TRC Helps Springfield’s Union Station Win National Brownfields Award
Boarded up back when Watergate was an everyday word, Springfield’s Union Station threw open its doors again last year after 44 years of dormancy and decay.
The $94 million restoration – one that TRC literally helped lay the groundwork for – has been such a resounding success that it recently won the Phoenix Award as the best brownfield redevelopment project in the country.
“The opening of Union Station earlier this year was the culmination of decades of hard work,” Congressman Richard Neal (D-Springfield) said back in December when the award was announced. “I am thrilled to see this very special project receiving such prestigious national accolades and am proud to be part of its success story.”
The project took almost a decade to complete. TRC was there at the beginning, helping solve a huge potential hurdle: environmental contamination. The old Hotel Charles next door – now the site of a six-story parking garage – partially burned down in 1988, leaving behind old oil tanks, leaking petroleum and metals.
Working on behalf of the Springfield Redevelopment Authority, TRC first completed a due diligence Phase I Environmental Site Assessment in 2009 under the City of Springfield’s EPA Brownfields Hazardous Assessment grant program. Based on the findings of that assessment, TRC designed and performed Phase II investigative activities using additional funds under the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s Site Assessment and Remediation Support Services Contract. These included an extensive geophysical survey; exploratory test pit excavations; soil boring and monitoring well installations; non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) gauging and bailing; and soil, groundwater and soil gas sampling.
To maintain compliance under the Massachusetts Contingency Plan, TRC prepared and submitted a Phase I Initial Site Investigation report and Tier Classification submittal to the DEP in August of 2011. A few months later TRC coordinated and completed the removal of two underground oil tanks to help prepare the site for redevelopment, paving the way for the beautiful multimodal facility that’s there today.
Originally built in 1926 by the Boston & Albany Railroad, Springfield’s Union Station slowly became a dinosaur after the Interstate Highway System was built. Train traffic to Boston declined rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s and the building was closed in 1973.
The new, improved intermodal station is now a hub for local and intercity buses and Amtrak service between Vermont, New York and Washington D.C. In a few weeks it will begin hosting a new commuter line that connects Springfield with Hartford and New Haven, Conn.
It also features 64,000 square feet of leasable commercial space and a 377-space parking garage on the old Hotel Charles site.
As important, the new Union Station is part of a major transformation that’s taking place in downtown Springfield, where crews are busy building the gleaming MGM Springfield casino just 10 blocks up the street.
TRC was part of a team of companies and organizations cited in the Phoenix Award, along with the Springfield Redevelopment Authority, the City of Springfield, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Massachusetts DEP, MassDevelopment and Tighe & Bond.
The Phoenix Awards recognize exemplary brownfield redevelopment and revitalization. Winners are chosen from each of the EPA’s 10 regional districts, and then a grand prize winner is selected from among the 10 regional winners.