T fix-up nearly 2 years late as costs hit $47M

By Marie Szaniszlo, Boston Herald

It’s big. It’s bold-looking. And its budget keeps ballooning.

It’s Kenmore Square Station. And its renovation is nearly two years behind schedule and more than $16 million over budget.

The MBTA board of directors recently approved spending an additional $420,140 on design and engineering work, bringing the project’s total cost to $47 million and extending its completion date - originally scheduled for January 2007 - to the end of this year.

“Looks like (expletive). There’s a marathon Monday. I want all this out of here,” a supervisor told workers Thursday as he surveyed the mounds of dirt and piles of construction equipment at the site.

T riders, who have seen fares double in the past eight years, expressed similar frustration with the length and cost of the project.

“It’s an eyesore,” said Steven Fortuna, 48, of Revere, who was unimpressed by the busway’s unfinished new glass-and-metal canopy. “People can put up skyscrapers in a year, but they can’t get this done?”

As he waited for the No. 60 bus, Juan Taylor, 43, of Dorchester had one question: “Who’s overseeing the people doing the work?”

“If it was me,” Taylor said, “I’d be out of a job.”

A sign the MBTA has posted at the site reads: “T improvements . . . ‘Creating jobs for today, better service for tomorrow.’ ”

Beneath that, next to the original cost of construction - $22,744,444 - someone has scrawled “of extras.” And that isn’t far off the mark.

To date, the T, which is carrying more than $5 billion in debt, has spent $31.2 million on the project’s construction alone, and expects the price tag to reach $38.9 million by the time the renovation is complete.

The plan was to tear down Kenmore Square’s 50-year-old brick bus depot and replace it with a modern canopy; new, brick sidewalks surrounded by trees; and a new escalator and elevator for better handicap access.

Ed Hunter, the T’s deputy director of design and construction, attributed the cost overruns and delays to a variety of unforeseen factors.

Workers had to move or work around numerous utility lines that weren’t on maps. After a settlement with the Boston Center for Independent Living, the elevator was redesigned to make it larger. And both stairways were kept open during baseball season to accommodate throngs of Red Sox [team stats] fans en route to and from Fenway Park [map], further delaying construction.

“The T appreciates customers’ patience,” spokesman Joe Pesaturo said. “We wish (the project) could have finished earlier. But at the end of the day, there will be a station everyone there can be proud of.”

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