Somerville and Cambridge Officials Offer $75 Million to Save Green Line Extension Project

Photo By Olga Khvan

The fight to save the Green Line extension project is coming down to the wire.

According to the Boston Globe, Somerville and Cambridge officials said on Thursday that they would be willing to contribute $75 million towards the venture, which would extend the rail line into Medford. The offer comes just a few days before a planned meeting between board members of MassDOT and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, who will decide the project’s fate on Monday.

“It became very clear to us that to have any shot of moving the Green Line forward, we’d have to make a significant contribution,” Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone told the Globe. “We didn’t come to this decision lightly.”

Somerville would be responsible for $50 million since six out of the seven planned stations would be built in the city. The offer, however, must be approved by the city councils of both Somerville and Cambridge before it can go through.

While the project might be scrapped altogether due to budgetary reasons, there is still some hope.

After an initial projected budget of $2 billion started to creep closer to the $3 billion mark, officials have been looking to cut costs with a stripped down redesign of the project.

As Boston.com’s Adam Vaccaro points out, killing the Green Line extension could be disastrous for politicians in Somerville, Medford, and Cambridge, as well as U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, who was integral in securing $1 billion in federal money. Should the project be canceled, that funding would have to be forfeited.

No matter what happens, it’s going to be an interesting meeting on Monday.