Red Line Closures Are Coming This Fall for Winter Work

Photo by Meredith Foley

The Red Line will see a series of closures over nine weeks later this year as crews work to whip about 10 miles of tracks into better shape before winter.

The T on Monday awarded a company called Barletta Heavy Division an $18.5 million contract for “the replacement of all third rail and heating systems, track and tie renewals, signals, track structure and conduit installations,” according to a news release. That’s on top of the cost of equipment, materials, and in-house MBTA work. More info on the contract is in this presentation from the T’s website.

Closures for the project are scheduled over weekends from September through December. Shuttles buses will replace trains at impacted stations.

The work is part of the $82.7 million Winter Resiliency Plan announced last year after the T lost a battle with the snowy season in fantastic fashion. Since then, the system has seen miles of new rails and snow-melting heaters installed from Andrew to Quincy Adams stations. The T spent about $22 million on that first phase of the project last year.

“Working in tandem with Barletta, MBTA forces will continue to make the upgrades necessary to keep the subway operating no matter what Mother Nature throws at us,” said Brian Shortsleeve, the T’s acting general manager, in a statement Monday.

After all that work last year, winter more or less forgot to show up in 2016—with some notable exceptions.

But as the at-this-point-done-to-death refrain reminds us, “Winter is coming.” Just like in Westeros, it’s always coming. And this fall, we’ll have to endure some inconveniences over the weekend while we prepare for the worst.

Here are the dates to expect closures:

Braintree Branch: Sept. 10-12, Sept. 24-26, Oct. 1-3, Oct. 8-10, Oct. 15-17, Dec. 3-5,

Ashmont Branch: Oct. 22-24, Dec. 10-12, Dec 17-19