More than you really want to know about Natick, Mass.
Here’s good news for anyone who has ever driven, walked, run, or biked under the Bacon Street bridge at the Natick-Wellesley line on Rte. 135 (Central Street): The MBTA is working with the towns to make the intersection safer.
Look for work on sidewalk improvements and some sort of signaling light to happen as part of the ongoing bridge replacement project that could be done as soon as a year from now.
More on the effort on The Swellesley Report.
Hey, it only took 12 seconds to put the new Cochituate Rail Trail bridge across Rte. 30 in Natick into place!
Not really, but Natick GIS’s Rich Ames posted a fun time-lapse video of the work that took place last night to connect the Natick and Framingham sections of the new rail trail.
The Framingham end of the 4-mile Cochituate Rail Trail is open, but the Natick section won’t be open until 2021.
Update (11/16/20):
Because of bad weather conditions, the Route 30 CRT bridge installation has been rescheduled until Monday night into Tuesday morning from 10PM-5AM, with the same roadway closure and traffic detours of Route 30 between Speen Street and Route 27.
The Natick and Framingham sections of the Cochituate Rail Trail will take a huge step toward uniting this weekend when the bridge over Rte. 30 is put in place between Sunday, Nov. 15 at 10pm and Monday, Nov. 16 at 5am.
Rte. 30 will be reduced to one lane beginning at 8pm on Sunday so that the crane can be put in place and assembled. Then the road will be closed off at 10pm while the bridge is put in place. Traffic will be routed to/from Route 30 by way of Route 27 to Route 9 to Speen Street.
The Rte. 9 bridge section of the trail was put into place in October.
The Framingham end of the 4-mile Cochituate Rail Trail is open, but the Natick section won’t be open until 2021.
Natick Center Cultural District and the Public Art Committee seek proposals for Traffic Calming Public Art projects at the intersection of Rt. 27 and Rt. 135 for $500–$1,200 stipends. The application deadline is Jan. 15, 2021, and projects may include street paintings and murals that are bold and bright in design while still being respectful of the place.
Natick installed traffic calming posts earlier this month.Any artist—amateur, professional, or art and educational institutions—willing to meet the requirements of the call for artists can apply to paint a traffic calming section. Participants from art educational institutions may consist of students, faculty, and alumni.
Proposals should be positive, original and colorful and may reflect the immediate environment; the character or culture of the Town of Natick; the history of the area; community pride; creativity; or other themes.
A jury will make selection recommendations, and final approval will be made by the Public Art Committee and Natick’s Select Board.
Natick has installed flexible white poles around the Rte. 27/Rte. 135 intersection in Natick Center as part of an experiment in traffic calming supported by a $25K state Shared Streets & Spaces grant that also enabled Natick to put in place temporary outdoor dining lanes in town.
Traffic calming is an urban design strategy that aims to slow down or reduce car traffic to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists. It is founded on the idea that streets are a key element of the public realm and should be designed to create a sense of place for people to work alongside cars, but not be dominated by them.
Natick has installed flexible white poles around the Rte. 27/Rte. 135 intersection in Natick Center as part of an experiment in traffic calming supported by a $25K state Shared Streets & Spaces grant that also enabled Natick to put in place temporary outdoor dining lanes in town.
At first blush, the poles seem to just make things harder for cyclists and drivers, as they present an obstacle course within the de facto bike lanes and add to the clutter of signs and such making distracted drivers even more distracted.
I had my first experience with the traffic calming additions while driving on Tuesday morning. Naturally, an ambulance with its lights on came whizzing through the intersection. I pulled over as far as I could, but the poles prevented me from getting over as much as I would have liked.
But the poles and some freshly painted white lines along the crosswalks have been placed with good intentions by the town. It’s looking for feedback on the set-up to help determine what might make sense in terms of any sort of reconfiguration of the intersection, such bumping out the curbs to make crossing the intersection less of a trek for pedestrians and to boost sight lines for any who pass through.
An earlier set of cones and straw sausages were used in phase 1 of the test back in September. These are all part of a “test before you invest” approach, as outlined by James Freas, Natick’s director of community & economic development, in a letter to the Select Board previewing the project in late August.
The new flex poles are supposed to be removed before snow season, not that that’s very easy to gauge anymore in light of our recent late October snowstorm. There’s also a possibility of filling the space along the edge of the road with painted art, which seems like a particularly bad idea in terms of driver distraction (no offense to the artists).
A police car calmly turns on to Rte. 135 around the new flex poles.Similar flex poles have been installed along Rte. 30 where Natick and Wayland meet.