The Charles River/Alewife Connector project in Watertown will construct a multi-use path along an abandoned rail corridor, left, from School Street to the Arlington Street intersection at Nichols Avenue, Coolidge Hill Road and Crawford Street, with a spur connecting the new path to Arsenal Street across from the Watertown Mall parking lot.
The $847,000 project will include removal of existing railroad rails and ties followed by construction of a ten-foot wide asphalt path with grass shoulders over a distance of approximately two-thirds of a mile.
In addition, a $1.4 million project approved in late December will resurface the intersections of Spring and Summer, Mount Auburn and Summer, and Arlington and Nichols at the eastern limit of the new multi-use path, including new traffic sensing devices and more accessible sidewalks with wheelchair ramps.
Too bad you aren't using porous asphalt. Creating another impervious surface is not the right way to do this.
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MassDOT Responds: Thanks for your comment. Porous asphalt was considered at an earlier stage for this project but was deemed impractical. Performance has been poor- water gets into voids/pores, resulting in frost and heave in winter and thaw in spring. The result is potholes within a year or two, creating safety of use issues and requiring ongoing added maintenance.
Posted by: Jane Winn, Berkshire Environmental Action Team (BEAT) | January 16, 2010 at 07:03 AM