The MBTA is moving forward with a project to replace an aging drawbridge at North Station even as concerns grow about federal funding getting clawed back.
The estimated $1.2 billion dollar project won a $472 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation last year. The T has received $283 million of the grant so far, with the remaining $189 million expected to come in October.
During a MBTA board meeting on Thursday several members asked about the certainty of receiving the full amount of grant funds as previously promised. Board member Mary Skelton Roberts pointed to the $327 million the Trump administration rescinded earlier this month that was supposed to go toward an overhaul of the MassPike in Allston.
MBTA General Manager Phil Eng said there was “no reason to believe right now that this project has any risk.”
“We’re monitoring everything very closely, of course, but there is nothing that has indicated that we are concerned about those dollars,” he said.
The Draw One Bridge replacement is a “priority project” for the MBTA, Eng said. The structure connects the cities of Boston and Cambridge and is nearly a century old. The tracks are the gateway to the entire northern side of the Commuter Rail network and also serve Amtrak’s Downeaster line. The T estimates 12 million riders per year travel on the bridge’s tracks.
The project aims to replace the drawbridge and a control tower, extend the bridge platform and upgrade signals, among other things. “This is the kind of thing where the investments being made today are critical” to ensuring reliability and safety for riders, Eng said.
Board members approved a $61.6 million contract with engineering consultant HDR, Inc. to help manage the project. Program directors for the North Station Draw One project estimate the project can be completed in about six and a half years.
Despite the state’s loss of federal grant funding since Trump took office, a spokesperson for the T said the transit authority’s grant strategy “remains steadfast and the agency will continue to pursue every opportunity it can for funding to improve its system and serve communities.”
