Skanska announced that it has been awarded a $1.06 billion contract by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to deliver the North Station Draw One Bridge Replacement and Associated Track & Signal Upgrades project across Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville, Massachusetts.
The award advances one of the larger active rail infrastructure packages in the northeastern US. It combines bridge replacement, track expansion, signal modernization, and operational upgrades on a corridor that serves more than 11 million riders a year across the MBTA’s north-side commuter rail network.
North Station Draw One – Project Background
According to Skanska, the project will replace the existing 1930-era Draw One bascule bridges with new vertical lift spans across the Charles River. The works are intended to modernize a critical choke point in the Greater Boston rail system while preserving active passenger service during construction.
The owner is the MBTA, with Skanska leading delivery under a design-build contract. VHB is serving as design lead within the Skanska-led team, which is a good fit for a live rail corridor where bridge, track, signal, and staging interfaces need to be coordinated from the outset.
This is also a network project rather than a standalone bridge job. Skanska said the improvements are designed to streamline operations, improve flexibility and reliability, and support long-term ridership growth across the north-side commuter rail system.
The contract award comes shortly after Skanska, together with Walsh Group and Traylor Bros., secured the Hudson Tunnel river section package, adding another major rail infrastructure package to the contractor’s US workload.
Scope of Works, Delivery Model and Project Implications
Skanska said the contract covers replacement of the existing Draw One bridges with new vertical lift spans, upgrades to the approach trestles, construction of a new Tower A control facility, and delivery of a new Platform F at North Station. The project also includes comprehensive track, signal, and Positive Train Control (PTC) upgrades.
North Station Draw One package key features
- $1.06 billion contract value
- Design-build delivery model
- replacement of the 1930-era bascule bridges
- new vertical lift spans across the Charles River
- new Tower A control facility
- new Platform F at North Station
- track, signal, and PTC upgrades
- corridor expansion from four to six tracks
- work scheduled to start in May 2026
- expected completion in Fall 2032
Upon completion, the corridor will expand from four to six tracks across the river, reducing congestion and improving reliability. Construction will also be carefully phased to maintain MBTA commuter rail and Amtrak operations and minimize disruption to daily service.
Skanska said the team will use Alternative Technical Concepts to reduce in-water work, simplify construction staging, and improve safety during delivery. That is a material point on a live rail corridor, where continuity of service is often one of the defining constraints on bridge replacement and systems work.
Commercially, this is a multi-interface rail systems package being delivered under a design-build contract, also referred to in some markets as a design and construct model. The increase from four to six tracks gives the project a clear capacity-expansion profile, not just an asset-renewal one.
North American Rail Infrastructure Outlook
The contract reinforces the volume of major rail and bridge packages still moving through North America, particularly where owners are targeting long-standing operational bottlenecks on heavily used corridors. The common thread is not just replacement of aging structures, but a broader push to add flexibility, resilience, and future growth capacity while keeping service running.
The North Station Draw One package fits neatly into that trend. It sits alongside other strategic rail awards already covered by Construction Front, including the Long Bridge North Project in Virginia and the Hudson Tunnel Project Package 1C.
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