The college plans to spend more than $1 million to expand the sidewalk in front of its Boylston Street buildings, according to a college official.
Senior Vice President of Real Estate Arthur Mombourquette said the college is receiving bids from construction companies for the project in the millions of dollars. Sections of the Boylston Street sidewalk are decades old and the college wants to make the sidewalk safer for students pushing laundry carts, Mombourquette said.
Mombourquette expects construction on parts of the Boylston Street sidewalk to begin in early spring.
“We need to work out… [how] to keep a portion of the sidewalk open at all times with safe passage into the buildings along Boylston Street,” he said.
The college plans to expand the sidewalk from the Little Building to the M. Steinert and Sons building. The expansion will eliminate the parking lane on Boylston Street and add benches, planters, signage, and a crosswalk from the Boylston Place alley to the Boston Common.
The expansion should make the sidewalk feel more like the college’s campus, Vice President and Dean of Campus Life James Hoppe said at a Student Government Association meeting last semester.
“It’ll be more like a campus promenade,” Hoppe said at the SGA meeting.
SGA Executive Treasurer Ian Mandt said he is glad to see the college preparing for the construction. Mandt said he thinks the construction will add to the student experience, make the college more attractive to prospective students, and make the sidewalk safer for students pushing laundry carts.
“The sidewalk right now is in disrepair,” Mandt said. “If you’ve ever pushed a laundry cart around during move in, or traveled with equipment, it is hard and frankly dangerous at points.”
