Two Teams Certify Costs for Boston Green Line Extension
Certified Delivery Two teams hoping to build the light-rail extension have guaranteed their costs.
File photo by Justin Rice for ENR
The joint venture of Walsh Group, Barletta Construction and Granite Construction appears to have been unable to certify a cost estimate at or below the $1.3-billion cost limit to build the long-awaited Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Green Line Extension project in metropolitan Boston. The JV is out of the bidding, according to a source close to the procurement. (Walsh and an MBTA spokespersons did not respond before ENR’s press time to confirm the bid status of the contractor and its team.)
The MBTA said at its Oct. 23 board meeting that only two of three short-listed design-build groups submitted certified cost proposals, but the agency said they would not be identified until the public price opening on Nov. 17. Besides the Walsh-led group, the other bidders include a Fluor Enterprises-led JV, comprising The Middlesex Corp., Herzog Contracting Corp. and Balfour Beatty Infrastructure, and a Lane Construction Corp.-led JV, comprising its parent firm, Judlau Contracting and LMH-C.M.C. di Ravenna.
The $2.2-billion light-rail project includes two new branches, from Lechmere Station in East Cambridge into neighboring Somerville and Medford. The project also calls for seven new stations.
“Certification of two of the short-listed design-build teams is a significant achievement toward extending the Green Line,” MBTA General Manager Luis Manuel Ramírez said in a statement. “Certification of the project’s affordability” ensures proposals are competitive and can be built within the set budget, continued Ramírez.
The MBTA also noted that the final request for proposal included a base scope of work and “additive options,” which could include platform canopies, additional elevators at select stations, public art, additional community connection to the community path and an enhanced vehicle maintenance facility in Somerville.
The project was halted in 2015, when costs ballooned $1 billion over budget. The Federal Transit Administration, which has pledged $1 billion for the project, approved the new, scaled-down cost estimate in April.
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