Mayor Demands Studies On Red Line Extension

Cambridge Mayor Thomas W. Danehy warned last night that he will press for a moratorium on the extension of the Red Line through Cambridge unless Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) plans are modified to meet community environmental needs.

Danehy reaffirmed his support for the inclusion of a nonbinding public policy question on the November ballot asking citizens in the affected area whether they support stoppage of Red Line extension work until further environmental impact studies are conducted.

A proposal to halt extension of the Red Line pending further study of the impact of a terminal located near the Alewife Parkway in North Cambridge is currently on the table in the City Council. Although the council did not take up the issue last night, it will consider the moratorium question after meeting with MBTA Chairman Robert Kiley, who has been invited to a council session in October.

Last Monday the council voted to ask the MBTA to fund technical advisers to assist the city in anticipating possible effects of Red Line extension.

Double Trouble

Kenneth Campbell, MBTA Director of Public Information, told The Cambridge Chronicle last week that he was not sure if the MBTA could sustain such costs. Campbell said although discussions might be premature at this time, "it seems like those advisers might be duplicating the work already done in the Environmental Impact Study."

Danehy has supported additional environmental reports. Citing congestion and routing difficulties, Danehy said last week "the terminus at Alewife will create unimaginable hardship on the residents of the bordering neighborhoods."

"There was a period in this city's historic dealings with the MBTA that North Cambridge stood alone in its opposition to the Red Line," Danehy said, adding that "as the project has gone forward, every neighborhood group in its path is joining the North Cambridge Area in its opposition to the present policies of the 'T."'

In 1977, the Urban Mass Transportation Authority ended its attempts to include Arlington in an extension project after Arlington voters passed a similar non-binding question.

Environmental problems under discussion also include choice of tunnel-boring techniques and construction materials. Danehy has asked that those methods which "maximize protection to Cambridge citizens" be used.