making sure the Orange Line and the Red Line are ready for winter,” Shortsleeve told reporters in a morning briefing.
Failures and delays on the two lines were some of the most visible and emblematic of the T’s struggles during the winter of 2015. T officials say they expect to wrap up the work by December, but said they’re also leaving open a handful of weekends in the spring to complete it if bad weather, “MBTA emergencies” or other problems delay the upgrades.
The T’s Fiscal Management and Control Board approved both the work and the Barletta contract yesterday.
T officials are also asking the board to approve a project allowing a developer to construct a 135-unit residential and commercial building on a T-owned parking lot in Mattapan in exchange for $4.88 million in lease payments over 20 years.
The T also wants to lease out land in Beverly, where a developer would build another mixed-use facility next to a commuter rail station there in exchange for a $32.2 million, 99-year lease.