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CAPITAL EXPENDITURES COMMITTEE REPORT TO 2022 ATM& STMs 2022-1 & -2
<br /> is now complete. As noted under Culvert Repair, there also was a request to replace a culvert supporting
<br /> the Bikeway;that work is complete as well. In addition, in FY2015 funding was authorized for the design
<br /> of Wayfinding and Etiquette signage for the Lexington portion of the Bikeway with follow-on FY2017
<br /> funding. This project has been on hold due to COVID-19 and will be restarted this spring. (Arlington and
<br /> Bedford declined to participate.)
<br /> Town Center Streetscape Project
<br /> Increasing the vitality of Lexington Center has long been an open-ended goal of the Town as businesses
<br /> come and go and usage patterns change. Projects in support of the Center have been both large and small,
<br /> including rezoning the former Battle Green Inn site and the installation of seasonal "pocket parks" on
<br /> Massachusetts Avenue. Infrastructure deterioration in the Center, and needed safety enhancements as
<br /> traffic volume has increased, are significant concerns. To address these issues in a coordinated manner,
<br /> the Center Streetscape Improvements Project was created. When fully implemented, it would address
<br /> sidewalks, roadway, trees, lighting, bicycle and vehicular safety, and additional elements from
<br /> business-front to business—front across Massachusetts Avenue and run, northwesterly, from just after the
<br /> intersection with Woburn Street, Winthrop Road, and Fletcher Avenue to just beyond Meriam Street.
<br /> (The Woburn Street intersection, originally included, was removed from the scope of the Project, to be
<br /> addressed separately later.) The results of this Project would be further enhanced at the Meriam Street end
<br /> by work under the Battle Green Streetscape Project.
<br /> The Center Streetscape Project has a funding and design-change history going back to the 2012 ATM,
<br /> when it was first introduced as a Center Business District sidewalk restoration project to cost
<br /> approximately $4,000,000. Since then, what was originally a sidewalk replacement Project has gone
<br /> through many public reviews and redesigns, with substantial changes to the scope of the Project and its
<br /> estimated design and construction costs, winding up in the end as a building-front to building-front
<br /> renovation of the Center, encompassing roadway, sidewalks, curb ramps, pedestrian crossings, new
<br /> sidewalk and roadway lighting, replacement of trees, benches, and more. At the 2014 ATM, $600,000
<br /> was appropriated to carry the design to 100%, including bid documents. However, the design that had
<br /> been advanced to the 25% level was stopped at that point because unresolved issues with the Project
<br /> failed to gain approval of construction funding at the 2015 ATM. At the 2016 ATM, another request for
<br /> construction funds was Indefinitely Postponed.
<br /> At a February 2016 Financial Summit, a presentation cited the total cost of the expanded Project at
<br /> approximately $8,500,000. Because of continuing concerns about the Project's scope, the SB formed the
<br /> Center Streetscape Design Review Ad hoc Committee, to pull together and review all aspects of the
<br /> Project and to seek more community input before proceeding to a new 25% design. In 2017, the SB
<br /> adopted almost all of that committee's consensus recommendations, and the Project proceeded to a
<br /> revised 25%design using the previous funding, with a considerably different set of design elements than
<br /> those represented in the previous 25% design. Funding at the 2017 ATM was again Indefinitely
<br /> Postponed for more time to revise the design and cost estimate. A subset of the Ad hoc committee was
<br /> established as a Working Group to become a part of the design effort.
<br /> At the November 2018 Special Town Meeting, $550,000 was appropriated to complete a 100% design of
<br /> the revised scope, which also included a detailed tree inventory and management plan and substantial
<br /> lighting revisions. ($100,000 of previously appropriated funding was available and eligible to be applied
<br /> to that work.) The full construction-cost estimate of the Project at that time was $9,372,350. That revised
<br /> cost estimate also included substantial full-time management costs, as well as robust police detail costs
<br /> that it is hoped will minimize the impact of construction on Center businesses. The Town's Design Team,
<br /> managed by the Department of Public Works, through its extensive work with the Ad hoc Committee,
<br /> direction from the SB, and leadership of the Working Group, believed that it had a thoroughly vetted and
<br /> well-supported view of the Project at that time.
<br /> The fall 2018 STM approved the funding for the completion of the design with the understanding that
<br /> further review would occur when the design work was 75% complete. The 75% design and a revised
<br /> construction cost estimate of$9,101,730 were presented and approved at the 2019 ATM. The design is
<br /> now complete, and contracts have been awarded. The work is to be done over two construction seasons
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