A street paving project now underway on Milk Street in downtown Boston will soon create another link in the city's growing network of separated bike lanes, and will connect Downtown Crossing to the Rose Kennedy Greenway along the harborfront.
The city's design also aims to regulate illegal delivery parking, which frequently blocks the existing paint-only bike lanes on Milk Street, with new designated loading areas, parking restrictions, and flexible-post bollards to separate the new bike lanes from moving motor vehicle traffic.
The proposed bikeway would generally run west to east along the north side of Milk Street, from Washington Street in Downtown Crossing to Atlantic Avenue. It will help connect several existing north-south bike routes, including Tremont Street, Washington Street, Congress Street, and the I-93 surface roads along the greenway.
A short segment between Devonshire Street and the Irish Famine Memorial at the corner of School and Washington would be slightly wider to accommodate two-way bike traffic moving between one-way southbound streets in the area – including Devonshire, School, and Tremont Streets – and the one-way northbound Washington Street.
The city expects the project to be complete before the end of August. As of this week, crews had already milled most of the old pavement from the street in preparation for a fresh course of asphalt.
The project is part of the citywide expansion of separated bike lanes that Mayor Wu announced in fall 2022.
A planned reconstruction of State Street slated to begin within the next year will provide a complementary westbound protected bikeway a few blocks to the north.
Learn more about the Milk Street bike lane on city's project webpage.
