Fenway Traffic Alert: Lanes Shut on Park Drive and Brookline Ave on Friday

You may want to avoid driving around the roads encircling the Muddy River project during the day this week. 

Work crews will be closing down two lanes of traffic on Park Drive and Brookline Ave from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Friday, August 23. Pedestrian sidewalks will also be closed in the area. 

The work is needed to move a drill rig out of the old Sears Parking lot onto Brookline Ave. 

Don't be surprised to see state police, cones and barrels in the area directing traffic to help alleviate congestion in an already congested area. 

Work has been underway since early spring on the $93 million Muddy River Restoration Project. Once completed, the areas in the Fenway where the Muddy River had been covered up will be restored back to its original design. 

Phase 1, which is expected to be completed in three years and cost $31 million, will involve day-lighting of the river between the Riverway and Avenue Louis Pasteur by removing two 72-inch culverts, the installation of two 24-foot x 10-foot precast concrete culverts under the Riverway and Boylston Street, vehicular traffic and pedestrian improvements and significant landscape improvements to new and existing sections of the river channel. 

The full project will include the dredging of the river from Wards Pond to the Charles River Basin, constructing an open channel waterway at two sections of the river, installing larger culverts, removal of sediment to restore aquatic habitat to the river and ponds, and restoration of the historic park shoreline natural plantings.