Yet another issue revealed Monday for the embattled MBTA.
The green line extension into Somerville and Medford could come in at up to a billion dollars more than first estimated.
"We can't afford it the way it's been currently laid out," said State Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack.
The project, which calls for a five-mile, six stop expansion and new light rail vehicles, could now be in jeopardy.
"Every option is on the table and that has to include mothball or canceling the project, that's not where we want to go," said Pollack.
The extension was just one of the many plans and promises former Governor Deval Patrick made, that Governor Charlie Baker has to fulfill and pay for.
As for why the overruns? Pollack gives the chief reason why including recession-era quotes:
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"We think that some of the work that was done before we got here might have been a little too optimistic in looking at the price of projects that were done during the recession when pricing was a lot better."
State transit officials are now looking at what moves to make next, including ways to get the costs down while finding additional money.
Complicating things even more, hundreds of millions of dollars have already been invested, and federal officials have already promised nearly a billion dollars to the 2.3 billion dollar project.
Pollack says at this point,
"We're not suspending the work, we think it makes sense to continue working on what we've been working on."
At this point, there's no time table for what the state will do next, Pollack says.
