A Green Line summer slowdown

Call it the summer of the slog.

Commuters in the western suburbs will face a double dose of trouble starting later this month when the Green Line's D branch between Newton and Boston is closed for track repairs, while a major nighttime repaving project continues on Route 9 from Wellesley to Brookline.

"I don't really have a good alternative," said Karen Glatt, 65, of Natick, as she waited at Riverside yesterday for a trolley to Longwood. "I'm not looking forward to an extra half-hour to an hour drive."

One of the T's most popular trolley lines will be closed from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. during the work. The first phase will be between Riverside and Reservoir stations in Newton from June 23 to Aug. 3, and the second between Reservoir and Fenway stations Aug. 4 to Aug. 31. There will be full service for the Fourth of July.

During the shutdown, 20,000 riders will have to board shuttle buses, adding at least 15 to 20 minutes to their trip to and from Boston. Some commuters fear that the delays will be worse because the buses will travel the same neighborhood streets as drivers trying to avoid the paving and landscaping on Route 9, which carries about 50,000 vehicles a day.

"It's certainly going to be an inconvenience," said Lisa Davis, 41, of Newton Highlands, as she sat outside Lincoln Street Coffee as heavy noontime traffic zoomed by. "I try to take the shortcuts, but with all this, I suppose more and more people will be discovering my shortcuts."

Yesterday T officials downplayed the impact of the Route 9 work, pointing out that the D branch will be shut down during the day while the Route 9 work takes place mostly at night. "It is one step backwards for about 10 steps forward," MBTA General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas said during a press conference. "We're going to get it all done in one fell swoop."

The two projects were not supposed to coincide. The Route 9 resurfacing was to start last fall, but was delayed to limit traffic disruptions during detours forced by the fatal ceiling collapse in July 2006 in the Interstate 90 connector tunnel, said a Massachusetts Highway Department spokesman.

The resurfacing of Route 9 began in April and should be done by October. Other work, such as landscaping and sidewalks, may require the shutdown of single lanes during the day, according to the project's website. On the evenings of Red Sox home games, work will not begin on Route 9 west until after midnight, MassHighway spokesman John Lamontagne said.

The T scheduled the track work to avoid as many Sox home games as possible and to coincide with a drop in summertime ridership. Plenty of buses, including some that will go nonstop from Riverside to Fenway, will be available for Sox fan during the 27 home games affected by the work.

"The inconveniences should be minor and temporary," said Larry Cancro, senior vice president for Fenway affairs with the Red Sox. "The substantial improvements are long overdue, and the timing is good as overall ridership is low at this time."

Once complete, the work promises smoother, faster runs on one of the Green Line's most plodding lines, where track deterioration brings speeds down to 10 miles per hour around five stations, T officials said.

As part of the $8 million project, about 15,000 railroad ties will be replaced. Low-floor Breda trolleys, more accessible to the disabled and elderly, will be able to run on the line. About 14 miles of 50-year-old power cable and 6 miles of 35-year-old signal cable will also be replaced. The entire repair job will cost $20 million.

Mac Daniel can be reached at mdaniel@globe.com.