Pavement and Sidewalk Management Program

Maintaining and improving our community’s roadways and sidewalks is key to supporting quality of life in Somerville. These essential pieces of infrastructure enable people to move about the city–connecting them to civic life in Somerville, transporting them to school, work, playgrounds and parks, to visit friends and family, and more.

Since 2015, the City has taken a data-driven approach to support the street and sidewalk selection process. Through a multi-stage analysis, the City is able to effectively prioritize safety, accessibility, and equity, while delivering cost-effective results. More information about this approach is included throughout the sections below.

Looking for information on currently ongoing work in your neighborhood? Learn more below under Active Work.

How It Works

Timeline - The color of each line indicates either when a street was recently paved or when we expect it to be paved.

Type of Project - The type of line indicates what type of street paving was or will be performed on a given street.

More detailed descriptions of the various paving project types are included in the section below.

Click through above to view the full map in a separate window. Use the tools at the top of the full map to toggle the legend on/off and filter by timeline or project type.

Project Types and FY 2024-25 Plan

Annual pavement and sidewalk reconstruction projects are categorized by project type within our annual plans.

FY2024-25 Pavement and Sidewalk Managment Plan (PDF)

Note: The fiscal year '24-'25 plan includes projects that will be constructed in both calendar years 2024 and 2025.

Below you’ll find a description of each project type and the streets/sidewalks included in the Fiscal Year 2024 Plan.

Complete Street and Intersection Projects

Complete Street projects consist of the wholesale reconstruction of major travel corridors to improve safety and accessibility for all users of the road. Complete street projects are typically undertaken after subsurface utility improvements have been made to avoid the need for substantial excavation on newly reconstructed streets.

Targeted intersection projects focus on locations that have higher vehicle volumes, are located on streets that experience a high number of crashes, and are near public transit. The City also looks at locations that represent a significant gap in the pedestrian network or have frequently been cited by community members in street outreach, 311 service requests and constituent emails.

FY2024-25 Streets
Street	From	To	Scope
Washington St.	Washington Terr.	Rossmore St.	Intersection Improvement
Somerville Ave	Central St.	Park St.	Intersection Improvement
Broadway	At Boston Ave.		Intersection Improvement
Bow St.	At Walnut St.		Intersection Improvement
Cameron Ave	At Tannery Brook Row		Intersection Improvement

Full Street (Sidewalk, Intersection, and Curb to Curb Repaving) Projects

Full street projects include the replacement of sidewalks and pavement of the entire street from one curb to the other.

During a full street project, the sidewalk is removed and replaced as is, unlike in a Complete Streets Project, where the curb line might change. In a full street project, minor changes to the grade of the sidewalk will be made to meet ADA slope requirements. Additionally, any preexisting pinch points (sidewalk 3’ or less) next to tree wells will be evaluated for a curb bump out, in which case the curb line will change in a stand alone location.

Intersection work within a full street project will bring Accessible Curb Ramps (ACR) up to ADA compliance through the adjustment of sidewalk grades, and sometimes curb line changes.

FY 2024-25 Streets
Street	From	To	Scope
Otis St.	McGrath Hwy	Cross St.	Full Street
Ellsworth St.	Cross St.	Rush St.	Full Street
Gorham St.	Holland St.	Howard St.	Full Street
Meacham St.	Dover St.	Cambridge Line	Full Street
Cottage Ave.	Chester St.	Russel St.	Full Street
Liberty Ave.	Broadway	Appleton St.	Full Street
Russel St.	Elm St.	Cambridge Line	Full Street
Perry St.	Washington St.	Marion St.	Full Street
Mallet St.	Willow St.	Liberty St.	Full Street

Partial Paving Projects

Partial paving projects involve reconstructing local roads that have been identified as having poor pavement conditions, but accessible sidewalks in good condition.

When only the pavement condition is poor, the travel lane of the roadway is paved. This enables us to increase the total number of streets we are able to pave.

FY2024-25 Streets
Street	From	To	Scope
Cypress St	Central St	Beech St	Partial Pave
Ossipee Rd.	Mason St.	Curtis St.	Partial Pave
Harold St.	Dimick St.	Marion St.	Partial Pave
Kenwood St.	Billingham St.	College Ave.	Partial Pave
Billingham St.	William St.	Broadway E	Partial Pave
Concord Sq.	Concord Ave.	Newton St.	Partial Pave

Prioritization Process

Selecting Streets and Sidewalks for Reconstruction

Somerville uses a multi-phase, data-driven process to evaluate needs and select streets and sidewalks for reconstruction. The factors considered in this process include the current condition of the road, the function of the road (whether it is a principal artery or local road, etc.), the average daily traffic, Somerville’s bicycle network plan and more. The result of this process is a Network Priority Ranking (NPR) for each roadway in the City.

Whereas in the past, sidewalk reconstruction was driven solely by roadway prioritization, the City now employs a similar, independent approach for sidewalk management that prioritizes ADA accessibility and locations along priority routes for pedestrians, such as those near schools, library, transit, and healthcare facilities among others. The pedestrian priority routes are given a Route Classification Priority ranking of 1 to 4, 4 being the highest priority pedestrian route. The result of this process is called a Sidewalk Priority Index (SPI), and is calculated with a combination of both the physical condition of the sidewalk or the Sidewalk Condition Index (SCI), and RCP.

Once this initial prioritization has been completed by the Engineering Division, annual construction plans are assembled through coordination with other relevant City staff to encourage greater efficiency and collaboration as we pursue our many City goals related to the public right of way.

A more detailed description of this prioritization process is included within this year’s FY2024 Pavement and Sidewalk Management Program Memo.

Addressing Isolated Issues

Because the street/sidewalk reconstruction process considers the average condition of the entire street length, isolated failures, such as a single broken sidewalk panel, may be missed.

To address such instances, the City assesses 311 notifications, ADA complaints, and the annual sidewalk condition surveys to inform site-specific repairs where necessary.

Funding Sources

The FY2024 program budget totals $7,680,881, and is derived from three sources:

$1,219,113 from the Massachusetts Chapter 90 program for roadway repairs,
$5,561,768 from City bond for street resurfacing, sidewalk improvements and ADA ramps and improvements, and
$900,000 from City General Fund as approved in FY24 City Budget.

Active Work

The list below consists of active projects being undertaken as part of the City's Pavement and Sidewalk Management Program.

Don't see what you're looking for? Visit somervillema.gov/construction for a comprehensive list of work underway across the city.

Full Street Reconstruction (sidewalks and curb-to-curb repaving)

Meacham Road - Milling and prep for paving schedule for week of 7/14
Gorham Street - Milling and prep for paving schedule for week of 7/14
Otis Street - Sidewalk reconstruction begins week of 7/14

Partial Paving Projects

Milling (removal of the top few layers of asphalt) in preparation on the below streets is schedule for the week of 7/14

Cypress Street from Beech Street to Central Street & Harold Street from Marion Street to Dimick Street.
Kenwood Street from Billingham Street to College Ave & Billingham Street from Broadway to William Street.
Ossipee Road from Curtis Street to Packard Ave.