This summer, the City of Somerville is re-building Washington Street, a key bus and bike route west of Union Square.
The project is reconfiguring a relatively narrow neighborhood street to fit in some new protected bike lanes, several raised crosswalks to slow down traffic, and dedicated bus boarding platforms for speedier bus rides.
In its former condition, Washington Street was a fairly typical neighborhood street: about 40 feet wide from curb to curb, it had two rows of on-street parking on either side of two travel lanes.
As the most direct connection between Harvard and Union Squares, it's long been a busy route for people on bikes and for riders of the MBTA route 86 bus. But as long as there was parking on both sides of the street, bikes, buses, and cars all had to share the same two lanes.
But the on-street parking never got all that much use, as you can see on historical Google Street View imagery. During the pandemic, in 2020, the city tested out a "quick-build" reconfiguration of the street that consolidated parking to one side of the street only, which made room for painted bike lanes that intermittently merged into red bus-and-bike lanes.
This summer, the city is tweaking that design to make it permanent, with some refinements. The project is building several dedicated boarding platforms to let MBTA buses drop off and pick up passengers without pulling over (later this winter, a new frequent-service route 109 will replace the 86 on this route).
Crews are also building several raised crosswalks with curb extensions to shorten the distance from one side of the street to the other. The first two raised crosswalks, on the eastern end of the project area near the the Argenziano elementary school, have been finished in time for the start of the school year.
More work remains on the western end of the project area, near Beacon Street (pictured below). Over the weeks to come, workers will build a three more raised crosswalks between the school and Beacon Street, finish the remaining bus stops, and lay a final course of asphalt on the roadway and the new protected bike lanes.
Check the City of Somerville's project webpage for more updates or details on the new street design.
