www.mass.gov/southcoastrail
MBTA Assumes Leadership of South Coast Rail Design
As South Coast Rail advances, the Massachusetts
Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) has assumed
leadership of the project from the Massachusetts
Department of Transportation (MassDOT) Office of
Transportation Planning. This means the project has
turned a major corner.
are needed to seek permits. The MBTA will convene
a Wetlands Working Group to advance mitigation for
wetland impacts. As design advances, the MBTA will
develop a Draft Mitigation Plan (including wetlands
and other environmental resource categories).
The US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) remains
involved in the project. The Corps’ process includes
finalizing the Programmatic Agreement (PA) that
establishes a process for reviewing cultural resource
impacts and mitigation, and approving wetland
mitigation plans. The Corps’ process also includes
issuance of a Record of Decision that will serve as the
Section 404 (of the Clean Water Act) Permit. The permit
will become final after the Massachusetts wetlands
permits are issued during the final design process.
The MBTA has secured a team of consultants to
move forward with the design and permitting of the
project. The 10-year contract was awarded to the VHB/
HNTB Joint Venture for program and construction
management (PM/CM). Much of the team has a
history of working on South Coast Rail. The team has
already made significant progress with data collection,
preparing for permitting, preliminary design and
outreach to South Coast Rail communities.
The design process will be complex. South Coast Rail
includes more than 55 miles of track right-of-way,
34 bridges, 44 grade crossings, ten new stations, two
rehabilitated stations, mitigation and more. The first
step in design is to gather current survey information,
and teams have begun to map segments of the future
track in detail. The project team will also collect
geotechnical data on soil conditions.
How to Stay Involved
A robust outreach and engagement effort will
continue under MBTA leadership during the
design and permitting phases. The MBTA
will host public meetings to discuss specific
station designs. Emails and fact sheets will
provide updates on the engineering and
permitting processes. The project website will
be re-launched in Fall 2014 to include more
extensive and updated project information.
You can visit the website, sign up for meeting
notices and stay in touch with the project at
www.mass.gov/southcoastrail.
The Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs
issued a Certificate on the Final Environmental Impact
Statement/Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIS/R)
that outlined a process for moving the environmental
permitting forward. The MBTA will conduct additional
technical analyses to identify wetland replacement
and restoration sites. Environmental studies will help
inform detailed mitigation plans to address impacts
to wetlands and rare species. These mitigation plans
South CoaSt Rail
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FALL 2014
Golf Club Road bridge is currently out
of service due to its poor condition.
Grade Crossing and Bridge Replacement Work Underway
Early Action: Four Bridge Replacements
MassDOT is preparing for the construction of grade
crossing upgrades, railroad bridge replacements and
railroad track improvements throughout the project
area. This early action work is critical to expanding
existing freight service and building the infrastructure
necessary to bring long-awaited passenger train service
to the South Coast.
With design nearly complete, MassDOT will begin
construction of four bridge replacements in Spring
2015: New Bedford’s Wamsutta bridge and Fall River’s
Golf Club Road, President Avenue and Brownell Street
bridges. Some of these bridges have inadequate vertical
clearance over roadways, while others are in poor
condition and are currently out of service. Removing
and replacing these older bridges will support freight
service while staging the region for South Coast Rail
passenger service.
Early Action: Grade Crossing Upgrades
This $16 million construction project will upgrade five
grade crossings (three in Freetown, one in Taunton and
one in New Bedford), rebuild approximately 10,500
feet of track in Freetown and install approximately
6,000 feet of new track in New Bedford. The locations
are: High Street, Elm Street and Copicut Road along
the Fall River Secondary in Freetown; Dean Street in
Taunton; and Nash Road in New Bedford. The project
will also make signal improvements at the Dean Street/
Arlington Street intersection in Taunton and the Nash
Road/Church Street intersection in New Bedford.
The grade crossings will be equipped with the latest
safety warning technology and will accommodate
future commuter rail service. The design of the grade
crossing upgrades was completed in August 2014.
Approximately one year of construction is slated to
begin in late Fall 2014.
Brownell Street bridge in Fall River, not far from Bicentennial Park.
SOUTH COAST RAIL – FALL 2014
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www.mass.gov/southcoastrail
Fieldwork Continues
Fieldwork is an essential element of project
design. Plans must be based on the best
available data. Geotechnical engineers will extract
soil samples, known as borings, which reveal
important information about the soil and how the
project should be designed for the soil conditions.
Geotechnical soil borings are scheduled to begin
in late September and will initially focus on the
railroad bridges and the historic track alignments
through the Pine Swamp and the Hockomock
Swamp.
Meet South Coast Rail’s MBTA
Project Manager
The project team is
pleased to introduce Kim
Dobosz, MBTA Project
Manager. Kim joined Jean
Fox (MassDOT Project
Manager) in December
2013 in guiding the South
Coast Rail project. Kim
has over 20 years of
experience in engineering
and construction management. She has already
jumped right in and looks forward to ensuring that
stakeholder and community concerns are heard
and involved in the design process.
Survey crews are also in the field collecting ground
survey information. Surveys will be conducted by
small field crews who will access the areas on foot
from adjacent roadways. Survey within the railroad
right-of-way began in late August and will continue
through the fall. The project team will continue
field activities through Spring 2015.
South Coast Rail is not new to Kim. She served
as the MBTA’s Acting Project Manager during the
project’s planning phase when she first joined
the agency in Summer 2011. Before she joined
SCR, Kim worked on a number of high profile
infrastructure projects, including the Central Artery
Tunnel Project, Fitchburg Commuter Rail Line
Improvement Project, MassDOT’s Knowledge
Corridor Project and Wachusett Commuter Rail
Extension Project. As a consultant to the MBTA,
Kim assisted with the environmental permitting
process for the Silver Line Busway Project.
Typical equipment used to extract soil samples,
known as borings.
Kim’s wealth of technical knowledge, passion for
construction and project management experience
make her the ideal person to lead this project. She
has what it takes to advance this complex project
through to completion.
Kim earned her Bachelors of Science in Biomedical
Engineering at Boston University and her Masters of
Engineering in Civil and Environmental Engineering
at UMass Lowell. She has been a resident of
Massachusetts for almost 30 years. In her spare
time, Kim enjoys riding her new Indian motorcycle,
scuba diving, kayaking and spending time with her
family and friends.
www.mass.gov/southcoastrail
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SOUTH COAST RAIL – FALL 2014
A Look Back in Time
The Southeast Expressway opened the same year Old
Colony ended service. The highways, which today
include Interstate 93, US 1 and Route 3, followed many
parts of the former Old Colony Railroad and became
the primary transportation connection between Boston
and the South Coast region.
Commuter rail service to the South Coast region is not a
new idea. In the 1830s, railroad networks began popping
up all over Massachusetts and became a popular way
to commute and travel. The South Coast region was
originally connected to Boston with rail service via the Fall
River Branch, the Taunton Branch and the Easton Branch
railroads built in the mid 1800s, ultimately operated by
the Old Colony Railroad. The New York, New Haven and
Hartford Railroad leased the Old Colony Railroad system
beginning in 1893 and was successful for many decades.
In recent decades, demand for public transportation has
risen once again as population levels have increased and
the highway system has faced congestion challenges.
Transit ridership is a nationally increasing trend.
Passengers prefer the option to work or relax on public
transit, whereas driving requires their undivided attention.
Transit also provides a relief from traffic congestion. The
restoration of passenger rail service to the South Coast
will offer a new and more convenient mode choice and
enhance regional mobility. It will also catalyze economic
development in local communities and throughout the
Commonwealth. The original alignment from Fall River
and New Bedford through Taunton is the route the future
South Coast Rail will take. History has come full circle!
In the early to mid-20th century, the United States
experienced an automobile revolution and a societal
shift toward auto-oriented urban planning. Interstate
highways were booming. Private automobiles replaced
commuter rail as the popular mode of transportation.
As a result, the New York, New Haven and Hartford
Railroad encountered financial problems. While
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts provided an
emergency subsidy to continue service to the South
Coast in 1958, it was not enough. Passenger service
on the Old Colony line was abandoned in 1959, with
the exception of the main line between Boston and
Providence, Rhode Island.
Over the next few months, we plan to delve more
deeply into the history of rail in the South Coast region.
Stay tuned!
Contact Us
To ask questions or let the project team know about
an issue or concern, contact us at:
Jean.Fox@state.ma.us
SOUTH COAST RAIL – FALL 2014
To learn more about the project and sign up for email
updates and advisories, visit the website at:
www.mass.gov/southcoastrail
(857) 368-8853
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