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"We want to be the greenest state for transportation," says MassDOT Deputy Director of Planning Clinton Bench in the UMass Amherst Magazine for Summer 2011.
Bench is one of several transportation experts and UMass Amherst alumni featured in the article about the UMass Amherst Transportation Center entitled, "Keep On Moving On." The Center works with faculty, students, and transportation stakeholders on current and future issues surrounding the movement of people and goods across the Commonwealth and the nation.
Bench focuses on the importance of strategic planning and community involvement in the process of making transportation investments, along with MassDOT's "GreenDOT" priority of healthy and sustainable options.
"We want to make transit improvements that will encourage people away from automobiles to mass transit," says Bench. "We want to move transporting goods from truck to rail, and we want to be green in how we do business in the department."
Check out the entire article on transportation in the UMass Amherst magazine on the web at http://www.umassmag.com/
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How does this fit in with the indefinite delay of the Green Line Extension?
It’s a joke that MassDOT can claim this goal while simultaneously trying to weasel out of a 2014 legal deadline for the Green Line extension, which has enormous benefits in air quality and environmental justice. Actions speak louder than words. —————————————————————————- Thanks for the comments. Actions continue related to the Green Line Extension. A summary is included below. In a report submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), in conjunction with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) presented an updated timeline for the complex project to extend the Green Line north of Lechmere Station. The Green Line extension is one of the public transit projects required under the amended State Implementation Plan, and the report filed provides status information. Over the past four months, the Green Line Extension project team performed a cost and schedule analysis that thoroughly examined all aspects of the project and the actions required to move it forward expeditiously. As a result of this analysis, the projections for the Green Line Extension project have been refined. Under the revised timeframe, passenger service would begin no earlier than the fall of 2018 and no later than the summer of 2020. The schedule is contingent on the MBTA taking full ownership of property required for construction. Benefitting from lessons learned on the Greenbush Commuter Rail project, in which the MBTA did not take ownership of needed properties until after the Design/Build process began, the Green Line project team aims to prevent the issues that cost the MBTA both time and money. Seeking to accelerate the timeline where possible, MassDOT and the MBTA are actively considering strategies that could mitigate schedule impacts and improve upon the dates for passenger service on the Green Line Extension. The strategies under consideration include the development of a ‘phasing’ scenario that would allow for some stations to open for public use while others are still being constructed. In addition, the MBTA plans to request a ‘Letter of No Prejudice’ from the Federal Transit Administration. This could allow the project to move forward more quickly while still preserving the potential to seek federal reimbursement for state money used to advance the project. In the meantime, progress continues to be made. – Environmental review documents, submitted to the Federal Transit Administration, will be released this year upon FTA approval. MassDOT hopes to receive a Finding of No Significant Impact from the FTA for the Green Line Extension project this fall. – A new Program Management/Construction Management/Preliminary Engineering technical team is currently working under an initial contract to perform Advanced Conceptual Engineering, which will lead to Preliminary Engineering and then to the initiation of procurement of a Design-Build team to complete the design and start construction. – MassDOT and the MBTA continue to work with the FTA to seek funding for the Green Line Extension project under the FTA New Starts capital funding program. – The procurement of 24 new Green Line vehicles needed to support the operation of the Green Lin Extension is now underway.
While the Patrick Administration can provide pages of excuses for why it can’t meet it’s legal, court-mandated obligation to complete the Green Line by 2014, the fact of the matter is those in position to make it happen on time are not interested or invested in doing so. This is a huge mistake on the Administration’s part, economically, environmentally, and politically. I wonder what the DOT’s plan is for when the Federal goverment pulls all highway funding from the state due to it’s failure to meet this obligation.