An official announcement will be forthcoming, but here is a partial update to cover questions that I have been receiving about the status of the Belmont-Trapelo Corridor project.
This project is a Cambridge-to-Waltham reconstruction of the Belmont Street and Trapelo Road corridor. Belmont, Watertown and neighboring communities will benefit greatly from this project. It represents a design effort that has taken over a decade to complete.
There have been problems getting the project out the door to construction, but those problems appear to be fully resolved.
The second round of project bidding was successful — a bid has been accepted, a contract has been approved and work should be starting essentially now.
The first step is removal of the overhead bus trolley wires to allow safe construction using normal (tall) construction equipment. To allow this, the MBTA will be running diesel buses. My understanding is that the cutover to diesel should be happening this weekend. That will be a true indicator that the project is under way. The diesel usage will be temporary and the trolleys will return when the project is to complete.
There will be an official groundbreaking for the construction phase at some point, probably in October.