Avenue to be renovated

In response to community opposition, city developers and landscapers have revised plans for an upcoming construction project along Commonwealth Avenue to preserve the 80- to 100-year-old elm tree in front of the George Sherman Union, according to Steven Kleinman, a landscape architect and project manager with Copley Wolff, a design firm hired by the city.

The construction was originally scheduled to begin this spring and include the removal of 48 of the 69 trees between Deerfield Street and Amory Street to make way for shortened sidewalks and extended T platform medians, but the project is being delayed due to questions from the state.

The project is “a little stalled right now,” said Massachusetts Highway Department spokeswoman Judith Forman.

“The state decided they needed additional information on the design plan,” Forman said, explaining that MHD oversees the project while funding it with the federal money.

“It should be four to five months before the highway department has a complete design to go out to bidders,” she said. Forman said the plans were advertised in September 2003.

Yet many members of the Boston University community are more concerned with preserving the elm and glad that it will not be removed.

“It’s nice to see that Boston residents have a say in city plans and that the city listened,” said College of Communication sophomore Allison Van Houten. “It avoids a lot of controversy regarding the preservation of a piece of Boston’s history.”

Kleinman added that the city should preserve some of the old trees in addition to planting about 275 new ones.

“It adds to the permanence in the area,” Kleinman said. “In 50 years, we’ll come down Commonwealth Avenue and see a very shady, tree-lined area – but until that time, it would look bare if we only planted new ones.”

The city will remove trees where roadway designs require curbs to be adjusted, if trees are in poor health and could become a public safety hazard or if they “conflict with design considerations,” Kleinman said.

The GSU elm would have wound up in the middle of Commonwealth Avenue under old construction plans to narrow the sidewalk, he said.

The city will also add more than 2,500 shrubs within the project limits, which run approximately from Kenmore Square to the College of Fine Arts.

Although the city has not yet hired a contractor for construction, Department of Public Works engineer Para Jayasinghe said construction is expected to begin this year and last “two construction seasons” into 2005. Construction seasons run from mid-April to October because of the weather.

During the bulk of the construction, drivers can expect one lane closed on each side of Commonwealth Avenue, Forman said, and parking will be temporarily disrupted. Pedestrians might have to make a few detours, she added, but access to all BU buildings and bus and T stops will be maintained.

“It’s just a fact of life that if we didn’t do construction, you wouldn’t see improvement,” BU spokesman Colin Riley said. “We’re not the only users of this place – we just happen to be the major presence.”

The project is expected to cost $9 million, two-thirds of which will come from the federal government, according to Forman.

Boston also applied for and received federal funds from the Massachusetts Planning Organization, a collection of state agencies that designates and prioritizes federal funds for transportation projects in cities and towns in Massachusetts.

The city is fronting most of the other $3 million, Forman said, with a small portion coming from the state.

BU will contribute $1.8 million toward sidewalk brick paving, light fixtures, bike racks, granite benches and trash cans, according to an article on the project in Bostonia, the BU alumni magazine.

Riley could not confirm the magazine’s figures.

“Boston University has been very generous with their participation,” Kleinman said. “They want to bring it up to a level of quality of material that we wouldn’t necessarily get if it were city-funded.”

Forman said the city will also fill potholes, put up new signs, redo pavement markings, add more left-turn lanes and repair some potentially dangerous traffic signals that give T’s and cars turning left green lights at the same time.

Kleinman added that Copley Wolff would construct bus shelters for the bus stops within the project’s limits as well.

But while the city is looking to beautify the one-mile stretch of Commonwealth Avenue, “the singular purpose of this project is to improve pedestrian safety,” Jayasinghe said.

Current plans will widen the T platforms within the site by six feet and buffer them with trees and other landscaping, according to the Bostonia article. Architects and engineers say wider platforms will reduce crowding at the stops and ensure that pedestrians crossing Commonwealth Avenue will not get “stranded” on a small island of pavement.

In addition to narrowing some sidewalks, the project will widen others, Jayasinghe said – such as those at the intersection at St. Mary’s Street. The curbs will be extended by eight feet, the Bostonia article said, to minimize the distance and danger for pedestrians crossing at the major intersections.

“The challenge was how to improve pedestrian safety while maintaining the nature of Commonwealth Avenue,” Jayasinghe said, adding that the city also plans to install “new stoplights that talk to each other” to slow down drivers.

The traffic lights will be timed so drivers obeying the 30 miles per hour speed limit will receive a succession of green lights, Jayasinghe said.

“If you do a jackrabbit start from one light to another, you’ll hit a red light. If you drive in an orderly fashion, then you’ll be rewarded with green ones,” he said. “It’s amazing how drivers clue into this very quickly.”

While planners hope pedestrians will enjoy the extra shade and pollutant reduction from the linden, oak and honey locust trees expected to decorate Commonwealth Avenue, “a very nicely landscaped boulevard will also help calm drivers,” Jayasinghe said.

“As cars are driving, they are assigning a rhythm of vertical elements – like trees – and become more aware of their speed because they see how quickly they’re passing objects,” Kleinman explained.

“For example, people in Texas tend to drive more quickly in areas that are flat and don’t have any distinguishing characteristics,” he said. “They’re not aware of how fast they’re going.”