[SBC] Bike Committee - City Report 10-16-06

[SWinslow at ci.somerville.ma.us]

To: Somerville Bike Committee

 

From: Stephen Winslow, Project Manager

 

Subject: City Report for September 2006

 

Here's my regular city report:

 

1. Status of committee memberships: Enid Kumin and Jai Dang's nominations
have been forwarded to the Mayor's office

 

2. Somerville Community Path: 

 

a.        Davis Square: I presented the revised Judith Nitsch design to the
Davis Square Task Force. 

 

*	Presented and discussed a hand written sketch in Spring to Task
Force

*	Sketch developed to address MBTA decision not to allow "contraflow"
bike lane in busway
*	Additional concern of T&P about eliminating turn lane from College
to Holland

*	Results of Prior Discussion  - General support for: 

*	extending Path to Holland via area between headhouse Somerville
Theatre
*	extending Path to College by modifications to parking lot behind
Brooks and potential widening of sidewalk along busway.
*	Keeping Plaza a pedestrian only zone

*	Provided an update on:

*	A revised design has been developed - along the lines discussed in
Spring
*	Still has not been fully approved by MBTA - in particular this
design requires a two foot narrowing of bus way to accommodate 8-foot path
*	Some comments already provided by City to MHD
*	Meeting with MHD and MBTA next month to present design

 

Presentation went generally well. A few questions were asked but the overall
response was that the design was consistent with what the Task Force
expressed early in the year. 

 

I also met with the MBTA staff, MHD and Judith Nitsch on the revisions to
the design. As proposed, even an 8-foot sidewalk and barrier requires to bus
way to be narrowed 4-feet. Mark Boyle of the MBTA will set-up a site visit
of key players (again...) 

 

  b. Cedar to Central: The request tap $200,000 in Federal High Priority
Project funds that Capuano lined up so that design can proceed was not
included in the FY 2007 TIP. I will need to search out other funding
sources. 

 

No word yet on the grants to develop the Somerville Community Path park
(Urban Self-Help and Bikes Belong). 

 

Vollmer has signed the contract extension and the contract has now been
forwarded to the Auditor and Mayor's office.  

 

AIG Environmental Insurance - the Environmental Report needs to be
finalized. 

 

Guilford Abandonment: I checked the STB filing list and still did not see it
as of 10/16/06. I contacted Guilford's attorney on the Surface
Transportation Board filing, he says it just needs to be notorized. 

 

  c. School to Cambridge: I updated SPCD staff on the Feasibility Report.
The Report was well received. The ENF for the Greenline Extension has been
issued. The report mentions the Path but its unclear on how the projects
will be coordinated.  Lisa Lepore will be taking the lead on getting City
comments on the ENF. I am pushing to have the feasibility report sent to the
MBTA and for a meeting with the design team 

 

3. Davis Square Bike Route signs: T&P installed the signs for the west bound
route (Grove to Buena Vista) but did not do so for the east bound route. Not
certain if this is a hardware problem or if T&P has issues with the other
route. 

 

4. Safe-START: I am concentrating now on the completion of the initial
report and will be preparing a Power Point presentation for that the Mayor
will make in the next month to the Alderman.  I can make the presentation to
the Bike committee once the Mayor is okay with it. 

 

5. Wellington Undercarriage: Fay, Spofford has received the DCR baseline
survey information needed to revamp the design.  Also, DCR has been asked to
supply the design of the under carriage on the other side of the river as
well.  

 

6. MAPC Bike Rack Program: Alan and Vithal Deshpande of DPW spearheading an
effort to apply for a DEP Climate Action grant that would provide funds to
install and ship the racks. 

 

7. Assembly Square Bike Racks: a new permit application must developed by
the Federal Realty. Comments can be made during the permitting process.

 

8. Active Living: The Health Department has hired Nicole Rioles as the
Shape-Up Somerville Coordinator. Her initial focus is walking groups. I will
invite her to an upcoming meeting. 

 

9. Eastern Mystic River Coalition: I will attend an October 30 meeting that
will focus on promoting the river front paths. 

 

10. School Street Bike Lanes: I need to revamp the proposal so that it can
perhaps be implemented in the Spring.

 

11. Willow Street: neighbors between Elm and Highland would like to see
measures to slow traffic.   Some type of lane narrowing and/or contraflow
bike lane could be considered. 

 

12. Bike Plans: Sitting on MAPC Bike Plan Committee and will be commenting
on the MAPC Bike Plan on November 8th for Somerville. May want to have a
sub-group focus on comments. 

 

13. Beacon Street: Postponed until 2010 TIP. 

 

14. Union Square / Washington Street: No Bikes on sidewalk stencils now in
Union Square. Business district signs going up. Bike lanes signs should be
going up on Washington Street

 

15. DCR Bike/Ped Improvements committee: DCR doing re-striping and bike ped
repairs as part of parkway repairs. Many X-walks redone. May be opportunity
to stripe wider shoulders / bike lanes especially on DCR roads with poor
storm drains. 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.bostoncoop.net/pipermail/sbc/attachments/20061016/09b2ef65/attachment.htm