Mobility projects

Updated September 22, 2026

What's happening

Somerville has more street projects in motion than the division running them has people. The Mobility Division is eight budgeted positions — a director, three senior transportation planners, two planners, two outreach staff — and its FY27 budget holds staffing level while cutting professional and technical services 5% (FY27 budget book). Design money is small: $300,000 for resurfacing and sidewalk design, $100,000 for quick-build design, $20,000 for studies.

The consequence hit the record on May 18, when Senior Transportation Planner Justin Schreiber presented the second annual report under the 2024 Safe Streets Ordinance: the priority bicycle network is 28.79 miles, several 2025 projects went unbuilt behind MassDOT's McGrath bridge work and state approvals, and the city "does not anticipate completing the full priority bike network by the end of 2030 as originally targeted." Pressed by At-large Councilor Will Mbah, Mobility Director Brad Rawson said the bottlenecks run through DPW, parking, law, IT and fire, and that Mobility "hasn't expanded in years" while "belts are tightening." What did get delivered in 2025, per the FY27 budget hearing: 70 traffic-calming features, four miles of separated bike lanes, 49 clear-corners treatments.

The money moved in September. The Finance Committee recommended all 14 of its post-recess items on one 5-0 roll call on September 3 and the Council approved them 10-0 on September 10: the $332,497 Tufts Street soil fund, the $284,700 Eastern Washington Street transit-priority grant, and $452,662.85 in two Bluebikes grants. The same night Ward 4 Councilor Jesse Clingan filed four orders aimed at how the city's street contracts are written, and the Council sent $255,045 for FY27 Vision Zero work (26-1240) to Finance for September 22. The live regional fight is the MBTA's proposal to cut Route 80, which the Council is on record against.

The story

Route 80 and the MBTA's amendments

The MBTA's 11 proposed amendments to its 2022 bus network redesign all touch Somerville. The "Improve Medford Access" proposal offers three packages for the Boston Avenue corridor and each costs the city something: Package A extends Route 80 to Arlington Heights instead of folding it into the 350, ending its Davis Square trips to Burlington; Package B keeps Route 94 as is at the price of lower frequency on Boston Avenue; Package C reroutes Route 96 through Medford's Winthrop and High streets and sends it to Union Square instead of Harvard, on the argument that Union Square "currently lacks frequent service" and Davis-to-Harvard riders can use Route 77 and the Red Line. That was the most contested point at the MBTA's August meeting in Medford (Streetsblog, Sept. 4). Comments closed September 8. Project manager Becca Wolfson hopes for clarity by the end of 2026 but expects no changes before 2028, and the Route 96 pieces need capital work and are two to three years out.

Route 80 runs from Lechmere to Powderhouse Square along McGrath Highway, tying Magoun Square to East Somerville, and the MBTA calls it redundant now that the Green Line Extension exists. The Council's August 27 resolution (26-1314) answers that the Green Line does not serve the same destinations and that the Gilman Square station is "not meaningfully accessible" to many wheelchair and mobility-device users, who would lose transit entirely. Ward 3 Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen sponsored Pedestrian and Transit Advisory Committee chair Alessandra Seiter to testify that the route "runs on a corridor that is integral to civic, educational, commercial, and residential life in our city." Ward 1 Councilor Matthew McLaughlin: "Instead of taking away buses, we should be adding more." Clingan: "We shouldn't be cutting out any modes of transportation, especially ones that go by some of our most vulnerable population buildings." The Council also placed on file 26-1265, Gilman Square Neighborhood Council comments on the project.

Earlier rounds already reshaped the map: the 86 gave way to the more frequent 109 in Union Square in late 2024, and the CT2 folded into Route 85 on April 1. Union Square carries the 85, 87, 91 and 109; routes 47 and 96 are the new Frequent routes in the redesign.

Union Square bus priority

Red lane markings were expected to begin in early August: a northbound bus lane on Prospect Street from Oak Street to Webster Avenue, signal upgrades and transit signal priority at Washington/Webster, Prospect/Webster and Somerville Ave/Prospect, and a bus-and-bike head-start phase (project page). Rawson told the June 22 committee the corridor got bus/bike markings in 2017 but never the continuous red "carpet" now standard, and that the city is working with the MBTA ahead of the new high-frequency Route 47 (East Somerville–Union Square–Inman–Kendall–Longwood). The Webster/Prospect intersection rebuild is further off: part of the Union Square Streetscape project at 25% design, about $1.2 million for Phase 1 design (roughly $800,000 secured) and an estimated $11 million to build ($1.4 million secured), with an earliest start of spring 2028, possibly aligned with MassDOT's Webster Avenue bridge replacement in 2027.

How contracts get written

Clingan's four September 10 orders (26-1360 through 26-1363) go after the reasons streets get dug up and stay dug up. Two, sent to Sustainability and Infrastructure, ask whether the city can require curb-to-curb restoration on streets past the five-year opening moratorium but still in good shape, and whether Somerville should adopt a Street Preservation Offset Fee modeled on Cambridge's; he cited Heath Street, repaved and trenched a year later, called Thurston Street "like driving on the moon," and noted the city repaves only about 1% of its streets a year. The other two ask Engineering, DPW and Procurement to review construction-timeline enforcement, including staffing and liquidated damages, and to explore performance incentives and "A+B" cost-plus-time bidding; the current liquidated damages of roughly $500 a day are too small to matter, he said, pointing at Tufts Street and Pearl Street (Sept. 10 digest).

The projects, in one list

Tufts Street Neighborway (Cross to Washington) — substantially complete August 2026; ribbon cutting Tuesday, October 6, 11 a.m., at Leonard Grimes Park, with about 45 street trees to follow (city, Sept. 17). Items 26-1249 and 26-1250 took $332,497 from UniFirst to dispose of decades-old contaminated soil at 50 Tufts Street next door; Finance Chair Ben Wheeler called the administration's written answers on the 1979–80 spill and cost overruns "satisfactory and reassuring," and Mayor Jake Wilson signed both on September 15 (Legistar).
Elm–Beacon Connector — in installation since early August, mostly complete by November: protected lanes on Elm, Beacon and Somerville Avenue from the Cambridge line, plus a Mossland Street Neighborway dead-ended to cars at Elm (project page). The biggest completed piece of the priority network this year.
West Broadway (Clarendon to Alewife Brook Parkway) — reconstruction with protected bike lanes started around August 17 after Eversource gas work pushed it from spring (project page).
Western Pearl Street (McGrath to Medford Street) — under construction, completion targeted November 2027; two-way protected lanes mean removing all on-street parking, backed by a $500,000 MassDOT grant (project page).
Medford Street and School Street bike lanes — participatory-budgeting project the Traffic Commission rejected in September 2025 over parking, then approved February 12, 2026 with four spaces removed; installation bundled with Western Pearl in 2027 (project page).
Shore Drive Greenway — under construction since June 12 through summer 2027; the parking lane is out through fall 2026 and the city refused mid-block openings in the fencing because the work zone is open trench (project page).
Broadway–Magoun (Winchester to Central) — concept design; the Magoun Square intersection is a choice among a roundabout, an "X" and a "T," with an updated design due this fall and construction 2027–2029 (project page).
Highland Avenue (Cutter to Hamlet) — awaits reconstruction after the Spring Hill sewer separation; both mayor and Council have endorsed protected lanes both ways by 2030, which means going from two parking lanes to one, the largest parking removal the city has committed to (project page).
Somerville Avenue quick-build (Elm to Bow) — concept done, final designs by end of 2026, implementation summer 2027 (project page).
East Washington Street quick-build (Tufts Street to the Boston line) — engagement closed July 31, concept designs early 2027; the $284,700 Gaming Commission grant (26-1241) funds safety work around Washington and Myrtle toward Sullivan Square, construction possibly late 2027 (project page).
Bluebikes — $222,502 in June for about 13 stations, a donated $56,339 station at Boynton/Union in March, and on September 10 $366,729.25 from MAPC (26-1248) for e-bikes and two docks at Blessing of the Bay and Junction Park plus $85,933.60 from the MPO (26-1243); the local match comes from the city's Bluebikes revenue share (Sept. 3 digest).
Also — quick-build calming on Broadway at Simpson Avenue and Wallace/Leonard ran May to mid-August; Mystic Ave and Shore Drive is substantially complete; Mystic Ave and Middlesex Ave is in design (Mobility Division).

What's next

September 22, 2026 — Finance Committee takes up $255,045 for FY27 Vision Zero work.
September 21–October 2, 2026 — annual volunteer bicycle and pedestrian count at 42 intersections.
September–November 2026 — Elm–Beacon signal upgrades, the Mossland Street closure at Elm, installation mostly complete.
October 6, 2026, 11 a.m. — Tufts Street Neighborway ribbon cutting, Leonard Grimes Park.
October 14, 2026, 6 p.m. — Traffic and Parking Committee meets.
Fall 2026 — updated Broadway–Magoun design, with a direction on the Magoun Square intersection.
Undated — Sustainability and Infrastructure takes up Clingan's restoration, offset-fee, timeline-enforcement and A+B bidding orders.
End of 2026 — final Somerville Avenue quick-build designs; the MBTA hopes to settle its bus network amendments, with nothing changing before 2028.
Early 2027 — East Washington Street concept designs.
2027 — Medford Street bike lanes installed alongside Western Pearl; Western Pearl completion targeted November 2027; earliest Eastern Washington transit-priority construction late 2027.
March 1, 2027 — next Safe Streets Ordinance annual report, where the 2030 priority-network question gets answered again.