Dive brief:
- Contractors must repair two-thirds of the rails on Boston’s newly opened $2.3 billion Green Line extension, the CEO of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said last week, because the rails they were placed too narrow. The joint venture leading the project, GLX Constructors, made up of Fluor, The Middlesex Corp., Herzog and Balfour Beatty, will restore the faulty tracks.
- Half of the 0.7-mile Union Square branch and 80 percent of the 3.7-mile Medford branch need repairs, though MBTA CEO Phil Eng told the Boston Globe, “It is the entire length of the project I think needs to be reviewed. back within the contract requirement.” He said this did not mean the trains were running unsafely, but it did force them to slow down.
- The 4.4-mile extension from Cambridge to Somerville and Medford is the newest part of the light rail system known as the T. Construction began in 2018 and wrapped in December 2022. Eng said GLX Constructors aims to begin repairs on Nov. 1 and the process could take weeks.
Diving knowledge:
At a press conference on Oct. 19, Eng said the contractor would have to cover the costs of the repairs, but the agency has not yet determined the cost. An MBTA representative told Trains.com that the agency will maintain conversations with the builders as part of closing your contract.
“The problem is tied to the manufacturing of the loops and the plates,” Eng told the Boston Globe, and the plates were “pre-installed.”
A review of project records found that GLX construction crews and inspectors first identified cases of “tight gauge” in April 2021, said Eng. However, construction continued and the project opened in December 2022 with thousands of areas of narrow track out of specification, and it is unclear how the problems persisted despite quality control inspections.
Contractors fixed the worst problems with the off-gauge tracks before they opened in December 2022, the Boston Globe reported, but other problems became public last month when MTBA limited Green Line light rail speeds to 3 mph at 29 locations. The MBTA has since fixed these points.
MBTA is working with GLX Constructors to correct the rest of the problem, which will involve repositioning the tie plates by unscrewing the bolts from the plates on a rail, filling the existing holes in the sleepers, drilling new holes, and finally bolting the plates with the correct gauge. .
Construction Dive reached out to GLX Constructors for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication..
It is not the first problem of the project
In August, the construction companies that built the Boston MBTA Green Line Extension filed suit against New York City engineering firm STV, alleging that its allegedly defective designs caused more than $35 million in cost overruns; however, problems with track design were not among the complaints. The plaintiffs said STV failed to reimburse GLX for the unexpected costs, as stipulated in its contract, and are seeking $35 million. STV said it stands by its design.
The history of the GLX project dates back to 1980, when research began. The MBTA announced a plan in 1990, but it was later scrapped due to budget overruns. The state began planning the expansion again in 2007 and awarded a construction contract to White-Kiewit-Skanska in 2013. It fired the contractors after the work ran over budget and put the project on hold. ice
In 2016, the MBTA scaled back the project and resubmitted it. GLX Constructors won the design-build contract in 2017 and began construction in 2018, but had to halt work again when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.
The 2022 opening of the GLX project puts nearly 80 percent of Somerville, Mass.’s population within walking distance of a station, up from less than 20 percent previously, according to the MBTA, and will reduce vehicle miles traveled by almost 26,000 miles. every day. The agency predicts that about 45,000 daily users will use the seven new Green Line stations by 2030.
