Get the Spring/Summer Construction Schedule and Updates on Ongoing Streetscape Improvements and Spring
Tree Plantings

SOMERVILLE - The Spring Hill Sewer Separation project is well underway, and Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and
Ward 3 Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen invite you to join a virtual community meeting to learn about construction progress and upgrades to come. The project aims to reduce water pollution, address flooding, and modernize Somerville’s infrastructure. Once utility
work on Highland Avenue (including Eversource’s Gas Main upgrade project) is done, interim paving of eastern Highland Avenue can begin.

The meeting will take place Wednesday, May 15, at 6 p.m. Visit somervillema.gov/springhill to
learn more and attend the meeting. For those unable to attend, a recording of the presentation will be available on the project website, as well as on
City
YouTube and the
City’s
GovTV channels. 

At the meeting, City staff will review progress made to date and present an overview of the work planned
for this upcoming spring and summer. Featured updates include a review of recent sewer/drainage utility upgrades along Summer Street between School Street and Bow Street and a look ahead to streetscape improvements beginning later this spring on Central Street. Following
the presentation, residents will have the opportunity to ask questions about the project and construction process. 

Somerville’s Spring Hill neighborhood is currently served by a combined sewer system, which collects
both wastewater and stormwater runoff in the same pipes. Through the Sewer Separation project, the City is working to upgrade these systems by installing new storm drains that separate stormwater from the existing combined sewer.  

In addition to the underground utility improvements, this project will also install street safety
improvements and green infrastructure throughout the neighborhood.  Green infrastructure includes trees as well as drainage features designed to mimic natural processes such as irrigated planting areas, bioretention basins with select soils and plants that
catch and filter stormwater.

This project is one in a series of actions the City is undertaking to reduce water pollution, address flooding,
and modernize Somerville’s infrastructure. Construction began in 2022 and is expected to continue through 2025. 

Highland Avenue Interim Paving

Following completion of utility work on Highland Avenue, the City will be paving the two travel lanes of
the roadway (approximately 28-feet wide). This partial paving, which does not include the parking areas next to the curbs, is intended to restore the road surface travel areas. This is an interim measure to support safe travel for all users of the road until
the full redesign
and reconstruction of Highland Avenue. Paving is on schedule to occur in early summer of 2024.
This interim paving is expected to extend from roughly McGrath Highway to Benton Road.