Streetscape Improvements Enhance Aesthetics and Safety

The City of Melrose is well known as a model community for smart urban planning with its walkable neighborhoods, dense pattern of development, and variety of transportation options. However, the City sought to improve features of the streetscape in one of its neighborhoods to enhance its aesthetic qualities, access, and safety for all users. Woodard & Curran partnered with the City to make these potential outcomes a reality.

We worked with the City of Melrose, MA as the primary engineer for the half-mile roadway improvement project, which had a construction cost of roughly $1.4 million—funded in part by the MassWorks Infrastructure Program—and provided comprehensive services for the project, beginning with a pavement condition assessment and extending through construction. Our team was also responsible for the complete civil engineering design, concept planning, and landscape architecture management while ensuring all green infrastructure possibilities were considered.

WORKING WITH THE COMPLETE STREETS PROGRAM

In addition to assisting with public outreach and community involvement, we coordinated our efforts with Massachusetts’s Complete Streets program, which requires that transportation planners and engineers design and construct the “entire right of way to enable safe access for all users, regardless of age, ability, or mode of transportation.” This makes the street network more appealing and safer for drivers, transit users, pedestrians, and bicyclists. To achieve this goal, we worked with our partners on aesthetic and safety measures such as incorporating Victorian-style lighting, incorporating traffic calming features, reconstructing sidewalks and resurfacing roadways, and reconfiguring parking and bicycling areas.

City of Melrose

Melrose, MA

 

Team

Barry Sheff

Areas of Focus

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