Construction of a long overdue emergency medical services (EMS) facility, that will serve the Seaport’s rapidly growing population, is finally underway.
The $13 million two ambulance bay facility, located in the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park adjacent to Pier 10 on Dry Dock Avenue, will fill a gap in public services that have lagged behind the commercial and residential development of the South Boston Waterfront.
Announced in March 2022, construction on the facility finally began this January. A spokesperson for Boston EMS did not answer a question about the costs that construction of the facility has incurred so far, but an itemized spreadsheet of sub-bids filed in March of last year puts the estimated payout to contractors at $10.4 million.
City Councilor Ed Flynn, who has been advocating for the construction of this facility for the last 7 years, emphasized the importance of bolstering emergency response capabilities in the area.
“Basic city services, infrastructure, should lead the way in development,” Flynn said in an interview over the phone. “Currently the EMS station on West Broadway serves the neighborhood. With the traffic and the difficulty at times getting to the South Boston Waterfront, not having a physical presence makes it challenging.”
Ambulance response times have been slowly creeping up across the city, rising from a targeted median response time of around 6 minutes for life threatening emergencies such as cardiac arrest and severe bleeding, to a median 7.4 minutes in 2023, the most recent report available. South Boston makes up an increasing percentage of those EMS calls as well.
“In the past decade, emergency calls in the South Boston Waterfront area have doubled, and the demand for services continues to climb,” said Caitlin McLaughlin, director of media and public relations for the Boston EMS, in a statement over email. Boston EMS was not able to answer when the facility would become operational.
Flynn said that despite his persistent advocacy for bringing more public services to Seaport, it has been challenging to get such projects into the city’s capital budget and only by the constant efficacy of the community and community leaders do such projects eventually get approval.
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