The City of Boston held its pre-bid meeting for the Central Square Redevelopment Project last week and the bids will open on February 26, 2015.
In April 2013, Boston Transportation Department (BTD) officials said the project would break ground in the fall of 2013 after telling the community bids had already been sent out. However, BTD’s Vineet Gupta told the East Boston Times at the time, the project would most likely not begin until fall 2014.
“We finished the design two years ago,” said Gupta at the time. “Since that time we have been taking the concepts and working out minor details to accommodate the design the community had asked for.”
With no bids accepted over the summer and another round of bids being sent out at the end of this month it looks as though residents will have to wait even longer for the project to start.
City Councilor Sal LaMattina confirmed this week that all the bids for the project came in over the $4 million budget. LaMattina said the city is reworking the bids and tweaking the design to hit the $4 million mark.
In August 2008, former Boston mayor the late Thomas Menino announced the city would spend $4 million on a new design for Central Square.
The new design will include a reorganization of parking to improve access for businesses, new traffic signals at key intersections, shorter pedestrian crossings, and additional trees and landscaping. The design will be finalized after a year-long community process.
The overhaul of Central Square was part of a wider Transportation Action Plan for Eastie. Several other initiatives were part of the plan like creating safer pedestrian crossings at several locations including the Umana School on Border Street and along Condor Street. There’s a plan to eliminate cut-through traffic on Bayswater Street, a redesign of the Saratoga Street and Chelsea Street intersection as well as coordination with private developments adjacent to Central Square.
In addition, the city is expanding the Resident Parking Program in East Boston in an effort to prevent commuter and airport parkers from monopolizing the limited on-street parking spaces in the neighborhood.
In fall 2008, the parallel parking on Sumner Street was replaced by angle parking to provide approximately 60 new spaces for residents.
