by trainhq
They've finally started laying tracks to Greenbush;
looks like they're making good progress.
looks like they're making good progress.
Rails planted on Greenbush route
Construction has reached a milestone for the Greenbush, Mass. Commuter lines as the first 140-foot section of the entire Greenbush line was planted last week, the Weymouth News reported last week. It’s at a crossing at grade.
Sights and sounds of heavy equipment clearing foliage and installing drainage along the right-of-way, or echoes of rock-pinning machines and diesel engines regrading soil typically mark major construction areas.
Contractor Cashman/Balfour Beatty is doing the major work for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and Cashman spokesperson Thomas Carroll said the Unicorn Avenue grade crossing is the first of many, but it’s still the first.
“It’s the first visual sign that it’s really a train line and to actually see that go in is pretty exciting,” he said.
Although the first 140 feet of rail is now officially in place much work still lies ahead before more rails are installed.
In Weymouth Landing, a shallow cut, which will allow trains to pass underneath Quincy Avenue in Braintree and Commercial Street in Weymouth, is being dug out.
The shallow cut will be about 30 feet wide and some 20 feet high. The tunnel will allow trains entering Weymouth Landing from either side to make station stops without disrupting traffic.
The Greenbush commuter rail line will run about 18 miles between the Greenbush section of Scituate and East Braintree, then on to South Station in Boston.
Passenger service is projected to begin sometime in 2007 and is tentatively scheduled to make 12 trips each way on weekdays. The train will have stops in East Weymouth and Weymouth Landing.
