Public Meeting about Western Ave on Wednesday

Per an email blast from the city:

Community-wide Public Meeting
Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 7:00 P. M. - 9:00 P. M.Cambridge Citywide Senior Center, 806 Mass Ave., Central Square (map). We are currently at the very beginning stages of design. The purpose of this initial community-wide meeting is to give residents an opportunity to learn about the scope of the project and provide initial input as to what they like and don’t like about Western Avenue, what works and what doesn’t work. If you cannot attend the meeting, be sure to fill out our quick survey to give us some feedback.

For more information about the project, please visit our website. On the website, you will find some great maps and other resources that help us better understand the corridor. Copies of the committee presentations and meeting notes are also available.

Community walks of Western Avenue corridor
These informal walks are led by city staff with occasional outside guests. The walks provide opportunities for neighbors to learn more about the project, and provide input to city staff. The walks are free and open to the public. Each walk will start near Central Square, go down Western Avenue to the Charles River, and back.

1. Project Overview walk: Monday April 5, 2010, 6:00pm – 7:30pm (meet at Andala Café, map): Led by Jeff Rosenblum, Project Manager for Western Ave. surface design, CDD.
2. Human Centered Design, Design for persons w/ Disabilities walk: Monday April 12, 2010, 6:00pm – 7:30pm (meet at Au Bon Pain, 684 Mass Ave, Central Square, map): Led by Chris Hart, Institute for Human Centered Design and Michael Muehe, Cambridge Commission for Persons with Disabilities
3. Traffic, Signals, and Stop Signs walk: Monday April 26, 2010, 6:00pm – 7:30pm (meet at Andala Café, map): Led by Jeff Parenti, City Traffic Engineer

All walks are on RAIN or SHINE.

Western & River Bridges Meeting March 9th

Following a meeting in Allston-Brighton last month, MassDOT comes to the Cambridgeport side of the Charles for a second meeting on the River/Western Bridges rehabilitation. If you have questions about the bridges project or the state's Accelerated Bridge Program, please come; this C-port meeting only came about because Rep. Marty Walz and others stuck up for our neighborhood.

Here's the announcement:

MassDOT will sponsor a Public Information Meeting for the River Street/Western Avenue Bridges Rehabilitation Project on Tuesday, March 9, 2010, from 6:30 – 8:30 PM, at the Morse Elementary School Auditorium, Cambridge, MA. The purpose of this meeting is to provide an overview of the proposed rehabilitation of the historic River Street and Western Avenue Bridges, introduce MassDOT’s design team, answer questions, and gather comments. If you have any questions on the meeting, please contact

Toni Whitmore Assistant Director of Community Affairs, MassDOT (617.973.8454).For news and updates, check MassDOT's website or Transportation Blog. For the tweaters among us: www.twitter.com/massdot.

DOT's Western & River Bridge Proposal

As mentioned here before, there's a significant amount of reconstruction in planning for Cambridgeport infrastructure. The city (with citizen help) is scheming to reconstruct Western Avenue. At the same time, Mass DOT is planning the reconstruction of the River Street and Western Avenue bridges. Thanks to Rep. Marty Walz, we'll soon have a public meeting in Cambridgeport to hear about the DOT plans and ask questions. (The meeting details will be posted here, but interested readers can also keep an eye out for an announcement on the Mass DOT calendar.)

In the meantime, I wanted to pass along two documents to help get the neighborhood thinking about what's involved in the reconstruction. First, Livable Streets (a great org based on Sidney Street) put together a flyer with a list of topics that will be useful for the neighborhood to consider in the upcoming discussion. Second, I've inserted the presentation DOT gave on the Allston-Brighton side of the bridge earlier this month. The original can be accessed via the link below.

RiverSt WesternAve Pres 020310