Emergency Beacon St Repaving

[jdh0625.livejournal.com]

According to the Beacon St project website, the city will be doing some interim repairs to Beacon Street over the next few weeks.


Due to the current unsafe conditions created by the deteriorated road surface, we strongly encourage all cyclists to seek alternate east and westbound routes until the roadway surface is improved in mid-October. These interim measures prior to full-depth roadway construction will help to smooth the roadway and improve safety.
We ask cyclists to please make the safe choice and refrain from using Beacon St. until conditions allow. Additional signage and messaging will be provided at various locations to help direct cyclists to the appropriate detour routes.


Also:

Here's an article stating that construction would begin in early 2014.  Whoops.  The contract for the full reconstruction is expected to be awarded in November 2015 now, with real work not beginning until spring 2016 and completion in 2018(!!!)

Comments

[ron_newman]

The city's officially recommended bicycle detour routes, developed with help from the Somerville Bicycle Committee, are

Eastbound (Porter to Inman)

Westbound (Inman to Porter)

I've been using the Eastbound detour in both directions for the last few months. Calvin Street has a very short one-way section but it carries very little car traffic.

Here's an alternative Westbound route via Line Street, Holden Street, and Park Street.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to biking on the interim safe, smooth roadway, before I have to avoid it again once there are cycle tracks.

Stuff I saw recently on the Western Ave cycle track: several groups of pedestrians, a wrong-way cyclist, trash cans, a yard sale, and a small Caribbean carnival. But nobody else biking the right way.

Also, it was plowed very well in winter. But most residents took this opportunity to skip shoveling the sidewalk, so everyone walked and left trash cans in the cycle track, making it unusable for biking.