During Christmas week, MWRA Executive Director Fred Laskey reported to the Board of Directors and the court parties that Cambridge broke through a bulkhead activating a massive storm drain on the Alewife Brook Parkway.  This marks the substantial completion of the 35 projects contained in the $900 million, 20-year Long-Term Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Control Program.  

The CSO Program, combined with the capacity of the Deer Island Treatment Plant, is responsible for Boston Harbor beaches being rated the cleanest urban beaches in the country.  

Judge Stearns's quarterly court order can be viewed here.  

The MWRA Board of Directors approved the transmittal of the MWRA's Proposed FY17 Capital Improvement Program (CIP) to the Advisory Board at its meeting on December 16th.  

The CIP projects $160.1 million in spending for FY17, of which $87.3 million supports wastewater system improvements, $61 million supports waterworks system improvements and $11.9 million is for Business and Operations Support.  

The single largest change to the Program is the updated plan to address critical redundancy improvements for the City Tunnel, the City Tunnel Extension and the Dorchester Tunnel.  For the past few years, the CIP has included funding for various alternatives to accomplish this, such as the rehabilitation of sections of the Weston Aqueduct Supply Mains and the sliplining of the Sudbury Aqueduct.  The FY16 CIP included $518 million for these projects. Based on the current range of options, the placeholder value in the FY17 CIP increases that amount by $882 million to $1.4 billion.  

After extensive review and evaluation, MWRA staff are planning a series of presentations to the Board of Directors over the next several months - working closely with the Advisory Board - on project need, evaluation of alternatives, affordability and next steps in the hopes that a decision on whether to proceed and, if so, which option to pursue, be reached by June, when the Final FY17 CIP is approved.

Advisory Board staff will be scheduling a full presentation to the full Advisory Board in the coming months and, as always, staff looks forward to reviewing and commenting on the Authority's Draft CIP.