Welcome back to the City of Somerville's construction newsletter!

Summer is in full swing. People are heading to the beaches or the now open for the season Dilboy Pool, the Fourth of July is right around the corner, and we're going to need a bigger email to highlight all the work going on around Somerville to maintain and improve our City's infrastructure. 

What We're Sharing This Month: 

• Highland Avenue Partial Paving - Coming (Very) Soon
• Final Paving at Alewife Brook Pwky and Powder House Blvd
• Glen and Otis Street Neighborway Implementation
• A Summer of Streetscape Improvements on Spring Hill 
• Continued Progress (and Cobbles) on Western Washington
• Subterranean Somerville: 40-ft Below Poplar Street

Following critical underground infrastructure work (installation of new sewer, drainage, water, and gas utilities), crews have begun preparing to pave Highland Avenue.

City contractors from our Spring Hill Sewer Separation Project will be paving the two travel lanes of the roadway (approximately 28-feet wide) along Highland Avenue between McGrath Highway and Benton Road.

After a necessary reschedule (ok, two), final paving at the City’s newest T-shaped intersection is here and is expected to be completed by this upcoming Monday, 7/1. This paving includes includes: 

• The intersection of Alewife Brook Parkway and Powder House Blvd. - extending roughly 600 feet in either direction along Alewife Brook Parkway
• Powder House Blvd between North Street and Alewife Brook Parkway
• Powder House Blvd and North Street intersection
• The new residential shared street along Alewife Brook Parkway

Final roadway striping will follow shortly after paving. Other remaining work, including new tree plantings will follow ahead of expected substantial project complete this summer. 

New, recently painted murals at the East Somerville Community School aren’t the only change coming to the neighborhood.

If you haven’t heard, Somerville is partnering with CultureHouse and Neighborways Design to create a Neighborway on Glen Street in East Somerville between Tufts Street and Broadway, and on Otis Street between McGrath Highway and the East Somerville Community School. 

As defined in the Somerville Bicycle Network Plan, “Neighborways” are walk-, roll-, and-bike friendly streets that create a low-stress and high comfort experience on residential streets.

What's happening? Where and When?

As early as next week, City contractors will begin installing the new signage and pavement markings associated with this change. Following this work, Glen Street will become a two-way street for bicycles (while remaining one-way for vehicles). 

For more information on this project, including an overview of the community engagement process and final design, visit our project website.

Work is progressing on the City’s effort to reconstruct western Washington Street. The new design will make traveling along the street safer and more comfortable for people walking, wheeling, biking, taking the bus, or driving. 

Crews have been rebuilding sidewalks on the southern/even-numbered side of the street. Work has been proceeding east from Beacon Street toward Webster Avenue. On sections of the street where we are building a sidewalk-level bike lane, crews have been installing a cobble buffer between the sidewalk and bike facility as seen in the image below. 

Visit our project website to review the full design and stay up to date as work progresses. 

In addition to upcoming paving on Highland Avenue (McGrath to Benton Rd.), there is a lot happening on Spring Hill as crews work to upgrade streetscapes throughout the project area:

Meanwhile the final underground utility installations of the project are underway on lower Summer Street (Bow Street to School Street).

Why are we doing all this? Once activated, the Poplar Street pump station and the accompanying underground storage tank will fundamentally change the way stormwater drainage is managed for approximately 60% of the city. It represents a major investment in modernizing the City’ stormwater management infrastructure and increasing preparedness for extreme weather events.

There is a lot of work being done in Somerville as we look to modernize and improve our city’s infrastructure, and we can’t cover it all in one email.

Stay up-to-date with what’s going on in your neighborhood and around the city via the following channels: 

• Sign up for City Alerts - Receive important notifications about work in your area.

• Follow us on Twitter - Tweets about curb-cuts, culverts, and more.

• Visit our new construction page - A comprehensive look at work across the city.

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