2 1/2 Miles, 2 Years: State Breaks Ground on Belmont/Trapelo Corridor Project

On a bright and sunny Friday, Oct. 11, state and elected officials from Belmont and Watertown along with residents involved with the planning process came, appropriately, to the intersection of Belmont Street and Trapelo Road to officially begin the Massachusetts Department of Transportation's $17.1 million reconstruction of the two-and-a-half mile Belmont from the town lines in Waltham and Cambridge. 

The work now underway, produced through the involvement between the MassDOT and the town and countless meetings to gather important community input, was rated the best of 160 similar projects by the independent regional planning agency, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, noted State Sen. Will Brownsberger.

Brownsberger, along with Belmont's Director of Community Development and town engineer Glenn Clancy, were praised Friday as the driving forces pushing the reconstruction plan forward.

Clancy said the work should be completed by Dec. 3, 2015. The work will be done in five segments so to limit the area of traffic and pedestrian disruption along the route.

"They'll be some heartache since some 30,000 trips are taken on the corridor but we will be doing our best to lessen the impact," said Clancy. 

The first two parts of the project now underway will be moving the stone wall along the Mill Street/Trapelo Road intersection to widen the roadway and the removal of the poles and the electrical wires that powered the MBTA's busy Route 73 trolley line. 

The route will run diesel buses along the line for the duration. 

The project is a full rebuilding of the main thoroughfare through Belmont extending from Mill Street on the Waltham line to Ericsson Street in Cambridge.

The project, conducted by Newport Construction Corp., the MassDOT's contractor, involves the reconstruction of the roadway, repaving the streets, upgrading the catenary wire system that powers the MBTA buses, reconstruction of the existing sidewalks and installation of improved cycling accommodations.

In addition to the infrastructure work, the project will also mean better coordination of traffic signals at the intersections of Trapelo Road and Mill Street; a pedestrian signal east of Agassiz Street; at Pleasant Street; at Lexington Road, Shaw’s Drive, and Moraine Street; and Lexington Street at Thayer Street and Church Street.

For residents, some of the most important improvements will be to sidewalks and landscaping, said Belmont Selectman Andy Rojas.

"The project will bring 400 new street trees along with new curbing, sidewalks and crossings so this will be a big improvement for walkers as well as drivers and bicyclists," he said.