Preliminary Work on Subway Begun

Preliminary work has been started on the proposed subway from Harvard square to Boston, which was authorized last winter by a favorable vote in the Cambridge municipal elections and a subsequent act of the Massachusetts Legislature. Superficial plans for a two track subway, the rails of which will be approximately 30 feet below the street level, have been drawn by the Boston Elevated Railroad Company and have been accepted by the City of Cambridge and by the Boston Transit Commission. Along the route, borings have been made to ascertain the nature of the ground and the strength of the building foundations. As much of the preliminary work as remains to be done can be finished before spring, when the actual construction will probably begin. By the provisions of the act, the subway must be in operation within three and one-half years from the date on which the act was passed. Including the re-locating of all gas and water pipes which will be encountered in the course of the work, the total cost of construction will be about $5,500,000.

The route will be under Massachusetts avenue to Main street and from there to Kendall square. Here, the tracks will come out of the tunnel and proceed on an elevated structure to the new Cambridge bridge. Over the bridge, surface tracks will be used, rising to an elevated on the Boston side, for a short distance, and then going into a tunnel. It remains for the Boston Transit Commission to determine whether the Boston Terminal will be at Scollay square or at Park street.

Only two tracks will be laid, making it impossible to run both local and express trains as is done in the New York subway. No definite conclusion has been reached as to the location of intermediate stations, but there will be as few as possible in order to insure rapid transit.

The right, which the Railroad Company possessed by the original charter under which it was incorporated, to build an elevated structure in Massachusetts avenue, Main, River, Bridge and Cambridge streets and Webster avenue, has been annulled by this new act, excepting for such sections as may be necessary to connect the Massachusetts avenue subway with the Boston elevated system.

Nothing will be attempted on the other Cambridge subway, authorized by the same act, which will go by way of Cambridge street to the Charles River Dam, until the first one is near completion. The building of the Cambridge street route may be postponed for 10 years. At the expiration of that period the city will have the right to build this subway, and after a 20-year period the right of purchasing all the subways.