Cambridge Street gets new look: Finally, nearly finished
By Jay Fitzgerald
Boston Herald General Economics Reporter
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Most of the orange cones, concrete traffic barriers, piles of bricks and construction equipment are gone.
Instead, clean and wide sidewalks, old-fashioned street lights, new trees and other plantings dominate Boston?s Cambridge Street - as well as a few outdoor cafes that have recently opened for the first time on the half-mile road stretching from the Charles/MGH T station to City Hall.
Yes, the long-delayed and controversial Cambridge Street reconstruction project is nearly complete - only four years late.
?It looks very good - excellent,? said Alex Marder, owner of Simmons Liquors on Cambridge Street, as he surveyed a once hard-scrabble road that now has a median-strip planter with roses, flowers and bushes.
But like other merchants, Marder said he?s still upset with the slow pace of construction on a $6.2 million project that was supposed to be completed in the fall of 2003 and then kept going and going and going, one blown deadline after another.
?It never stopped,? said Marder, complaining that on some days he didn?t see any workers on site and other days he saw only a handful of workers.
Todesca Equipment, the project?s contractor, maintains design changes, budget constraints, delays caused by the 2004 Democratic National Convention and other factors led to all the blown deadlines. A spokesman for Todesca said last week that the company bears no responsibility for the delays.
But that?s not what the state?s Highway Department said in 2004, when it temporarily disqualified Todesca from bidding on future state contracts due to subcontractor pay disputes and performance reviews on the Cambridge Street project and another road project in Milton.
Meanwhile, the city of Boston has consistently blasted Todesca for the slow pace of work, while street merchants have complained that the years-long construction mess drove away business. A few years ago, the Beacon Hill Times started publishing a prominent regular feature that updated readers on the construction progress and controversies.
But all of that should soon be a thing of the past - perhaps.
John Lamontagne, a spokesman for the highway department, said the project should be ?substantially completed? by early August and ?100 percent? complete by Labor Day.
Yesterdy and today, work crews were expected to finish repaving the last portion of Cambridge Street near City Hall.
?It took a long time and now it?s finally done,? said Elie Nakhoul, co-owner of the Phoenicia restaurant on Cambridge Street.
?I think it will bring more people into the area,? said Nakhoul, who hopes next year to have new outdoor seating on the recently widened brick sidewalk.
Link
By Jay Fitzgerald
Boston Herald General Economics Reporter
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Most of the orange cones, concrete traffic barriers, piles of bricks and construction equipment are gone.
Instead, clean and wide sidewalks, old-fashioned street lights, new trees and other plantings dominate Boston?s Cambridge Street - as well as a few outdoor cafes that have recently opened for the first time on the half-mile road stretching from the Charles/MGH T station to City Hall.
Yes, the long-delayed and controversial Cambridge Street reconstruction project is nearly complete - only four years late.
?It looks very good - excellent,? said Alex Marder, owner of Simmons Liquors on Cambridge Street, as he surveyed a once hard-scrabble road that now has a median-strip planter with roses, flowers and bushes.
But like other merchants, Marder said he?s still upset with the slow pace of construction on a $6.2 million project that was supposed to be completed in the fall of 2003 and then kept going and going and going, one blown deadline after another.
?It never stopped,? said Marder, complaining that on some days he didn?t see any workers on site and other days he saw only a handful of workers.
Todesca Equipment, the project?s contractor, maintains design changes, budget constraints, delays caused by the 2004 Democratic National Convention and other factors led to all the blown deadlines. A spokesman for Todesca said last week that the company bears no responsibility for the delays.
But that?s not what the state?s Highway Department said in 2004, when it temporarily disqualified Todesca from bidding on future state contracts due to subcontractor pay disputes and performance reviews on the Cambridge Street project and another road project in Milton.
Meanwhile, the city of Boston has consistently blasted Todesca for the slow pace of work, while street merchants have complained that the years-long construction mess drove away business. A few years ago, the Beacon Hill Times started publishing a prominent regular feature that updated readers on the construction progress and controversies.
But all of that should soon be a thing of the past - perhaps.
John Lamontagne, a spokesman for the highway department, said the project should be ?substantially completed? by early August and ?100 percent? complete by Labor Day.
Yesterdy and today, work crews were expected to finish repaving the last portion of Cambridge Street near City Hall.
?It took a long time and now it?s finally done,? said Elie Nakhoul, co-owner of the Phoenicia restaurant on Cambridge Street.
?I think it will bring more people into the area,? said Nakhoul, who hopes next year to have new outdoor seating on the recently widened brick sidewalk.
Link
