New Roadwork Would Nearly Complete Allston-To-Route 9 Bike Route

When construction crews finish work on a stretch of Harvard Street near Route 9 next summer, bicyclists will be free to peddle from Allston Village to Brookline Village with barely a break in the bike lane.

The project, which received an informal nod from the Transportation Board earlier this month, includes the stretch of Washington Street between Aspinwall and Station streets in Brookline Village and is aimed at approving pedestrian safety and access for bicyclists. The work, which is due to start next spring, will also extend the current Washington Street bike route from where it currently ends at Aspinwall Street to just short of Route 9.

In addition to repainting the roadway with stripes for bike lanes, crews will repave the street, repair sidewalks and build new crosswalks and curb extension to improve pedestrian safety in one of the busiest parts of Brookline. Low-energy ornamental lights, similar to those already in place on Harvard Street between Beacon and School streets, will be installed as well as a new red light.

"This is a very exciting development," said Bran Kane, a member of the board. "There's going to be new led light, new crosswalks and a much safer place."

The most noticeable changes will likely be the curb extensions, which extend the sidewalk through the parking lane to the edge of the roadway where they meet a crosswalk.  The extensions will be installed at the Linden and Pierce streets along Harvard Street and are aimed at providing asafer crossing for schoolchildren from both the Pierce and St. Mary's schools.

"They allow pedestrians to safely move out into the roadway and see where vehicles are, and allow vehicles to see them before they enter the roadway," said Todd Kirrane, the town's transportation administrator.

The Harvard Street project is just the latest round of routine roadwork in Brookline designed with bike amenities in mind. A recently repaved stretch of Washington Street will be striped with bike lanes in the coming weeks, adding an additional bike route into Brookline Village, and plans have been approved for bike amenities on Carlton Street between the BU Bridge and Longwood Avenue, which was also recently painted with new bike lanes. Work on Carlton Street is expected to begin next spring, about the same time crews start on Harvard Street.

In addition, the City of Boston recently repaved Harvard Avenue on the other side of the town boarder and re-striped it with bike lanes extending to Cambridge Street near the Mass Pike. Once work on Harvard Street in Brookline is completed, the new lanes will create a continuous bike route from Allston Village to Brookline Village.

Bike amenities have become a top priority for Brookline's Transportation Board, which has adopted a policy of addressing bicycle access issues whenever a street comes up for routine repaving and repair work, often in consultation with a bicycle master plan developed by Brookline's Bicycle Advisory Committee.

"The town's policy now is whenever a street is redone, bike amenities will be added whenever possible," Kane said.

The Harvard Street project stops just short of the bridge over the D Line, which is owned by the state and outside the town's jurisdiction. Town officials expect the MBTA to replace the aging bridge in the coming years and have suggested that bike amenities could be added at that time.