DCR

Eyes On the Street: State Conservation Agency Converts Asphalt to Parkland In Newton

A dramatic transformation of Hammond Pond Parkway in Newton demonstrates what can happen when the state's Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) actually prioritizes conservation and recreation over traffic and pollution.

By Christian MilNeil

5:54 AM EST on December 2, 2024

Signs alongside a roadway read "Hammond Pond Parkway – Massachusetts Dept. of Conservation and Recreation" and "Hammond Pond Parkway Improvement Contract No. P23-3501-C3A Newton MA" next to some orange construction cones and freshly-laid asphalt and stacks of granite curbing.

Construction is still underway but nearing completion on the Hammond Pond Parkway redesign in Newton. Photographed on Nov. 26, 2024.

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A dramatic transformation of Hammond Pond Parkway in Newton demonstrates what can happen when the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) actually prioritizes conservation and recreation over traffic and pollution.

Over the past year, construction workers have ripped up several hundred tons of asphalt to convert what used to be a four-lane highway without any sidewalks into a narrower, calmer two-lane street that includes accessible paths for pedestrians and people on bikes and dozens of trees where pavement used to be.

Here’s what the road used to look like:

A straight four-lane highway with no sidewalks runs through a forest. — Before a reconstruction project began in 2023, Hammond Pond Parkway was a four-lane highway with no sidewalks. Courtesy of the Mass. Dept. of Conservation and Recreation.

And here’s the same section, pictured on a rainy day last week:

A bike path runs parallel next two a two-lane roadway to the horizon through a forest. Between the bike path and the roadway are some orange construction barrels and some newly-planted trees in a 10-foot-wide strip. — The northern portion of the new Hammond Pond Parkway path, looking south towards Brookline. Newly-planted trees between the bike path and the roadway occupy an area that until recently had been buried under the asphalt of a four-lane highway.

There’s still some construction work happening, particularly at the northern intersection where the Parkway meets Beacon Street, but the new shared-use pathway along the western edge of the roadway is open and workers have started planting dozens of new trees that buffer the new path from the roadway.

A bike path runs parallel next two a two-lane roadway running through a forest. Between the bike path and the roadway are some orange construction barrels and some newly-planted trees in a 10-foot-wide strip. — The new Hammond Pond Parkway path, looking north towards Beacon Street in Newton.

Hammond Pond Parkway slices through Newton’s largest contiguous conservation area, which is filled with hiking trails (click here for a map) that loop among rocky ledges.

Near the parkway’s midpoint, the project also installed this new crosswalk to connect hiking trails on either side of the roadway to the new shared-use path:

A wide bike path runs next to a two-lane roadway that curves through a forest. In the middle distance, two yellow signs mark a crosswalk. — A new crosswalk on Hammond Pond Parkway connects hiking trail networks on both sides of the roadway to the new shared-use path (foreground).

Christian MilNeil

Christian has edited StreetsblogMASS since its founding in spring 2019. Before that, he was a data reporter for the Portland Press Herald in Maine. Got tips? Send them to me via Signal, the encrypted messaging app, at 207-310-0728.