Boston Approves Cummins Highway Overhaul, Advancing Mattapan Safety Corridor

BOSTON — April 27, 2023 — Boston's Public Improvement Commission unanimously approved the Cummins Highway reconstruction in Mattapan and cleared a 595 Albany Street air-rights project at its April 27 meeting. The Cummins Highway project, roughly 4,600 feet long between Harvard Avenue and Fairway Street, will shrink the roadway from four lanes to two, introduce a new roundabout at the Greenfield and White Streets intersection, add a separated raised bicycle facility, widen sidewalks, and install green stormwater infrastructure — a design more than four years in development since October 2018. Thomas Jay of the Public Works Engineering Division called the project a "holistic" response to speeding and safety concerns voiced by the Mattapan neighborhood, and design consultant Steve Fard of Niche Engineering presented 19 plan sheets virtually unchanged from a two-week-old submission. On the 595 Albany Street matter, attorney Mark LaCasse confirmed that the BPDA had recorded its air-rights order of taking the day before the hearing, clearing the last condition on the vertical discontinuance; commissioners approved both that action and the specific repairs petition contingent on the applicant converting a proposed striped crosswalk on private Thorn Street into a continuous concrete driveway-apron treatment. Six additional development and neighborhood safety petitions were introduced and continued to a May 11 public hearing.