- Massachusetts Department of Transportation
Somerville — The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) today announced that construction work on the Squires Bridge in Somerville was completed ahead of schedule. As a result, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) resumed Green Line train service on the Union Square Branch this morning. The Squires Bridge carries Route 28/McGrath Highway over the Union Branch of the Green Line, the Fitchburg Commuter Rail Line, and Somerville Avenue Extension.
The Squires Bridge Project was initially anticipated to take 42 days, but MassDOT was able to modify the schedule and reduce the construction period to 25 days. MassDOT crews began work in September, focusing on completing critical beam end repairs, along with additional preventive actions, to ensure the bridge can remain open and safe for use. MassDOT work was completed on Tuesday, October 10, the MBTA ran a test train through the area, and MBTA Green Line service on the Union Square Branch resumed this morning.
“We’re proud to have completed repairs of the Squires Bridge ahead of schedule and to have resumed Green Line train service in this area as quickly and safely as possible,” said Acting Transportation Secretary and CEO Monica Tibbits-Nutt. “We’re grateful to MBTA riders for their patience, to the MassDOT engineers and contractors for their hard work, and to Governor Healey and Lieutenant Governor Driscoll for challenging us to think bigger about how we could shorten the construction timeline to minimize the impact on riders.”
“We are pleased that the strategic decisions around the approach to this important safety work have been successful,” said MassDOT Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver. “Our team achieved the results we had hoped for and finished on time so that Green Line service could resume as quickly as possible.”
"Regularly scheduled Green Line service began early this morning, following the successful operation of test trains on the Union Station branch," MBTA General Manager & CEO Phillip Eng said. "In keeping with our commitment last month to expedite track repair work during the Squires Bridge project, the MBTA has removed all of the Green Line speed restrictions on both the Union Station branch and the Medford/Tufts Station branch. Green Line trains today are traveling at regular line speeds on both branches. I wish to thank our riders for their patience while MassDOT completed the bridge project and we addressed the track defects discovered during an inspection last month."
Because the Squires Bridge project work had to be performed within the Green Line right of way, transit service on the Union Branch had to be terminated at Lechmere Station during construction. Bridge work did not impact motor vehicle travel across the bridge, MBTA Commuter Rail service on the Fitchburg Line, nor Green Line service to Medford/Tufts.
The Squires Bridge is a critical component of the Route 28/McGrath Highway corridor which links Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville with communities to the north. On average, the Squires Bridge carries approximately 40,000 motor vehicles per day, roughly the equivalent of travel volumes through the Sumner Tunnel in Boston. Based on MBTA Green Line boarding information for January through March 2023, the MBTA estimates an average of approximately 1,550 customers board the Green Line at Union Square each weekday, with fewer estimated boardings on Saturdays and Sundays.
