Casey Arborway Annotated: The Western End

On November 19, 2013 MassDOT revealed their final design for the estimated $59 million Casey Arborway Project. An early blog post annotated The South-Washington North-South Corridor. The Annotated Casey: Eastern End is available here.

This link points to a large pdf file with annotations by me describing many of the features of the western end of the new Casey Arborway:

http://home.comcast.net/~clay_harper/Casey100West2.pdf

The western end of the project has been one of the last to be designed. Highlights of the plan here include:

• New sidewalk and off-street bike path along the northern side of the Arborway west of South St.
• A pedestrian-activated crosswalk providing access to the Forest Hills Gate of the Arboretum from the north.
• There will be no westbound left turns onto Washington Street. This change of direction will be accomplished by the western "Bow-Tie" U-turn at the Forest Hills Gate of the Arboretum. A turning apron accommodates wide-turning vehicles. Westbound traffic only stops for turns and pedestrians.
• New trees soften the large existing retaining wall along the Arborway Hillside.
• A new, lower retaining wall separates Arborway Rd's grade differential from the Arborway proper at Hampstead Rd.
• Off-street bike paths and sidewalks along eastbound Arborway.
• New boulevard trees (Red Oaks) throughout
• New Northern plaza with MBTA Head House, programmable space, bike paths, permeable surfaces for drainage.
• Revamped southern MBTA plaza
• Mid-block pedestrian crossing eliminated

A smaller, less legible version of the pdf image is here: