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

Fireworks lit up Trum Field last night, and we’re back to help illuminate the latest on infrastructure projects across the city. 

What We're Sharing This Month: 

• New Project Alert - Western Washington St. Reconstruction
• Brown Schoolyard Renovation
• Progress on Pearl St.
• Powder House Blvd. and Alewife Brook Pkwy. Intersection Progress
• What Are Clear Corners?
• Spring Hill Sewer Separation Update
• Subterranean Somerville - Excavation on Spring Hill

Starting around mid-July or soon after, the City plans to reconstruct sidewalks and repave Washington St. between Webster Ave. and Line St.

In addition to the new sidewalks, this project will include improved bus stops, protected bike lanes, raised crosswalks and other elements designed to increase safety and accessibility for everyone using the street. 

Work is expected to begin in the vicinity of the Argenziano school with the construction of new sidewalks taking place while school is out for the summer. 

Visit the project page to review the final design and stay up to date on construction progress and impacts.

City contractors have been working since March on sidewalk and intersection improvements as part of the City's Pearl Street Reconstruction & Safety Improvements project.

With school out for the summer, work is now focused on safety improvements around the East Somerville Community School and Capuano Early Childhood Center. Crews are currently working to install new raised crosswalks at the intersection of Everett Ave. and Cross St. as well as at the intersection of Franklin St. and Oliver St.

Full project plans and periodic updates are available below at our project website.

City contractors have been working on improvements to drainage and sewer infrastructure along Alewife Brook Pkwy. and Powder House Blvd. as part of the City's intersection redesign. Drainage and sewer work will continue along Alewife Brook Pkwy. over the coming weeks.

Underground utility work is substantially complete along Powder House Blvd. City contractors will be performing preliminary paving between North St. and Alewife Brook Pkwy. late next week. Nearby residents will receive additional notification regarding paving early next week.

Preliminary paving on Powder House Blvd. will enable crews to begin work on streetscape improvements over the coming months.

As part of the City's Traffic Calming program, we are working to improve safety on some of our most high-crash streets through our Clear Corners Initiative.

So what are clear corners? Parked vehicles near crosswalks can block views of people crossing the street. By restricting parking ahead of crosswalks, we’re able to increase visibility for people driving and reduce the likelihood of crashes. 

(Image source: NACTO)

While local and state law prohibits parking between 20 and 30 feet ahead of a crosswalk or intersection, the City is bringing greater attention to this issue along streets with higher intersection crash rates by adding "No Parking" signs to mark the area where parking is prohibited.

We can also add a painted box with diagonal lines and plastic posts in the space as a reminder. Within larger construction projects, we can build curb extensions using granite and concrete to prevent people from parking too close to crossings.

Clear corners marking is currently underway on the eastern end of Broadway as part of the East Broadway Bus and Crosswalk Improvements project. Work will then proceed to the central portion of Broadway between Cedar St. and McGrath Hwy. later this year.

Visit our traffic calming page to learn more about clear corners and other traffic calming features being employed throughout the city to increase safety for all users of our roads.

Created in collaboration with the Brown School community, teachers, and administration, the new design features a small synthetic turf field, basketball and wall ball courts, as well as significant improvements to the surface and subsurface drainage.

Work will continue throughout the summer and is expected to be complete for this upcoming school year.

Work continues on the Spring Hill Sewer Separation. Last week City contractors completed preliminary paving on Summer St. between School St. and Belmont St. as well as on Oxford St. between Trull Ln. and Central St.

This work clears the way for new sidewalks, green infrastructure, and other streetscape improvements to be installed on Summer St. over the coming months. 

Meanwhile underground utility work has begun on Highland Ave. east of School St. requiring a detour for eastbound vehicle traffic as crews work to install new sewer, drainage, and water utilities. This detour is expected to be in place for approximately 3 months. 

Learn more about these efforts and other work currently underway in the neighborhood at our project website.

Throughout the neighborhood, the City is currently working to upgrade these systems by installing new storm drains that separate stormwater from the existing combined sewer. This measure is one in a series of actions the City is undertaking to reduce water pollution, mitigate flooding, and ultimately modernize our infrastructure.

In addition to new separated sewers and drainage, the City is also installing new water mains throughout the neighborhood.

Old water main (left) after being replaced with new main (right) underneath Highland Ave.

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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