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