State OK’s plan to study the Red Line

The state board overseeing the new Department of Transportation, meeting for the first time since the review was released, also approved a $2.5 million engineering contract designed to study a leak and corrosion problem on the Red Line tracks that was identified in the review.

The engineers hired to inspect the area, Jacobs Engineering Group, will design a plan for a long-term fix over the next few years for a track repair project estimated to cost tens of millions of dollars. The T has yet to set aside money for the extensive project, though managers may choose to do so in the next capital spending plan, which would take effect beginning June 2010.

“I think it will be ranked higher in the priority list than it was last time,’’ said Frank DePaola, assistant general manager for design and construction at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

In the meantime, the T will hire another firm to perform emergency leak repair work within the next few weeks to keep the Red Line problem, which could lead to a misalignment of the tracks between Alewife and Harvard, from getting worse, said DePaola said.

“This is about rectifying an immediate problem,’’ said Jeffrey Mullan, state secretary of transportation and chief operating officer of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. “You know the focus I have on safety.’’

Mullan provided several new details about how he would begin reviewing safety issues on the T, which he was ordered to do last week after Governor Deval Patrick received the independent review from former John Hancock chairman David F. D’Alessandro.

The new director of safety, Mullan said, will be in charge of monitoring and assessing all the T’s long-term maintenance needs that are related to safety and act as a resource when the board of directors weighs which projects to fund. The MBTA’s existing safety staff has a role in making sure the agency follows safety standards in its operations, but the employees have no direct role in assessing the transit system’s long-term maintenance spending.

Last week’s review said more than $500 million in safety projects labeled critical by the MBTA’s staff have gone unfunded, part of an overall $3 billion maintenance backlog that the T has been unable to pay for.

The safety director would also weigh in on highway projects, including the Big Dig, which was the subject of an independent safety review following a fatal 2006 ceiling collapse, Mullan said. State transportation officials, who have been under scrutiny for expanding the state payroll, may hire an engineer in-house for the position rather than add an additional employee, he said.

Mullan said he would be relying on outside consultants to review safety protocols at the agency and to set a priority list and create an immediate plan for addressing more than 50 unfunded maintenance projects cited in the MBTA report as critical to “life and limb’’ for the riding public.

Mullan also ordered staff to audit the federally required program that provides on-demand transportation for disabled residents, which was identified in the review as one of the MBTA’s costliest services.

Even as Mullan concentrates on setting new safety priorities at the agency, he will still have to contend with a limited budget. Last week’s independent review said the agency’s long-term capital needs are growing faster than its maintenance budget, even as managers set aside $470 million a year for such projects.

The Red Line problem, for example, has been estimated by MBTA staff to cost $80 million. The T has not set aside money to pay for it. DePaola said it could be completed in about three years if the T sets aside money in the annual spending plan.

But there remain several uncertainties. DePaola said the estimate to repair the Red Line tracks, for example, is not precise and was put together by staff based on a worst-case scenario in which all of the track support equipment needed replacing. Acting MBTA General manager William Mitchell said D’Alessandro “seems to think it’s a bigger problem than our staff does,’’ an indication that managers are still debating priorities internally.

Noah Bierman can be reached at nbierman@globe.com.