Commonwealth Avenue in Auburndale is getting a makeover, and soon there will be no driving on the Carriage Road portion of it.
Mayor Ruthanne Fuller discussed the project—which will reconstruct nearly half a mile of Commonwealth Avenue between the Boston Marriott Newton and Higgins Street and the adjacent Carriage Road—in an email address to residents Thursday night, noting that some of the reconstruction is done already.
“Much of the work on the Commonwealth Avenue mainline has been completed, including a new accessible sidewalk along the southern edge of the roadway,” Fuller wrote. “The cross-street connections to Commonwealth Avenue are currently under construction, with the old signal at Ash Street to be removed in the next two months and the street connection to the Carriage Road to be restored.”
When the work is completed, the main Commonwealth Avenue roadway will have two lanes for vehicles (one lane in each direction), and the stretch of Carriage Road alongside it will be covered in park land and bicycle paths.
“By Lyons Field, the Carriage Road will serve as a local access road and for parking,” Fuller explained. “The Carriage Road will be transformed completely between Islington Road and the Marriott driveway into a new sidewalk, a new bicycle path, and a new large linear park.”
The project—which will cost more than $6.6 million—was funded by Community Preservation Act money and a $5.9 million grant the MassDOT Bicycle and Pedestrian Program.
Four pedestrian crosswalks along that road will be improved with pedestrian curb ramps, flashing yellow lights and median refuge islands, further enhancing safety in that part of the city, Fuller continued.
“Major work on the Carriage Road, bicycle path, and park land will be done in 2025,” she wrote. “The project is expected to be substantially complete by the end of 2025, with landscaping and some minor finish work to be completed in spring 2026.”
You can learn more about the project here.
The Commonwealth Avenue/Carriage Road project is the latest move in a bold makeover of that portion of the city nestled along the Charles River. This summer, Fuller held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new Marty Sender Riverwalk, which features a raised wooden pathway and native shrubbery to mitigate flooding and mud in that area.