The quick-build grant program provides grants as small as $5,000 and as large as $300,000 for municipalities to quickly launch changes to sidewalks, curbs, streets, on-street parking spaces and off-street parking lots in support of public health, safe mobility, and renewed commerce. These improvements can be intentionally temporary, in the style of tactical urbanism, or can be pilots of potentially permanent changes to streets and sidewalks. With the award of this new round of funding, the program will have given out a total of $3 million to fund 38 projects in municipalities across the Commonwealth.
- Adams received $22,500 to fund the installation of tables, chairs, umbrellas, dividers, and hand-sanitizer stations.
- Bedford received $62,666 to support new and improved pedestrian signals, add delineators to mark off bicycle and pedestrian lanes, provide cones and temporary paint, and install parklets.
- Dalton received $70,441 to install solar-powered flashing safety beacons and new crosswalk markings.
- Dennis received $25,000 to calm traffic and improve parking and pedestrian access, allow adjacent businesses to expand into private parking areas for outdoor dining and retail sales, and provide benches and tables.
- Edgartown received $20,000 to temporarily support restaurants to create and/or expand seating areas.
- Great Barrington received $69,955 to erect temporary barriers and signage to create a shared street on Railroad Street.
- Holden received $165,000 to install three new ADA-compliant crosswalks and LED School Zone signs and a flashing safety beacon.
- Lenox received $29,989 to convert on- and off-street parking into outdoor dining areas, to include the pilot of traffic calming measures such as speed humps and new signage.
- Lexington received $30,200 to adjust a curb ramp to be ADA-compliant, install a flashing safety beacon, and install new signage.
- Maynard received $31,525 to temporarily extend outdoor dining on private property, in a parking lot, and in a municipal parklet, and also to install speed radar signs and speed humps.
- Medfield received $11,500 to purchase materials for outdoor dining locations in public parks, sidewalks, and the front lawn of Town Hall.
- Medford received $223,000 to improve transit access to jobs and health care by connecting workers to the MBTA Orange Line. This project will provide an inbound bus lane and will temporarily transform either a travel lane or a parking shoulder into a bus lane.
- Melrose received two grants for a total of $55,200 to create public parklets proximate to businesses and the MBTA Commuter Rail stations and to implement sidewalk extensions and traffic calming on residential streets.
- Montague received $35,300 to support a temporary (painted) pedestrian sidewalk with refuge islands/curb extensions, an improved crosswalk, temporary bumpouts, and a traffic calming ‘gateway’ using temporary curbs, planters, paint, and barriers.
- New Bedford received two grants for a total of $148,395 to create multiple outdoor dining destinations and safe pedestrian spaces.
- Quincy received $188,938 to calm traffic along Quincy Avenue and provide new, safe bicycle and pedestrian connections, along with improving conditions for MBTA buses using new Transit Signal Priority technology.
- Wellesley received $61,312 to create bike parking. It will also expand the sidewalk areas and transform the on-street metered parking into ADA-compliant parklets for outdoor seating for dining, retail, and community activities.
The Baker-Polito Administration launched the Shared Streets & Spaces program to support quick-build projects that can bring benefits to cities and towns. The program is modeled after the administration’s Complete Streets Funding Program, which, as of January 2020, has awarded a total $46 million to cities and towns for municipal projects improving infrastructure.
