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Boston committee reviews $9 million USDOT Safe Streets grant to redesign nine high‑risk intersections
Summary
The committee heard Streets Cabinet staff describe a federal Safe Streets and Roads for All grant to fund design, engagement and construction of safety improvements at nine city intersections; staff said the grant agreement is signed and work must be completed by summer 2029. The council did not take a recorded vote at the hearing.
Councilor Sharon Durkin, District 8 city councilor and chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Planning, Development, and Transportation, led a June 18 hearing that included docket 0720, an order authorizing the City of Boston to accept and expend $9,000,000 in federal funding through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All program.
The grant is intended to fund "low cost, high impact" safety and design work at intersections the administration identified as high crash or high risk. Lydia Housley, capital projects design director in the Streets Cabinet (Public Works), told the committee the award will fund planning, engagement, design and construction at nine intersections and that the city has an executed grant agreement with USDOT.
Housley described the financial terms of the award during testimony: she said the award was described to the committee as "for $11,000,000," and that $9,000,000 of that amount was federal funds with a local match of $2,250,000. (Those figures were presented together during testimony and as stated by Housley.) She said the city intends to use the funds to design and implement safety improvements that use the city's "complete streets" toolkit to address speeding, sight lines and pedestrian safety.
Housley listed the nine intersections identified for work: Andrew Square; Saratoga and Bennington Street in East Boston; two locations on Blue Hill Avenue (including American Legion Highway and Columbia Road); two downtown locations around Washington/Neilan/Stewart and Tremont/Stewart; Seaver and Walnut near the Jamaica Plain‑Roxbury line; and Brent and Wainwright near Loesch Park in Dorchester. She said some of those locations overlap with other planned or ongoing projects and that the Streets Cabinet will pursue either near‑term quick‑build fixes or full redesigns depending on project context.
Housley said the city submitted the competitive grant application in 2022, received a signed grant agreement in 2024 and is now preparing an RFP for a design and engagement team. She told the committee the grant requires that work included in the award be completed by about the summer of 2029.
Committee members asked about scheduling and coordination with other projects; Housley said the administration will pursue early action use of quick‑build tools where appropriate and will coordinate timelines with overlapping projects. No council vote on docket 0720 was recorded at the committee hearing.
