Divisions & Programs

Brookline Street Reconstruction

What's Happening Now
Project goals
Comunity Meetings
For More Information

What's Happening Now

Final designs for the Brookline Street Reconstruction project are complete. The project is planned to begin construction in Winter 2008/2009 and last about 18 months.

View highlights of the project (page 2) (PDF, 1.1 MB). This file is in PDF format and requires use of the free Adobe Acrobat viewer.

View the current proposal, cross section.

View the current proposal, rendering.

View the current plan, engineering drawings (PDF, 2MB)

Project Goals

The focus of the reconstruction of Brookline Street is to emphasize the residential nature of the street and to reduce the speed of traffic while also providing a safe space for walking and bicycling.

In addition to paving, sidewalk replacement and utility work, improvements are proposed to include traffic calming, pedestrian crossings, bike lanes and street trees. Lighting improvements are outside the scope of the project and are not included.

Project Background

Five community meetings have been held to date. At the fourth meeting (October 2007) participants expressed their preference for one of the three concept designs presented. There were requests to continue the bicycle lane as far up Brookline Street as possible.

At the fifth meeting (February 2008), participants saw the proposed design from Henry to Pacific Street and expressed a preference for one of the three options from Pacific St. to Mass. Ave. that had the bicycle lane continue all the way to Green St. Some participants asked if any additional residential parking could be added on side streets. Ten new residential parking spaces are now planned for Tudor Street.

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Parking Study

A parking study was conducted March 14, 2007, which noted the number of parking spaces in each block occupied at two hour intervals during the day, beginning from 10 am - 10 pm. The results are shown during three periods, 10 am - noon, 2pm - 4pm, and 8pm - 10 pm. Please note that parking on the west side of the street is allowed at night time only, and not allowed from 7am - 6pm. The study generally shows little use of night time parking on the west side of the street, south of Auburn Street. This gives more flexibility in the future to accommodate cars and bikes in the roadway. Additional data was collected from January – March 2008 which confirmed these results.

This file is in PDF format and requires use of the free Adobe Acrobat viewer.

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Community Meetings

Six community meetings have been held to date. These files are in PDF format and require use of the free Adobe Acrobat viewer.

Community meeting #1 (February 9, 2006)

Meeting notes from community meeting #1

Community meeting #2 (May 24, 2006)

Presentation from community meeting #2 (PDF, 8.3 MB)

Community meeting #3 (April 25, 2007). A parking study was conducted March 14, 2007, which noted the number of parking spaces in each block occupied at two hour intervals during the day, beginning from 10 am - 10 pm. The results are shown during three periods, 10 am - noon, 2 pm - 4 pm, and 8 pm - 10 pm. Please note that parking on the west side of the street is allowed at night time only, and not allowed form 7am - 6pm. The study generally shows little use of night time parking on the west side of the street, south of Auburn Street. This gives more flexibility in the future to accommodate cars in the roadway. Additional data was collected from January - March 2008 which confirmed these results.

View the Brookline Street Parking Utilization Study presented at community meeting #3 (PDF, 1.0 MB)

Community meeting #4. At the fourth meeting (October, 2007) participants expressed their preferences for one of the three concept designs presented. There were requests to continue the bicycle lane as far up Brookline Street as possible.

Conceptual designs presented at community meeting #4: Concept #1 (PDF, 1.4 MB) , Concept #2 (PDF, 1.5 MB), Concept #3 (PDF, 1.4 MB)

Community meeting #5 (February 27, 2008). Participants saw the proposed design from Henry to Pacific Street and expressed a preference for one of the three options from Pacific Street to Mass. Ave. that had the bicycle lane continue all the way to Green St. Some participants asked if any additional residential parking could be added on side streets. Ten new residential parking spaces are now planned for Tudor Street.

Final proposed consensus plan presented at community meeting #5 (PDF, 696 KB) . Note that this plan covers from from Henry Street to Pacific Street. Three options for “upper Brookline” between Pacific Street and Green Street were presented at this meeting (PDF, 500 KB). View the brochure for this meeting (PDF, 1.1 MB).

Community meeting #6 (June 17, 2008). This meeting was an "open house" for the project. Participants had an opportunity to view the final plans, meet the artist, get updates since the last community meeting, and to talk with project staff.

View the meeting #6 open house brochure (PDF, 1.1 MB)

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For More Information

For more information about the Brookline Street Reconstruction project call Jeff Rosenblum, jrosenblum@cambridgema.gov, at 617/349-4615. The Community Development Department TTY line is 617/349-4621.

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