Rutherford Avenue Community Process to Continue with New Design

The City of Boston is currently reevaluating the Rutherford Avenue design to better align it with its Go Boston 2030 goal of increasing transit use citywide, and to create a corridor that is equipped to manage potential future growth.

In addition, MassDOT and the MBTA have expressed their intent to incorporate transit priority through Sullivan Square and along Rutherford Avenue with existing and future enhanced bus service. MassDOT and the City are working to update project designs to incorporate bus lanes and stations. The goal is to boost mobility in the region and provide a significant benefit to the residents of Charlestown with high-frequency and more reliable bus service, with the potential to offer new connections for the Charlestown community.

Initial design analysis suggests that a balanced roadway that includes bus priority would be best accommodated by "surface" or "surface-tunnel" hybrid design options. We are currently meeting with state agencies to develop design concepts, which we will share with the community for feedback this spring. While this change is significant, we are committed to maintaining key project goals and reflecting the priorities expressed by the community in the final design. These include:

Better connectivity to and from the Charlestown neighborhood via transit, foot, and bike
Enhancements to open space and the addition of a linear park
Traffic engineering investments in Charlestown to deter neighborhood cut-through traffic
Safer crossings for pedestrians at existing and new locations
Improved access to the Orange Line from Charlestown
Increased resiliency, especially in areas prone to flooding
Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and local pollution by encouraging transit use and active transportation

The project’s federal funding, which is distributed through the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (BostonMPO) remains fully committed. While we anticipate this design change will extend the project’s timeline by a year, we will maintain strong forward momentum and continue to involve the community in the design. Integrated planning with PLAN: Charlestown will be key to support future land uses and development, mobility connections into and within Charlestown, parks and open space, climate resiliency, affordable housing, as well as strategies to preserve the community’s historic assets.