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Assembly station
Assembly station (originally Assembly Square in some planning documents) is a rapid transit station in Somerville, Massachusetts. It serves the MBTA's Orange Line. It is an infill station, located on a section of the Orange Line that has been active since 1975. The station, which opened on September 2, 2014, was the first new rail station on the MBTA subway system since 1987. Assembly station is meant to provide convenient access to Assembly Square - a major retail and residential development located on the site of a former Ford assembly plant - and the adjacent Assembly Square Marketplace.
Assembly station is on the east side of the Assembly Square development, on the existing Orange Line tracks near the Mystic River. The station consists of a single island platform 410 feet (120 m) long, to handle up to 6 railcars on each side. Unlike Community College, Sullivan, and Wellington, Assembly does not have a second island platform to serve the (currently unused) third track, which was intended to be an express track. The station has two headhouses, one on each end of the platform. Two footbridges, one from each headhouse, cross over the inbound track and connect to parking on G Street. The station is fully accessible and includes bicycle storage facilities. Sullivan Square to the south and Wellington to the north are both major MBTA bus terminals, so Assembly was not designed as a bus transfer station.
Several public art elements are incorporated into the station. These include artistic benches and a metal panel mosaic on the station façade (both designed by Artists for Humanity) and MBTA-designed panels about the site's history.
Adding a commuter rail station at Assembly Square was listed as a possibility in 2012 as an interim air quality mitigation measure in response to delays building the Green Line Extension However, such a station could not be completed by 2015, and the project was not supported by MassDOT. The station would have required building separate platforms for the Haverhill Line and the Newburyport/Rockport Line, which split near the station site.
Construction was estimated to cost up to $57 million, of which $22 million (plus an optional $3.5 million extra) was from the state's Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development. The remaining cost was divided between federal funding including the FTA Section 5309 New Starts program ($16 million) and the developer of Assembly Square ($15 million), Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRIT).
The area around the station formerly hosted a Ford automobile assembly plant, which used the adjacent Western Route for rail access. Although the plant is long gone, the Assembly Square name is a reference to the site's history.
On February 8, 2011, the MBTA board unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding between the MBTA and FRIT, which defined the funding sources for the project. The memorandum was a "critical milestone," according to a FRIT executive. Somerville approved the project on May 2, 2011, and two days later the MBTA opened bidding for construction, which was planned to start at the end of 2011.
On October 5, 2011, the MBTA announced the award of a $29,229,184 construction contract to S&R Construction Co., Inc., with construction beginning later that fall. The work required 18 weekend closures of the Orange Line from Sullivan to Oak Grove. The first weekend closures began in June 2012 and continued past the station opening into late 2014. The closures were extended to five nights per week for the second half of 2012, and continued sporadically into 2013 and 2014.
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Assembly station
Assembly station (originally Assembly Square in some planning documents) is a rapid transit station in Somerville, Massachusetts. It serves the MBTA's Orange Line. It is an infill station, located on a section of the Orange Line that has been active since 1975. The station, which opened on September 2, 2014, was the first new rail station on the MBTA subway system since 1987. Assembly station is meant to provide convenient access to Assembly Square - a major retail and residential development located on the site of a former Ford assembly plant - and the adjacent Assembly Square Marketplace.
Assembly station is on the east side of the Assembly Square development, on the existing Orange Line tracks near the Mystic River. The station consists of a single island platform 410 feet (120 m) long, to handle up to 6 railcars on each side. Unlike Community College, Sullivan, and Wellington, Assembly does not have a second island platform to serve the (currently unused) third track, which was intended to be an express track. The station has two headhouses, one on each end of the platform. Two footbridges, one from each headhouse, cross over the inbound track and connect to parking on G Street. The station is fully accessible and includes bicycle storage facilities. Sullivan Square to the south and Wellington to the north are both major MBTA bus terminals, so Assembly was not designed as a bus transfer station.
Several public art elements are incorporated into the station. These include artistic benches and a metal panel mosaic on the station façade (both designed by Artists for Humanity) and MBTA-designed panels about the site's history.
Adding a commuter rail station at Assembly Square was listed as a possibility in 2012 as an interim air quality mitigation measure in response to delays building the Green Line Extension However, such a station could not be completed by 2015, and the project was not supported by MassDOT. The station would have required building separate platforms for the Haverhill Line and the Newburyport/Rockport Line, which split near the station site.
Construction was estimated to cost up to $57 million, of which $22 million (plus an optional $3.5 million extra) was from the state's Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development. The remaining cost was divided between federal funding including the FTA Section 5309 New Starts program ($16 million) and the developer of Assembly Square ($15 million), Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRIT).
The area around the station formerly hosted a Ford automobile assembly plant, which used the adjacent Western Route for rail access. Although the plant is long gone, the Assembly Square name is a reference to the site's history.
On February 8, 2011, the MBTA board unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding between the MBTA and FRIT, which defined the funding sources for the project. The memorandum was a "critical milestone," according to a FRIT executive. Somerville approved the project on May 2, 2011, and two days later the MBTA opened bidding for construction, which was planned to start at the end of 2011.
On October 5, 2011, the MBTA announced the award of a $29,229,184 construction contract to S&R Construction Co., Inc., with construction beginning later that fall. The work required 18 weekend closures of the Orange Line from Sullivan to Oak Grove. The first weekend closures began in June 2012 and continued past the station opening into late 2014. The closures were extended to five nights per week for the second half of 2012, and continued sporadically into 2013 and 2014.