Beleaguered $2.3B Boston Green Line completion pushed back to 2021

Dive Brief:

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has announced another delay for the $2.3 billion Boston Green Line light-rail extension, estimating the seven new station's new opening date to be 2021, according to The Boston Globe.
The stations were originally supposed to be operational by the end of 2017. The MBTA now expects to be only at the contractor-selection phase of the project by then.
In addition to a new contractor, the MBTA also must assemble an in-house team to manage the project, secure a $1 billion federal grant from the Federal Transit Administration and find $75 million to plug a hole in its financing.

Dive Insight:

This is just the latest development in the saga of the Green Line. The project had already become controversial — facing cost overruns and delays — by the time the MBTA fired the first contractor team nearly a year ago. In fact the project, with its $1 billion in extra expenditures, was on track to be the most expensive MBTA project ever at $642 million per mile. The agency blamed mismanagement on the part of the original construction team and said general contractor White-Skanska-Kiewit ran up costs through its maximum price contract. However, a Berkeley Research Group report found that the MBTA itself played a significant role in the project's setbacks.

After stopping work on the Green Line, the MBTA announced that it would downsize the project to a more manageable — and affordable — $2.3 billion, down from the estimated $3 billion price tag. The FTA said it is still committed to the project but that it is waiting for the MBTA to provide a plan for success before releasing the grant money. As part of the revised project guidelines, the MBTA decided to scrap the original contract delivery method and go with a design-build model instead.

John Dalton, who was hired last month to manage the project, represented a positive turning point for the project. He previously worked as a manager for the Chicago Transit Authority and has also supervised billions of dollars in transportation projects in the U.S. and Dubai.