While Boston University students head home for winter break, construction workers will continue work on the Commonwealth Avenue Improvement Project, taking advantage of the relatively student-free campus, Massachusetts Highway Department officials said.
CAP, or “Project 602247” as it is called on the MHD website, is a project involving “safety improvements.” The work is being contracted by McCourt Construction Company.
“The project consists of the reconstruction of Commonwealth Avenue, new sidewalks and wheelchair ramps, upgrading of the existing traffic signals, geometric improvements, new street lighting, drainage improvements, landscaping and amenities,” the MHD website states.
The construction initiative will expand sidewalks, remove traffic lanes and add trees and bushes to “beautify” the Commonwealth corridor, according to the BU-hosted CAP website. The project is expected to be completed by spring 2008.
“You will have a much more attractive, much more beautiful thoroughfare going through Kenmore Square, going up Commonwealth Avenue,” BU spokesman Colin Riley said. “That is important to the university.”
Workers are currently tearing up sidewalks along Commonwealth to update water systems. According to MHD spokesman Erik Abell, “re-doing” and “upgrading” systems is important for the project because “there aren’t many times when you can dig into the ground.”
“To date, we have begun work on the water lines,” he said in an email. “Once this work is complete, we will start installing new drainage in the excavated sidewalk areas. We plan on performing drainage work through the winter, unless winter weather prohibits further work.”
Although there is a “significant amount” of unfinished water work, Abell said. the MHD is “hopeful” it will be done while students are on winter break and will be finished in the “next month or so.”
After the underground water work is finished, Abell said the project’s next step is working on the pavement in stages, block by block, but will not begin until next spring.
“Come the spring when the weather warms up, we will begin work on the structure of road under the pavement,” he said. “Do substructure work and then pave it back up to a point and then move on to the next section.”
According to Riley, the CAP will extend from Kenmore Square to the BU Bridge. Riley said the construction project is a “state issue,” and although BU contributed “more than a million dollars” to the project, “it’s not our project.”
“We provide BU with ongoing reports, including a schedule every week to two weeks,” Abell said. “It projects what is going to be happening.”
Abell said in an email he is under the impression that the university posts construction information “through BU’s internal means.” BU informs the community about project updates through the CAP website, which offers the option for students, faculty and community members to sign up for email updates. Riley said there are “roughly 100” people receiving these daily emails.
With the winter season approaching, Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore said he has heard from BU students, parents, faculty and community members concerned about the construction.
“We have received complaints or concerns, usually concerns I would say — that tends to be their tone – where people are concerned about places where they can cross the street, maybe places where they can get on to a shuttle bus or the Hyatt shuttle,” he said.
Elmore said the concerns are “good constructive criticism” that he forwards to the CAP Project Task Force, the team in “regular contact with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on this project.”
“I’ve seen some wonderful responses,” he said. “We just have a really quick system for forwarding those concerns, investigating them and then working with our liaison people to try and rectify them.”
Regarding the possibility of icy, narrow sidewalks, slippery metal walkways and other potentially dangerous construction aspects during the winter, Elmore said he tries to check out different locations in the course of his day. He said “we try to do adjustments on a regular basis.”
“We are trying to start . . . the Commonwealth Avenue Users Group,” he said. “It’s a group of us, including a group of students. We want to get involved. I’ve asked [Student Union President] Brooke Feldman to give me the names of some students who can get together on a regular basis just to talk about constructive concerns that we might have about daily walks in and around the campus, particularly on Commonwealth Avenue.”
BU Police Department Sergeant Jack St. Hilaire said the BUPD has five detail officers, two from the BUPD and three from the Boston Police Department, supervising pedestrian and vehicular traffic at all times when construction is in progress.
“All I would ask is that students pay attention and watch traffic control devices,” he said.
Several Commonwealth Avenue shop owners have blamed the construction for declining sales over the last several weeks.
“We call Mayor Menino, and all he does is apologize,” Nick Sabokrooh, owner of Boston City Flowers, said in his empty shop Nov. 30. “That’s not going to put money in our pockets.”
Though construction can be a bother for businesses and professors who have offices near the construction, “[McCourt Construction workers] have to leave a pathway to get into offices,” St. Hilaire said.
Since the evacuation of the GSU in late September when workers struck a natural gas pipe line, “there have been no other fire, gas or other issues,” St. Hilaire said.
“Students need to exercise caution in places with temporary walkways [and] abide by detours,” Riley said. “It is not a cliché — it is a fact that student safety is the highest priority.”
Abell said MHD takes every step “to limit the impacts of the traffic,” but there is “no ideal solution” with this type of large-scale construction project.
“During construction, at least one lane of traffic will be open in either direction at all times,” he said in an email. “Where possible, two open lanes are maintained. Temporary closures may occur on side roads. However, those closures may only be temporary.”
BU has been planning for this project for nearly a decade, but it took several years to move the project out of the “conceptual stage,” Abell said.
“My understanding is that it was when the state was able to allocate funds,” Riley said. “It is a funding issue.”
Riley said “everyone realizes” most of the money for state transportation goes toward funding the Big Dig.
Elmore said he encourages students, faculty and staff to use “our beautiful Bay State Road at our heart way,” which he said is useful because it removes students from construction areas and Commonwealth Avenue sidewalks.
“I think students have done a wonderful job in responding to this with what’s been going on,” he said. “Our reward is going to be this wonderful-looking pedestrian plaza.”