By Dan Murphy
The Boston Parks Department will undertake several capital-improvement projects on the Boston Common in the coming months.
Michele Folts, project manager, said the biggest endeavor would be the $3.5 million renovation of Parkman Plaza and the park’s Tremont Street edge, including the redesigning the semi-circular plaza, restoring interior pathways and relocating the plaza’s three statues near a newly constructed seat wall. The project is expected to go out to bid in November, with construction slated for completion next July, Folts said.
The city will also undertake the $465,000 Boylston Street sidewalk project, which would bring the pedestrian pathway atop the tracks for the MBTA Boylston Street station into ADA compliance. “We hope to be finished in June, depending on the weather,” Folts said.
In October, the city began the Shaw Memorial accessibility study in an effort to better connect the statue that sits across from the State House to the rest of the park. The study should be completed by the end of spring 2017, Folts said.
Finally, the city will undertake the Frog Pond Master Plan study, which Marchelle Jaques-Yarde, the outreach coordinator for the department’s design and construction division, described as a study of its buildings and systems that intends to make the ice rink and other features more successful.