Dot Ave. scheduled for face lift
An LED screen in Andrew Square will display weather forecasts and Red Sox scores. Fields Corner will have a sidewalk bistro with outdoor cafe seating, shaded by trees. New traffic signals will bring order to the chaotic intersection of Dorchester Avenue and Freeport Street.
Those are just some of the changes in the works for Dorchester Avenue, which is scheduled to get a multimillion-dollar makeover starting next year. Mayor Thomas M. Menino has unveiled detailed plans to improve this heavily traveled corridor, and this month announced that the city is allocating an additional $7 million to the much-anticipated project, bringing the total price to $12 million.
Known to locals as "Dot Ave.," Dorchester Avenue stretches 5 miles from Lower Mills in Dorchester to South Boston. The two-lane roadway is surrounded by traditionally working-class neighborhoods of three-decker homes, and is home to beauty salons, auto body shops, Irish pubs, pizza parlors, liquor stores, ethnic restaurants, and hundreds of other businesses.
Say goodbye to those gray 1960s-era cobra-head-style street-light fixtures that hang over parts of Dot Ave., and the hodgepodge of aging trash bins and the red brick sidewalks of Fields Corner. The plan establishes consistent guidelines for lighting fixtures, benches, sidewalks, and other portions of the urban landscape along the avenue. The city has also stepped up efforts to educate business owners about the regulations regarding the size and appearance of storefront signs.
"Those flashing lights, those neon things . . . they're gone," said Menino.
The beautification blueprint for Dorchester Avenue calls for elegantly designed street lights, old-fashioned lampposts, black metal benches and trash bins, new concrete sidewalks, bike racks, and additional trees and plantings. Three major intersections along Dorchester Avenue - Glover's Corner and Fields Corner in Dorchester, and Andrew Square in South Boston - will be redesigned to ease traffic congestion and make it safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. Traffic has been a problem that has plagued Dot Ave. for years, according to Menino.
"You can start by having breakfast at one end, and have dinner at the other end because there's so much traffic in between," said Menino.
The proposed improvements are the result of three years of planning. Construction is scheduled to begin next spring.
"Now we have a vision that we can really focus on," said Roseanne Foley, a Dorchester resident who served on the 15-member task force.
Two new pedestrian plazas are slated to be built at Andrew Square. The plans call for closing the right-hand turn from Boston Street to Dorchester Avenue (directly in front of Andrew Square Auto Glass) and replacing it with a walkway lined with benches and trees. Another pedestrian plaza would be created by extending the sidewalk in front of Mt. Washington Bank (501 Southampton St.), which would provide a potential site for farmers markets and Christmas tree sales.
New signals will be installed at Andrew Square and flowering pear trees will be planted on each street corner. Detailed directional signs will show motorists the layout of the six-way intersection, and decorative paving will help differentiate Dorchester Avenue from Dorchester Street. At the corner of Dorchester and Preble streets, the Russ Waterman memorial plaque will be incorporated into a large raised planter and new benches will be installed, along with a blue oval-shaped "Welcome to Andrew Square, South Boston" sign. The proposal also mentions building a wall along the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot with an LED screen that displays news, weather, sports, and other information.
Farther down Dorchester Avenue, about a mile and a half south of Andrew Square, lies another intersection that will see big changes: Glover's Corner. The midpoint of Dorchester Avenue was named after Alexander Glover III, a 19th-century cabinetmaker who once had a shop there. But most Bostonians know it only for its reputation as one of the worst intersections in the city. The junction of Freeport Street, Dot Ave., East Street, and Hancock Street is like the Wild West of Dorchester Avenue driving; the complex interchange has long been regulated only by a set of flashing lights. (In May 1988, a Globe editorial described Glover's Corner as "a motorist's nightmare.")
The plan calls for a complete reconstruction of Glover's Corner, which will include new traffic signals, new pavement markings, street signs, and signs pointing the way to nearby Interstate 93. The sidewalk on southwest corner of Dorchester Avenue and Hancock Street will be extended, providing space for some trees and a blue oval-shaped "Welcome to Glover's Corner" sign.
Some major changes are also planned for Fields Corner, where Adams Street intersects with Dorchester Avenue. The X-shaped intersection is currently anchored by a triangular patch of concrete where a stone tablet is dedicated to veterans "in memory of all who fought and died to preserve freedom of our country in all wars." The plan is to connect this small island to the sidewalk by closing the right-turn shortcut from Dorchester Avenue to Adams Street. The expanded plaza would be spruced up with more trees and benches and outdoor cafe seating.
The plan calls for removing the old red brick sidewalks around Fields Corner and replacing them with concrete sidewalks. Honey locust and ginkgo trees are to be planted along the avenue, and decorative pavement would be laid over the asphalt in the street. New traffic signals would be installed, along with one of the city's signature blue oval-shaped signs, which will say "Welcome to Fields Corner."
Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com.
