Second Street in Everett and Chelsea is getting new bus lanes this fall to support the neighborhood's new frequent-service bus route, coming later this winter.
The new bus lanes will support faster, more reliable service on the MBTA's redesigned 104 bus route, which will be upgraded as one of the T's new frequent service bus lines.
The 104 currently runs from Malden Center to Sullivan Square via Ferry Street in Malden and Broadway in Everett.
When "phase 1" of the T's bus network redesign takes effect in December, the southern portion of the 104 will be re-routed onto Second Street to connect to downtown Chelsea and the Airport Blue Line station:
"The Second Street bus lane being installed in Everett and Chelsea this week means riders on our new 104 bus route can expect improved travel times that dedicated lanes offer after the 104 starts operating on December 15,” said MBTA General Manager and CEO Phillip Eng in a press release issued earlier this week. “As a Frequent Bus Route, the 104 will operate every 15 minutes or better all day long, creating new connections for our Everett Square riders to Chelsea and the Airport."
The new bus lanes would run from Spring Street in Everett to Spruce Street in Chelsea. On the Everett side of the city line, Second Street is fairly narrow, so there will only be one bus lane for now, running northbound towards Revere Beach Parkway.
On Chelsea's side of the city line, south of Market Street, 2nd Street is considerably wider, and the MBTA is planning to have dedicated bus lanes in both directions.
The bus lanes also help set the stage for a conceptual future expansion of the Silver Line through the City of Everett. The MBTA's Silver Line Extension study, completed last winter, recommended a route with dedicated bus lanes and two new stations along Second Street in Everett.
A fast-growing neighborhood gets its first public transit route
A cursory review of historic MBTA and MTA transit maps suggests that the redesigned route 104 will offer the first-ever fixed-route public transit service in this part of Everett.
The route will run through the rapidly-growing Commercial Triangle district, an industrial area south of Revere Beach Parkway where developers have been replacing warehouses and parking lots with thousands of new apartments in recent years.
Earlier this year, developers cut the ribbon on a new 450-home apartment complex on the western corner of Second Street and Spring Street, pictured below:
Another 320-apartment complex is currently under construction a few blocks away, at the corner of Second and Vine Streets. And even bigger housing developments are in the planning stages, including 380 Second Street, a high-rise complex that would bring over 600 new homes to the neighborhood, and Sky Everett, a proposed 21-story apartment building with 366 homes on the southern corner of Spring and Second (the intersection pictured at the top of this article).
As the City of Everett's planners approve new developments, they're also making sure that these projects improve their surrounding streets with better infrastructure, block by block.
Each of the new projects mentioned above would set aside additional public right-of-way along Second Street to make room for bus lanes in both directions, plus wider sidewalks and protected bike lanes.
Many of these new projects are also building lots of new off-street parking in massive parking garages – a reflection of the fact that the closest transit service today is roughly half a mile away, at the end of the Silver Line.
But Everett officials are hopeful that the new MBTA bus service, combined with improvements to streets and sidewalks, will help encourage future developments in the neighborhood to embrace more transit-oriented designs.
The new route will also offer considerably better transit access for workers at the area's remaining warehousing businesses that lie to the south along Beacham Street, including the New England Produce Center and a large Amazon warehouse.
Bus lanes going in this month; new routes launch Dec. 15
According to an MBTA press release about the project, the agency will paint the new bus lanes with overnight work starting this week. The painting should be done by mid-November, weather permitting.
Over the summer, the T has also been installing new bus stops and accessible boarding areas along the new route.
The MBTA plans to launch all four of its new frequent-service bus routs in Chelsea, Revere, and Everett on December 15.
