A year later, new bus garage still stalled
T scales down key project after projected costs balloon
It was a who’s who of elected officials — Senator Elizabeth Warren, Representative Stephen Lynch, then-governor Charlie Baker, and more — all grinning for photos inside an empty Lowe’s in Quincy last Valentine’s Day. They ceremoniously dipped shovels into a neatly assembled pile of dirt and flicked some into the air, breaking ground on construction of the MBTA’s new $402.1 million electric bus garage.
Fast-forward one year: The Lowe’s is gone, but the ground at the construction site is still very much intact.
In fact, there has not been any construction activity at the site since the fall, when crews finished demolishing the store and building a nearby pedestrian path, said Ken Johnson, MBTA deputy chief of project controls.
That’s because just a few months after the groundbreaking photo-op, the MBTA scrapped its initial construction plan when bids came in over budget and now says the garage will be completed in December 2025 — a year behind schedule. This delay threatens the T’s ability to electrify half its fleet and significantly improve bus service throughout the region this decade, both of which are needed to reduce emissions and boost racial equity.
The Globe previously reported that the Quincy garage’s eyepopping price tag was higher than projects similar in size and specifications elsewhere in North America. The T attributed that to a long list of factors, including high labor costs in Boston, charging equipment needed to support a 100 percent electric fleet, and supply chain issues.
“We are where we are today,” Johnson said. “But we’re going to do everything we can to opti
the delivery.”
On a recent weekday, there was no sign of activity at the empty field where the Lowe’s once sat, just a mix of asphalt and dirt. A red “Work Zone Do Not Enter” sign hung from the chain link fence surrounding the field. Inside the fence, a blue tarp weighed down by sand bags covered what appeared to be supplies. A black and yellow loader machine was parked at the far side of the site.
But now, despite the outward signs of inactivity, there does finally appear to be momentum. The T went with a new approach on the second go-around that allows the agency to work with a construction company to adjust costs along the way, Johnson said, instead of its typical “lowbid” process, which sets a fixed price for the whole project.
In August, seven or eight firms expressed interest under the new process, Johnson said, and three made the agency’s short list in October. After interviews, the T picked its top choice. But when contract negotiations with the first pick fell through, Johnson said, the T settled with its second choice, Suffolk Construction Co. That contract was finalized last month.
Over the next six months, Suffolk will work with the MBTA to refine the building plans, Johnson said. The MBTA expects to have a full price of construction to bring to its board of directors for approval in November. The foundations of the building should be going in place in the fall, Johnson said.
Design adjustments to bring down the cost are ongoing, Johnson added. For example, the garage will now open with enough chargers for only around 100 electric buses, instead of the full 120 planned for future years, Johnson said. Original designs included one charger for every two buses, but now charging technology will support one charger for every three buses, he said.
And the design celebrated a year ago — a 360,000-squarefoot, three-story, fully enclosed charging and maintenance space with rooftop solar panels, locker and training rooms, bike storage, and a floor of T offices — is now a two-story, 300,000square-foot building with the same amenities except for the office floor, Johnson said.
In 2017, the MBTA said it expected to spend $808 million to modernize or replace its nine aging bus garages. The agency’s most recent total cost estimate for the garage in Quincy, the first of those projects, will eat up half that amount. The project is part of the MBTA’s larger bus plan that includes building busonly lanes and increasing service by 25 percent over the next five years.
The MBTA is also aiming to electrify 30 percent of its 1,150bus fleet by 2028, 50 percent by 2030, and 100 percent by 2040, but none of its current garages are equipped to store more than a few battery electric buses yet.
Bus service has recovered more of its pre-pandemic ridership than any other MBTA mode of travel, including subway and commuter rail. Still, the MBTA has cut bus service repeatedly since December 2021 because it doesn’t have enough drivers.
Last month, it said that around 350 more drivers are needed to restore pre-pandemic service, and more than 400 more are needed to implement its plans to increase bus service by 25 percent over the next five years.
“All of the success of the MBTA and its ability to improve service hinges on these underpinning factors of limited capacity of the fleet, the facilities, the funding, and the operators,” said Julia Wallerce, Boston program manager for the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy.
MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo said the Quincy bus garage delay will not impact full fleet electrification or the planned service improvements. He said the next two garages on the list — Arborway, a new 200bus facility in Jamaica Plain, and the overhaul of its 35-bus North Cambridge garage — are behind schedule as well, but declined to provide new timelines and budgets.
“We’re continuing to assess impacts on the schedules, and we expect to provide an update in the coming weeks,” Pesaturo said via e-mail.
Transit advocates have long been calling on the T to develop an expedited and cost-efficient process for replacing its old bus garages to improve service. In a report released last month by LivableStreets Alliance and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, the groups found the MBTA’s bus fleet is smaller than it was in 1972, despite the area’s growing population, and is failing to meet the needs of current riders or attract new ones.
New research from TransitCenter, a national public transportation advocacy organization, found that since September 2021, the number of jobs accessible on public transit to residents of Boston has been steadily declining, and access for Black and Hispanic residents has slid the most. The researchers attribute the decline to MBTA bus and subway service cuts that have significantly lengthened commutes.
“To deliver 25 percent more bus service, we need these basic building blocks of a transit system and facilities are integral to that,” Wallerce said. “It’s not a ‘nice to have,’ it’s a ‘need to have.’”