Some highlights, many of them provided by Mark Fedele, an engineer for MassHighway:
- The project, now about 70 percent done, is expected to be completed next summer. The last section, in the area of McClennen Fields (formerly Reeds Brook), is expected to start in March and be completed in the spring. Final paving is expected in late June or early July. Work expected this month is here >>.
- An estimated $175,000 is expected to be spent on beautification work next spring, including $103,000 for trees and shrubs.
- Wires on telephone poles will be moved throughout the winter. Once the wires are moved, poles now in the street will be removed.
- Neighbors who objected to the new configuration of the intersection at Hemlock Street were promised a meeting with the representatives of the designer, state and town to see whether it could be changed.
- Businesses could lose parking on Summer, depending on what Arlington police decide to do.
- Some objected after they heard that all traffic signals will be accompanied by audible walk lights, a feature that neighbors said the state had previously promised would not be the case.
- A drainage problem on Summer near the Veterans’ Memorial Rink is expected to be improved with the addition of a catch basin and other work.
- A sidewalk between King and Overlook will not be built, because removing the ledge threatened to harm the homes above it.
Those objecting to the Hemlock/Summer intersection raised the meeting’s heat. They said that the new sharp right turn at the light, which replaces a now-closed lane to Hemlock, makes driving difficult for emergency vehicles and commuters. Sen. Robert Havern directed his aide, George Laite, to arrange a meeting with relevant parties to see what might be done.
Town Manager Brian Sullivan said the town has no money appropriated for a redesign. Sullivan speculated that the design firm involved changed the intersection because it did not follow MassHighway guidelines. Fedele said he did not think the state would pay for a redesign.
The owner of the Everest Mini-Mart asked sharply how he could stay in business if customers were not allowed to park along Summer.
King Street resident Doris Relf said she thought cars were traveling faster on the new pavement. Speed limits on the stretch under construction range from 20 to 35 miles per hour.
She also said that when state contractors cut into her property to allow for a sidewalk, the work left exposed the roots of a 60-foot tree, which made it less stable. "And I don't like the wall in front of my house; it's too small," she said.
It was not an evening of criticism only. Members of the neighborhood group passed around a large plaquelike document that thanked MassHighway and contractors for their work. The signatures of various people adorned the document.
Poles, like this one on Washington Street, will be removed as lines are switched to new poles, officials say.
The meeting set for Nov. 14 was postponed after an accident that day sidelined engineer Mark McCarthy, who was to be a presenter from MassHighway. He remains at Beth Israel.
Project plans lined the walls at the back of the Peirce gym.
Jeanne Leary and Josie Burton, co-chairs of the neighborhood group, ran the meeting. Guests included state Sen. Havern, Democrat or Arlington; Selectman Diane Mahon, Town Manager Sullivan; Laite, district director for Sen. Havern; Teresa DeBenedictis, acting director of DPW; Fedele, of MassHighway; and Sgt. Rich Flynn of the Arlington Police Department.
The group's last update to the public on the long-running project drew more than 150 people in April.
Of the Summer Street group, Sen. Havern said, “You’re not a pain in the butt; you’re helpful.”
To contact the neighborhood group, e-mail
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or call 617-823-3813.
Looking to the future, Fedele said that in 1998 an estimated 15,000 cars a day traveled on Summer Street. By 2020, planners’ projections put that number at 18,700 cars a day, he said. That forecast does not include an expected increase in traffic from the project still to be built at the former Symmes Hospital site.
Officials included, from left, Selectman Diane Mahon, Sen. Robert Havern, his aide George Laite, Town Manager Brian Sullivan and MassHighway engineer Mark Fedele.
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