Best Completed Infrastructure Nominations

[George_Apley]

All members are encouraged to nominate a Boston area infrastructure project completed in 2020 that they believe is deserving of special recognition for its positive impact on the urban environment.

Infrastructure includes public transit, roads & bridges, port & airport facilities, utilities, and parks & public accomodations.

 

[Blackbird]

Kelley Square peanut?

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Kelley Square peanut?

I dunno. It looks real pretty, but with all the drone cam footage shared of the new configuration in action I'm still a solid "Nope" on whether I'd willingly let myself walk across that thing as a pedestrian or find my way over there in a car if any plausible detour were available. Which isn't an indictment of the superb overall job MassDOT did...just acknowledging that Masshole drivers be who they be, and no possible reno was ever going to make that thing broadly "safe" from them.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

I'd like to nominate the bike lane confetti cannon that got sprayed en masse all around Metro Boston city streets during the Year of COVID. Pandemic short-term traffic reductions being the strangest of all impetuses for doing something that should've been done years ago at ⅛ the NIMBY interference...but hey, we'll take it! Ensures that when the traffic recovers the now very well-utilized lanes won't ever be going away, and has emboldened the City + inner 'burbs to do way more where that came from. One unequivocal good that came as direct pivot from an overall shitty year.

 

[CSTH]

Causeway / Merrimac / Lomasney / Staniford intersection clean-up (combined with the Staniford-Causeway bikelanes)

 

[CSTH]

Terminal A expansion

 

[JumboBuc]

I'd like to nominate the bike lane confetti cannon that got sprayed en masse all around Metro Boston city streets during the Year of COVID. Pandemic short-term traffic reductions being the strangest of all impetuses for doing something that should've been done years ago at ⅛ the NIMBY interference...but hey, we'll take it! Ensures that when the traffic recovers the now very well-utilized lanes won't ever be going away, and has emboldened the City + inner 'burbs to do way more where that came from. One unequivocal good that came as direct pivot from an overall shitty year.

This, plus you could bundle COVID-induced outdoor dining space expansion with it as, generally, COVID pushing through a rethinking of how traditionally-car-focused infrastructure can be used more productively in cities for things other than cars.

 

[Vagabond]

This, plus you could bundle COVID-induced outdoor dining space expansion with it as, generally, COVID pushing through a rethinking of how traditionally-car-focused infrastructure can be used more productively in cities for things other than cars.

Outdoor dining space taking over parking for sure. If we need a specific spot, Hanover street turned into the nightlife central spot in Boston last summer.

Outdoor Dining Transforms the North End Overnight [Photos & Videos] – NorthEndWaterfront.com

northendwaterfront.com