KENMORE— As cars and busses make their way down Yawkee Way, Beacon Street, and Commonwealth Avenue, they intersect near Kenmore Square Station, an island in the middle of the road. Commuters waiting for the bus wait beside a temporary fence, and a steel canopy wrapped in plastic.
Under construction since 2005, the Kenmore Modernization Project was initiated to improve traffic flow above and below ground, but also to be an architecturally pleasing structure. However, the finished product has seen delays and residents are curious as to why the project is taking so long to complete.
“The delays are due in large part to the complexities involved in keeping an underground station open to customers while completely rebuilding it at the same time,” wrote Joe Pesaturo, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Association, in an email. The B, C, and D train on the Green Line run through Kenmore Station every 15 minutes from 5:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. on weekdays and every half-hour on weekends, according to the MBTA.
“I haven’t really noticed a difference taking the T because the station just re-routed where people stand,” said Boston University sophomore Dana Mulvaney, 20, who rides the subway multiple times a day. “The construction that is being worked on is happening behind the stairwell when we walk down so there are really no delays.”
Pilar Ibañez, a senior who rides the number 57 bus from Kenmore to her apartment in Allston, said the construction has not affected her daily commute. “As long as the bus can take me to and from school, I do not really care when the construction will be complete,” Ibañez said.
Public busses have been running through the construction area for a little more than three months now, and the remaining construction is expected to be complete by the end of 2008, Pesaturo said.
In the next two weeks, construction workers are going to start installing the glass in the canopy structure and utility work in the station. Crews will also complete remaining accessibility improvements, such as installing elevators and escalators, Pesaturo said.
MBTA officials are asking its board of directors this spring to approve a request to upgrade the street surface treatments to brick in various areas of Kenmore Square.
Joe Connor, the project manager for the MBTA said the MBTA general manager and assistant general manager were first approached in 1999 and 2000 by a coalition of representatives from Boston University, Richard Towle and Mike Hathaway, the Hotel Commonwealth developers, Frank Keefe and Terry Guiney and the Kenmore Merchants Association, Pam Beale, with a proposal for surface improvements in Kenmore Square.
The proposal called for brick sidewalks and concrete paver intersections at Raleigh Street/Beacon Street, Deerfield Street/ Commonwealth Avenue, Beacon Street/Brookline Avenue/Commonwealth Avenue and Kenmore Street/Commonwealth Avenue. In addition, concrete paver crosswalks with granite feature strips and tree planting were proposed along Commonwealth Avenue and Beacon Street.
Boston University, Hotel Commonwealth, and Kenmore Merchants secured street surface improvements through petitioning the state Legislature for funding from the 1998 and 2000 Transportation Bond Bills. Additional funding was also secured by the coalition from the 2004 state Supplemental Budget for the roadway improvements and for the glass and steel bus canopy and elevator tower on the Kenmore Station surface bus way.
Connor said the MBTA general manager and the assistant general manager agreed to combine the surface improvements and the Kenmore Station Light Rail Accessibility Program into a single construction contract, which was advertised in 2004 and awarded to Barletta Heavy Division in January 2005.
Architect and urban designer Dimella Shaffer designed the remodeled project.
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