At long last, sidewalk work has begun on Ballou Avenue in the multi-layered Jones Avenue Street Improvement project, which looks to bring several infrastructure improvements into a single project. Seth Daniel photos.
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A public works project that started last week on a grid of side streets in a section of Dorchester off Blue Hill Avenue offers a window into what city Streets Team officials say is a new, clustered approach to rolling out improvements to sidewalks and other safety measures citywide.
The $11.1 million project is targeting Woodrow Avenue and streets that connect off it, including Jones Avenue, Ballou Avenue, Dumas Street, Mascot Street, Willowwood Street, and Jacob Street. The all-in-one job project includes new sidewalks, paving, intersection reconfigurations, tree plantings, improved lighting, and speed humps.
Boston’s interim Chief of Streets Chris Osgood says the job will make permanent improvements to the temporary work done in that neighborhood in 2019 under a previous program called Neighborhood Slow Streets.
“Building off that quick-build, these improvements will bring safety benefits, efforts in beautification, and a state of good repair work together,” Osgood told The Reporter.
“This project is doing work in all three work categories – street safety, street beautification, and delivering city services,” he added. “I think it is an example of taking what we have done going from the quick-builds to something permanent. We are literally building on our past work.”
WANA neighbors James Simmons, Stephenson King, Nina Johnson-Letonia, Linda Diaz,and Lynette Griffeth Fields celebrated the start of construction last Friday on a street improvement project in their neighborhood that has been in the works since 2022.
Neighbors like Nina Johnson-Letonia say they hope the new approach will yield improvements to safety that they have been asking for in recent years. She leads the Woodrow Avenue Neighborhood Association (WANA)— which focuses on a heavily residential section tucked in along the Fairmount Line rail corridor that neighbors say has become a favored cut-through between Norfolk and Morton Streets to Codman Square with cars that often speed through dangerously.
Streets in that area run at odd angles and intersections are tricky and strangely configured with parking on both sides, making entries and exits dicey, particularly with cars speeding along.
Johnson-Letonia founded WANA in 2016 to advocate for better city services.
“We needed it all,” she said. “The sidewalks need repaired. The streets need repaving. We need better lighting and traffic safety, which is huge. We had some car accidents and especially at the intersection of Jones Avenue… where a neighbor’s fence kept getting destroyed by accidents there and one of our neighbors had her porch destroyed by a car accident.”
She said that after the temporary project in 2019, neighbors started asking the city to go further. Permanent designs started in 2022 but work dragged on.
“We kept asking and asking and kept all our concerns on our meeting agenda monthly,” she said. “Finally, one month I said that this information will remain on our agenda until something happens. It’s not going to go away…It did start this year, and we are grateful it has started and look forward to next steps in the process and getting all of the new improvements.”
Osgood said that in addition to the infrastructure work, while workers are in the area, they will be looking at a few intersections to make them safer. That includes Jones Avenue, the namesake of the project.
“Residents will also see changes at Jones and Ballou and Willowwood and Dumas where the intersection design will be changed with a focus on safety,” he said. “There will be a physical change in the curb line and Jones will have bump outs so pedestrian crossings will be shorter – as much as one-third to one-quarter shorter.”
Right now, crews are working on drainage issues on Ballou Avenue and Willowwood Street, and sidewalks are being dug up with full-depth replacement all along Ballou.
On Friday, Johnson-Letonia and four other neighbors gathered there to assess the sidewalk work. Cars still barreled up the street uninterrupted, but this time neighbors were reassured the days of that happening are short lived; speed humps are on the way.
“This shows when we work together and commit to something and we don’t give up on our goals and what we truly and rightfully deserve in our area of Dorchester – we can make a difference,” she said. “We just have to stick together and keep connections open while staying at the table. If we’re not at the table, someone else will make the decisions for us.”
And WANA is now ready to rest on its laurels. Johnson-Letonia and a handful of her neighbors already have their eyes on the deteriorating staircase that leads down from the Norfolk Street bridge to Mascot Street. “I know that we deserve better,” she said.
Copyright © 2026 Boston Neighborhood News, Inc. This content may not be re-published or re-used without written permission.
