[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 46 (Friday, March 8, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10796-10798]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-5637]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration


Preparation of Environmental Impact Statement on North Shore 
Transit Improvements Between Revere and Salem, MA

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration (FTA), U.S. Department of 
Transportation (DOT).

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is issuing this 
notice to advise agencies and the public that, in accordance with the 
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), FTA and the Massachusetts Bay 
Transportation Authority (MBTA), will prepare an environmental impact 
statement (EIS) to evaluate transit improvements, including a potential 
rapid transit service extension, in the North Shore Corridor from 
Revere to Salem, Massachusetts.

DATES: One public scoping meeting in the City of Lynn will be held in 
April, 2002. Details as to the specific location, date, and time of the 
public scoping meeting will be advertised in local newspapers and other 
media. An interagency scoping meeting will be held on March 27, 2002 in 
the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center. See ADDRESSES below. 
Written comments on the scope of the EIS, including the alternatives to 
be considered and the impacts to be studied, may be sent to Stephen M. 
Woelfel, Project Manager, MBTA, by April 19, 2002. See ADDRESSES below.

ADDRESSES: Written comments on the project scope should be sent to 
Stephen Woelfel, Project Manager, Planning Department, Massachusetts 
Bay Transportation Authority, Massachusetts Transportation Building, 10 
Park Plaza, Boston, MA 02116. Telephone: (617) 222-5237; fax: (617) 
222-6181. The interagency scoping meeting will be held on March 27, 
2002 at 10 a.m. in the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, 
Kendall Square, 55 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02142. All scoping meetings 
will be held in wheelchair-accessible locations.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Peter S. Butler, Federal Transit 
Administration, (617) 494-2729.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Scoping

    FTA and MBTA will establish the scope of the EIS for the North 
Shore Corridor after consulting with Federal, State, and local resource 
and regulatory

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agencies through meetings and correspondence, and after hearing from 
the general public. Interested individuals, organizations, and agencies 
are invited to participate in defining the alternatives to be evaluated 
and related issues of concern. Written comments on the alternatives and 
potential impacts to be considered should be sent to Stephen Woelfel at 
the MBTA.

II. Description of Corridor and Transportation Needs

    The existing transportation system in the Boston-Salem Corridor 
consists of a network of limited-access highways, arterials, and local 
streets as well as various transit services provided by the MBTA.

Roadway Network

    There are no major highways that service two primary business 
communities in this corridor, Lynn and Salem. The local roadways 
provide poor levels of service. Prior planning efforts to address these 
accessibility issues have included possible highway connections to the 
cities of Lynn and Salem. This work has failed to produce viable 
highway alternatives because of community, environmental, and financial 
constraints. Limited access to these cities has impacted the ability of 
residents to reach employment opportunities in Boston, and it has 
prevented these business centers from reaching their full potential.

Transit Network

    The MBTA is the primary provider of mass transit service in this 
area. This Corridor is serviced by commuter rail along the Eastern 
Route Main Line that extends from Boston to Newburyport and Rockport. 
Rapid transit service is provided on the Blue Line between Bowdoin 
Station in downtown Boston and Wonderland Station in Revere (Blue Line 
terminus). The MBTA also operates local and express bus routes in this 
Corridor.
    Over the past several years, the MBTA has made a substantial 
investment in the rehabilitation of the commuter and Blue Line systems. 
Despite these improvements, public transit has not sufficiently 
improved mobility within this Corridor, and it holds limited potential 
to fully address this issue. Further public transportation improvements 
have been considered through several different planning efforts 
including the MBTA's current Major Investment Study (MIS). The MIS has 
been developed around the findings of studies that were completed in 
the 1990's including the North Shore Transportation Study and the 
Wonderland Connector Feasibility Study. In the MIS process, a steering 
committee of municipalities and interest groups has reaffirmed the 
need, which was identified in these previous studies, for greater 
access to Boston and the employment centers on the North Shore. 
Particular attention has focused on the inadequacy of existing services 
to meet the demand for access to the cities of Lynn and Salem, which 
are important destination centers within the Corridor. In the case of 
commuter rail, the current system cannot support higher frequency 
service, and various bus options may not overcome congestion on the 
Corridor's roadway network. The MBTA's experience with express bus 
service in the Corridor suggests that commuters are looking for more 
frequent and quicker service. Consequently, these cities have 
identified rapid transit investment as the way to address their 
transportation limitations and to promote greater economic development 
opportunities.
    The rapid transit investment that has been favored is an extension 
of Blue Line service from the existing terminus in Revere. It is 
recognized that the possible rapid transit routes for a Blue Line 
extension would result in significant environmental impacts, and as 
such, would require the preparation of an EIS. The EIS will focus on 
extending rapid transit into the Corridor between Boston and Salem. 
Accordingly, the study area will be comprised of the following 
communities: The City of Boston and nine other cities/town including 
Chelsea, Lynn, Marblehead, Nahant, Revere, Salem, Saugus, Swampscott, 
and Winthrop.
    The MIS, which is currently expected to be completed in June of 
2002, will continue to address issues of a regional nature that 
encompass the entire 32 community study area and all modes of transit. 
The EIS process is an integral part of the MIS process because it will 
provide additional detail regarding the Blue Line extension options, 
which received high ratings and support in the initial MIS screening 
phases.

III. Alternatives

    A preferred alternative has not been selected at this point. The 
public comment process will provide input into the selection and a 
preferred alternative will be identified in the Final EIS.
    For consideration in the Draft EIS, the FTA and the MBTA propose 
that the following five alternatives be evaluated:
Alternative 1: No-Action
    This Alternative consists of no change to existing facilities in 
the North Shore Corridor. It serves as the NEPA baseline against which 
the transportation, environmental, and community impacts of the other 
alternatives are compared. Existing transportation facilities consist 
of the MBTA Blue Line and various local and express bus routes. 
Additionally, the Rockport and Newburyport Commuter Rail Lines provide 
commuter-oriented service to seventeen stations in the North Shore. 
Principle highway facilities in the study area include Interstate 95, 
U.S. Route 1, State Route 128, and State Route 1A. The No Action 
Alternative further consists of the transportation network contained in 
the Regional Transportation Plan for the year 2010 in the absence of 
any other transportation improvements in the study corridor.
Alternative 2: Transportation System Management
    This alternative consists of all reasonable cost-effective transit 
service improvements not requiring major new construction. This 
alternative includes improvements such as reduced commuter rail 
headways in off-peak hours, extended service hours and reduced headways 
for express and local bus service, and other low-cost traffic and 
transit system upgrades on available streets and highways.
Alternative 3: Blue Line extension to Salem via the Eastern Route Main 
Line
    This alternative involves the extension of the Blue Line from the 
City of Revere to the City of Salem along the Eastern Route Main Line 
with a shared use for MBTA commuter rail service.
Alternative 4: Blue Line Extension to Salem via the Narrow Gauge and 
Eastern Route Main Line Alignment
    This Alternative involves the extension of the Blue Line from the 
City of Revere to the City of Salem utilizing the Boston, Revere Beach 
& Lynn Narrow Gauge Alignment and the Eastern Route Main Line with a 
shared use for MBTA commuter rail service;
Alternative 5: Blue Line and Commuter Rail Intermodal Facility
    In lieu of a Blue Line extension north to Salem, this alternative 
involves the construction of a new intermodal facility that would 
provide a passenger connection between the Blue Line and commuter rail 
service in the vicinity of the existing Blue Line terminus at 
Wonderland Station in the City of Revere.

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    All of the alternatives listed above, as well as other alternatives 
suggested during scoping, will be considered during the development of 
the draft EIS. Prior to the completion of the draft EIS, it is expected 
that a screening process will consider each alternative's potential 
benefits, costs, and impacts. The EIS will also consider any additional 
reasonable alternatives identified during scoping that provide similar 
transportation benefits while reducing or avoiding adverse impacts.

IV. Public Involvement

    A comprehensive public involvement program has been developed. The 
program includes: Outreach to local and county officials and community 
and civic groups; a public scoping process to define the issues of 
concern among all parties interested in the project; a public hearing 
on release of the draft EIS; and development and distribution of 
project newsletters.

V. Probable Effects and Potential Impacts for Analysis

    The FTA and the MBTA will evaluate all environmental, social, and 
economic impacts of the alternatives analyzed in the EIS. The impact 
areas to be addressed include: noise and vibration; land use; visual/
aesthetic values; ecosystems; cultural and historical resources; water 
quality, floodplains, and drainage; air quality; traffic and parking; 
hazardous materials; utilities; energy use and conservation; public 
safety and security; and community and economic impacts. The EIS will 
evaluate potential environmental justice issues as well as secondary, 
cumulative, and construction-related impacts. The need for right-of-way 
acquisitions and relocations will also be evaluated. Alternative 
alignments, designs, station locations, and other measures to avoid, 
minimize, and mitigate adverse impacts will be developed and evaluated.

VI. FTA Procedures

    In accordance with FTA policy, all Federal laws, regulations, and 
executive orders affecting project development, including but not 
limited to the regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality and 
FTA implementing NEPA (40 CFR parts 1500-1508, and 23 CFR part 771), 
the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, section 404 of the Clean Water Act, 
Executive Order 12898 regarding environmental justice, the National 
Historic Preservation Act, the Endangered Species Act, and section 4(f) 
of the DOT Act, will be addressed to the maximum extent practicable 
during the NEPA process. In addition, the MBTA seeks Sec. 5309 New 
Starts funding for the project and will therefore be subject to the FTA 
New Starts regulation (49 CFR part 611) which was published in the 
Federal Register on December 7, 2000 (65 FR 76864) and became effective 
on April 6, 2001. This New Starts regulation requires the submission of 
certain specified information to FTA to support an MBTA request to 
initiate preliminary engineering, which is normally done in conjunction 
with the NEPA process.

    Issued on: March 4, 2002.
Richard H. Doyle,
FTA Regional Administrator.
[FR Doc. 02-5637 Filed 3-7-02; 8:45 am]
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