'Tis no secret that a slew of new apartments and retail is (are?) headed to the Alewife area in North Cambridge.
Indeed, projects like The Atmark and the Residences at Alewife are expected to drop more than 1,200 apartments around the Red Line terminus and thereby add at least a couple of thousand new residents. The city's wise to the situation, of course, wanting to attune the new development with public transit, as is the Hub's way.
Per Marc Levy at Cambridge Day: "[T]he city is looking anew at adding public transportation options and a bridge across the train tracks for use by pedestrians and bicyclists. ... [T]he City Council awarded $375,000 for a feasibility study of a bridge – a revival of an idea in the Concord-Alewife Plan completed nearly eight years ago proposing a link between the so-called Alewife Triangle (the 60-acre area north of the commuter rail tracks and between the Alewife Reservation and Alewife Brook Parkway) and Quadrangle (the 130 acres south of the tracks between the Cambridge Highlands neighborhood and area shopping center)."
The $375K is likely not nearly enough, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, construction of the new apartment complexes continues apace, meaning some of them will open well before any new public transit options or pedestrian bridges. Also, a little bit of related transit trivia: The MBTA rejected a commuter-rail stop at Alewife in 2005, saying their wasn't enough train traffic to justify it. Times a-change.
· Fast-Growing Alewife Studied for Bridge Over Tracks and Commuter Rail Connector [Day]
· In North Cambridge, a Plethora of New Apartment Buildings [Curbed Boston]
· Somerville's Downward-Facing Doghouse and Hub's Apt. Future [Curbed Boston]