Eyes On the Street: A Greener, Calmer Cummins Highway
After two years of construction, work is nearly complete on a dramatic transformation of Cummins Highway in Mattapan.
Cummins Highway used to be a four-lane highway on a mile-long stretch between Mattapan Square and Mount Calvary Cemetery.
In that configuration, the road invited reckless, high-speed driving. It was an official part of Boston’s “high-crash network,” with 119 injury-causing crashes recorded on the four-lane section between 2015 and 2018. In June 2020, a driver struck and killed a person riding a bicycle on Cummins near Richman Road.
In 2019, though, Mayor Marty Walsh’s administration began planning a major reconstruction project to address the road’s dangers.
Citing citywide policies like citywide policies and design guidelines, including Vision Zero and Go Boston 2030 (which identified Cummins Highway as a priority “complete streets” corridor), the city’s Public Works Department advanced a design that transformed the street with a narrower two-lane roadway with raised crosswalks and protected bike lanes alongside new gardens and tree plantings.
Work on the full reconstruction began in spring 2024, which put the project in motion before Mayor Wu’s “30-day review” of transportation projects dragged work to a halt for most other street projects around the city.
One of the most dramatic changes is a new roundabout at the intersection of Cummins, Greenfield Road, and Weybosset Street, which used to be an extremely wide 5-way intersection:
The project also made major upgrades to wheelchair accessibility through the neighborhood. Most of the crosswalks at side streets are raised crossings like this one (where a The Ride passenger had just disembarked when I took this photo):
After two years, work is nearly complete, and crews are focused on finishing touches, including landscaping and tree plantings.
According to city officials, this one-mile stretch of roadway used to have only 21 street trees along its sidewalks; when this project is complete, there will be more than a hundred, and those trees will also have considerably more room to grow.
The project has replaced thousands of square feet of asphalt with new greenery, including new rain-absorbing stormwater treatment gardens like this one:
In some spots, neighbors appear to have supplemented the city’s plantings with their own plantings, like this sidewalk flower garden in front of the Glorious Church of Jesus Christ:
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