The Melrose Messenger

Swains Pond Ave to Get Sidewalks Through State Grant

By Ellen Putnam

Last week, the City Council voted to accept a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s Complete Streets program to construct sidewalks on the stretch of Swains Pond Avenue between Beech Street and Penny Road. The project will provide pedestrian access to the trails at Flagg Acres and make the area more pedestrian- and bike-friendly.

The Complete Streets grant is for $450,803, and will cover design and construction work for installing sidewalks on one side of the street. The City of Melrose has received grants through this same program for several projects, including work on Howard Street and around the Hoover School.

Director of Public Works Elena Proakis Ellis explained that the City applied for the Swains Pond project in the most recent grant cycle because, of the projects on their priority list, “it’s the one we hear requests for all the time, because people want to be able to walk to their houses, to the conservation land, to school, and there’s no sidewalks at all on that whole stretch.” This project, she went on, “will connect up that whole area. You’ll be able to get all the way down to Lebanon Street on sidewalks.”

Ellis shared that the project will include asphalt sidewalks, “in keeping with what is in that part of town. You know, it has a more rural feel.”

The sidewalks will be installed on one side of the street, although which side that will be on depends on a number of restrictions. “We have utility poles, fire hydrants, some trees,” Ellis explained. “The crossing on the bridge on the culvert over the ponds is probably the most restrictive point, so that might drive which side we’re on. We’d really rather not have people have to cross the street halfway down, so we’re aiming to get everything on one side of the street.”

The Department of Public Works (DPW) will likely need to work with Melrose’s Conservation Commission on the design for the project, since construction will be done in wetland areas around Swains Pond and Towners Pond, including on the culvert between the two ponds.

“We’re not planning on reducing the road width,” Ellis went on, “we like to leave a shoulder when we can for cyclists, so we’re not going to fit the sidewalk within the paved area. It’s definitely going to go into the grass on one side or the other - and we own the right of way on both sides.”

City Councilor Ryan Williams, who represented Ward 7 (which includes the western side of this section of Swains Pond Avenue - the other side of the road is in Ward 6) before he became a City Councilor At-Large, noted, “there’s going to be some conversations to have with some residents who have put planters and things in the public right of way.”

Williams also pointed out, “I would imagine that if you create a continuous path on Swains Pond, then people who are cycling are going to want to use it, because trying to cycle around those blind curves is kind of harrowing. So the wider you can make the sidewalk, the more you can accommodate these different types of users who are going to want to be using it at the same time.”

Ellis shared that the Department of Public Works hopes to complete the project this year, although the grant funding is available through the end of next year.

The project will not involve any repairs to the road itself, although Ellis pointed out, “we don’t want to pave and then come back and try to do sidewalks in the future.” Swains Pond Avenue is “in fairly poor condition,” Ellis recognized, “so in anticipation of it popping up on the paving list, probably within the next three or four years, we thought now is a good time for the sidewalk work.”

“I’m thrilled that these sidewalks are going in,” said Councilor Williams. “It’s been a huge priority for me over the years. This is a huge sidewalk gap, and it provides the opportunity to connect this neighborhood to the bus, the train, and the Common, and just get more people walking. This is going to be here forever, and Ward 7 really needs it.”

“Closing sidewalk gaps on Swains Pond Avenue addresses long-standing requests by residents to improve walkability on this narrow and winding road,” said Mayor Jen Grigoraitis in a statement when the grant was announced last fall. “Our community is grateful for this continued partnership with the Healey-Driscoll Administration and MassDOT, which enables our community to pursue important capital improvement opportunities like this project.”

“I’d like to express my gratitude to the administration for wrangling this particular grant,” said current Ward 7 Councilor Devin Romanul at last week's meeting, “and I’m really excited about the rollout over the next couple of fiscal years. I look forward to working with (Ward 6) Councilor (Cal) Finocchiaro and figuring out where the sidewalk is going to go, and doing the community engagement legwork as well.”

“Go Ward 6!” Finocchiaro replied.

Posted March 11th, 2025