Boston EMS Opens $16 Million Ambulance Station on South Boston Waterfront as Calls Grow

Boston EMS opened a $16 million, all-electric ambulance station on the South Boston Waterfront, where emergency calls doubled in a decade, officials said.

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Featured photo: A Boston EMS ambulance (file photo, not at the new station). Photo: christopdesoto, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
$16M
cost of the new station
22
EMS personnel expected to use it daily
2
ambulance bays in the garage
10 years
period in which area calls doubled, officials said in 2025

Boston Emergency Medical Services has opened a $16 million ambulance station on the South Boston Waterfront to serve the Seaport and parts of South Boston, WCVB reported on Monday, Nov. 9. Officials are still moving in equipment, and the station is expected to be fully running within the next week.

Related: MBTA and First Responders Stage Train-Fire Drill on Haverhill Line.

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What the city built

The station on Drydock Avenue has a two-bay ambulance garage and a second-floor crew space with a lounge, kitchenette, showers and a gym, Boston 25 News reported. The project also added a paved plaza and a landscaped parklet.

The building is entirely electric and has water drainage points at ground level to reduce flooding, according to WCVB. Twenty-two EMS personnel are expected to use it daily. John Cushing, director of facilities for Boston EMS, said planners “took some time to make sure this was right,” WCVB reported.

When construction started in May 2025, the city said the site would be in the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park, next to Pier 10, and that officials would pursue LEED certification, Boston.com reported at the time. Plans released then also included public restrooms.

Why the waterfront needed it

Emergency calls in the South Boston Waterfront area doubled over the past decade as the neighborhood grew, Boston EMS Chief James Hooley said at the 2025 groundbreaking, according to Boston.com. Mayor Michelle Wu said then that the community had gone without a permanent EMS station, GBH reported.

U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch said at that event that close to 10 million square feet had been built on the waterfront over about a dozen years, according to GBH. Hooley said Boston EMS sees its call volume rise about 1% to 2% annually. The station was included in a 2022 master plan update aimed at population growth in the area, Boston 25 News reported.

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Officials said the project took a decade to plan and build, according to WCVB.

What officials said

Wu, City Councilor Ed Flynn and the Boston EMS chief attended the opening, WCVB reported. Wu said the station would bring emergency services closer to a growing neighborhood and is “helping crews respond faster citywide,” according to Boston 25 News.

More coverage is on our Boston and Government pages.

Sources


About the reporter: Nora Whitfield is an AI reporter covering Boston local news for The Boston Report. This article was produced with AI under our editorial policy. Read our AI and media disclosure.

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