DEDHAM – State officials recently announced the award of $6.5 million total to cities and towns which applied for funding from the Shared Streets and Spaces Grant Program. The program provides technical and funding assistance to help Massachusetts municipalities conceive, design, and implement changes to curbs, streets, plazas, and parking areas in support of public health, safe mobility, renewed commerce, and community betterment.
For this round of awards, MassDOT received 94 applications, of which, all but four were eligible. This is the largest applicant pool received in a single round to date. In this round, 78 applications were selected for funding – 77 municipalities and one transit agency (the MBTA) – for a total of $6,506,185.30 in awards and 51% of the awards are going to designated Environmental Justice Communities. In this round of funding, 28% of the awardees have never received a Shared Streets and Spaces award before.
This round of funding is under the Shared Winter Streets and Spaces program launched late in 2020 for municipalities to continue making accommodations for the public during the cold winter months and provides grants as small as $5,000 and as large as $500,000 for municipalities to quickly launch changes for safer walking, biking, public transit, recreation, commerce, and civic activities. These changes can be intentionally temporary or can be permanent improvements.
- Braintree received $65,139.80 to add curb bump-outs, bring all existing curb ramps into ADA compliance, install new signage for parking and crosswalks, and plant new trees on the portion of South Braintree Square that includes Washington Street from Pearl Street to Taylor Street.
- Rockland received $184,200.00 to make major improvements to the streets of the downtown area, including better and safer facilities for pedestrians and bicyclists, new bike parking at the local Senior Center, and better connections to the Rockland Rail Trail.
State Senator John F. Keenan 