Boston PIC Approves Symphony Station Street Work, Flags MBTA Maintenance Gap

BOSTON — February 13, 2025 — Boston's Public Improvement Commission approved six public-way actions Thursday and sent four major development proposals to public hearing on February 27. Chair Yascha Franklin-Hodge approved MBTA petitions for specific repairs, a grant of location, and vertical discontinuances at Massachusetts and Huntington avenues tied to Symphony Station Phase 2 — expected to begin construction this summer — while pressing the authority to negotiate a License and Maintenance Agreement covering wayfinding signage, bollards, street trees, and other non-standard street furniture, calling the lack of formal subgrade maintenance records "a big problem as a city-wide problem." The commission also conditionally approved a Verizon New England fiber conduit on Armandine Street in Dorchester, requiring the company to restore speed humps and pavement markings and submit updated drawings showing hump locations. The largest new business item, a Core Investments package for a 320-unit residential building at 495 Dorchester Avenue including 94 senior affordable housing units, was advanced to February 27 but drew extended scrutiny over a proposed ambient loop of HDPE piping placed in the Ellery Street sidewalk zone to support a potential future sewer heat-capture system, with Franklin-Hodge warning that the speculative infrastructure is "placed directly adjacent to multiple tree pits" without a fully designed end use.