Boston PIC Conditionally Approves Convention Center Security Bollard and Bike Lane Plan

BOSTON -- February 29, 2024, Boston conditionally approves BCEC security bollards after heated bicycle safety debate. The Public Improvement Commission voted unanimously Thursday to conditionally approve a Massachusetts Convention Center Authority petition to install crash-rated security bollards and planters along the Summer Street frontage of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center at 415 Summer Street, a project stemming from a 2019 Department of Homeland Security vulnerability assessment identifying the plaza as susceptible to vehicle ramming attacks. MCCA Chief Information Security Officer Rob Noonan said the project has been years in development, but approval came only after the commission's chair pushed back hard on unresolved questions about bicycle access, saying "what I am not seeing is clarity on how bikes will safely enter and exit that travel area." The final design must incorporate a 36-inch pedestrian landing zone, a four-foot ten-inch bike lane, and a 12-inch shy-distance buffer from the bollards consistent with MassDOT guidance, and must receive city staff sign-off before construction proceeds. Separately, a first-time appearance by the owner of a completed three-story residential building at 632-638 Center Street in West Roxbury drew a rebuke from the chair, who called it "a mistake that is now being fixed" after accessibility conflicts between building entrances and the public sidewalk emerged post-construction; that item was continued to March 14.