The Casey Arborway Annotated: The Eastern End

On November 19, 2013 MassDOT revealed their final design proposals for the Casey Arborway to the Design Advisory Group (DAG) of citizens and advocates who have been working to communicate the community's desires and concerns. The eastern end shown below has not yet cleared it's final regulatory hurdle, the Massachusetts Historical Commission's finding of "adverse effect" for the change from Shea Circle to the proposed Shea Square intersection shown. Shea Circle, a large diameter multi-lane rotary at the southwestern entrance to Franklin Park, was created in the 1930s long after Olmsted's original plans for the Emerald Necklace. MassDOT proposes to "demonstrate that the adverse effect is unavoidable to achieve the purpose and intent of the project".

Many supporters of the plan feel that creating the Square here results in more usable greenspace by connecting underutilized land in the rotary island to the surrounding parks and recreation areas rather than leaving it stranded and inaccessible. Other added benefits of the Square proposal include a new "front yard" for Franklin Park Villa to the south, and most importantly: safer crossings for pedestrians and cyclists throughout the intersection with significant traffic calming where a notoriously dangerous rotary now exists.

As in the other Annotated Casey blog entries here, these annotations are my own - and the pdf version linked is far easier to read.

http://home.comcast.net/~clay_harper/Casey100East1.pdf

The Casey Arborway Annotated: The Western End
http://arborwaymatters.blogspot.com/2013/11/casey-arborway-annotated-western-end.html

The Casey Arborway Annotated: The South/Washington St. Corridor
http://arborwaymatters.blogspot.com/2013/11/casey-arborway-annotated.html