Somerville Awarded $500,000 “Complete Streets” Grant for Western Pearl Street

The Healey-Driscoll administration has awarded the City of Somerville $500,000 to help implement its redesign of western Pearl Street in Gilman Square as part of MassDOT’s complete streets funding program.  

The state’s Complete Streets program helps fund local transportation projects that improve safety and accessibility for people walking or rolling, biking, taking public transit, or driving. Somerville's Western Pearl Street project is designed to achieve these community goals.  

The state’s grant will help fund construction for a redesign for the segment of Pearl Street between McGrath Highway and Medford Street. 

In addition to repaving the roadway and rebuilding the sidewalks, the new design for the street includes:  

• raised crossings and intersections  
• new protected bicycle facilities  
• improved bus stops  
• new benches and street trees
• among other safety and accessibility improvements  

“We're incredibly grateful to Governor Healey and the entire Healey-Driscoll administration for this investment in Somerville,” said Mayor Jake Wilson. “What makes this project truly special is that it was built from the ground up with our community — residents, businesses, and neighbors told us what they needed from this street, and this design delivers that. From protected bike lanes to safer crossings to better bus stops, Western Pearl Street will be a model for what 21st-century street design looks like, and we couldn't be more excited to make that vision a reality.”  

The design (download image here) was shaped with extensive input from community members heard in conversations on the street, at open houses, in small businesses and community events, in surveys, and via emailed comments collected throughout the design process. The design is also informed by Somerville’s commitment to Vision Zero (a commitment to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injury) and the City’s Bicycle Network Plan.(a roadmap to expanding bicycle safety and features across the city).  

To learn more about the project, including details on the final design and feedback from the community process, please visit somervillema.gov/westernpearl.  

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