A Brighton resident got a postcard with this picture in the mail today and forwarded it on to me. It's an artist/architect's rendering of the large development at Brighton Landing that New Balance is expected to put forward at a community meeting next week.The view is looking east; the Mass Pike runs up from the lower right corner of the picture. I've labeled the various features in the image -- the red text is mine, not New Balance's.
The crossing of the Mass Pike looks to be more like a pedestrian bridge lined up with Litchfield Street -- not a flyover with on- and off-ramps -- which connects the proposed new development at Brighton Landing to the new Charlesview project a few blocks further north. Litchfield has residential buildings on its west side, light commercial on its east.
According to at least one source who was briefed on New Balance's plans, their presentation included an additional flyover with looping ramps that is not included in this artist's rendering.
Note: post was updated to clarify the issue of pedestrian bridge versus on-/off-ramp flyover.
3 comments:
Interseting article in today's globe on the proposed Lowe's store. While I would like to see their traffic projections I do feel more comfortable with this type of development opposed to New Balnce's "20 year vision (see Harvard project!) Plus the 200 construction jobs and 175 Lowe's jobs sure would come in handy right now!
For the traffic issues, see this previous blog post about the Lowe's traffic study.
Lowe's traffic "study" -- which appears to be based solely on computer models, not on any actual traffic travel time measurements -- massively over-estimates the existing travel times on Market Street and North Beacon Street during rush hour.
I have repeatedly timed the travel along these streets during rush hour and found that Lowe's has over-estimated travel times by factors of two to three. They claim 14-17 minute travel times when I measure actual 4-7 minute travel times.
Is Lowe's over-estimating current travel times to make it look like their $1.2 million investment in traffic signal timing would suddenly "fix" a non-existent problem of 15-minute travel times for distances of 5-6 city blocks? We'll see...
Let's compare the community benefits/detriments of each proposal side by side before seizing on one project or the other. Be assured both will have major impacts.
By the way, the east side of Litchfield Street is less than 1/3 light commercial and the rest is residential if you measure by street frontage.
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