Massachusetts’s officials break ground on MBTA Yawkey Station

Written by jrood

As part of the Patrick-Murray Administration's historic Massachusetts Works program to promote job growth and long-term economic recovery, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray joined Boston Mayor Thomas Menino Nov. 15 to break ground on the $13.5-million Yawkey Commuter Rail Station reconstruction project, a key public transportation component of the $450-million Fenway Center development.

When completed, Yawkey
Station will be a full-service commuter rail station with full-length
accessible station platforms providing access from Beacon Street and Brookline
Avenue and more than doubling service on the Worcester-Framingham Commuter Rail
Line from 17 to 40 stops per day. The station construction is expected to
create 150-200 jobs.

The planned Fenway Center
development project includes air rights development over Interstate 90 and will
create significant pedestrian and green space improvements while providing
transit and office space in the Longwood Medical and Fenway area. The project
includes more than 330 apartments, 370,000 square feet of office space, 150,000
square feet of retail space, more than 30,000 square feet of park space, and
more than 1,000 parking spaces.

Construction on the station
will begin this year with completion slated for spring 2012. An extension of
Yawkey Way will connect the station with shuttle buses that serve the Longwood
Medical Area, creating an intermodal connection for thousands of employees. A
bicycle share station and bicycle racks are also planned as part of the
project.

The new Yawkey Station will
be powered entirely by solar power, making it the Commonwealth’s first net-zero
energy rail station. The solar power, transit improvements, bike amenities and
improved pedestrian connections support "GreenDOT," a comprehensive
environmental responsibility and sustainability initiative to make the
Patrick-Murray Administration’s MassDOT a national leader in "greening" the
state transportation system.

Intermodal transit projects
are a part of the more than $4-billion infrastructure investments being made
through the Administration’s Massachusetts Works initiative putting nearly
20,000 people to work across the Commonwealth this construction season.

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