State agrees to $19M to finish Fitchburg commuter rail station
PHOTO/SAM BONACCI
With the federal government threatening to reclaim nearly $60 million if train service does not begin at a new Wachusett Station by Sept. 30, state transportation officials on Monday reluctantly approved another $19 million to get the work done on time.
The additional spending - attributed to the cost of delays and bringing the project to a timely completion - will run up the full price for a roughly five-mile commuter rail extension to $93 million.
Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack told a joint meeting of the MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Board that a regional transit agency had applied for a federal grant under the post-recession federal stimulus program. Pollack said the MBTA took over the project, spent the Federal Transit Administration's roughly $59 million in TIGER grant money, and the grant had a hard deadline for project completion because it was intended to be limited to "shovel ready" projects.
Pollack said the Federal Transit Administration is sticking to its deadline and if that start date is not met it could reclaim the grant money.
"It is not a story that anyone should be proud of," Pollack said. She said, "It is not a process I would recommend repeating."
The original budget for the project was about $74 million, according to a T official.
Pollack said that if the project did not have such a hard deadline she would recommend taking longer and spending less.
The project extends the Fitchburg commuter rail line about five miles west of its current terminus, bringing it to near the junction of Route 2 and Route 31 in Fitchburg.
Transportation officials complained about being put in such a bind, while acceding to spend more to complete the project on time to avoid the alternative.
"What are the lessons learned in this fiasco?" asked MassDOT board member Robert Moylan. He said, "We always seem like we're the ones cleaning up the mess, so what have we learned?"
Pollack said officials have learned from the problems with Wachusett, which it applied to its planned investment in a repair facility in a different part of the state, for the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority, leaving the risk for overruns on the regional transit authority.
MBTA Assistant General Manager of Design and Construction Ed Hunter said after the T took over the project, the organization realized information was missing on project costs.
A Montachusett Area Regional Transit Authority map shows a proposed Wachusett Station in Fitchburg near the border of Westminster. A presentation to transportation officials showed a photo of station construction circa July 8, which showed a partially completed platform and a mud road where the tracks would go.
An official with Keolis Commuter Services, which operates the commuter rail, said the vendor would operate the trains out to Wachusett.
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