Beacham Street and Williams Street Utility and Roadway Improvements

The City of Chelsea retained the services of Weston & Sampson to transform an industrial freight corridor, Beacham Street and Williams Street, connecting commercial downtown centers in Chelsea and Everett into a safe and purposeful way with multi-modal transportation systems suitable for each local industry and the broader community.

The Beacham Street and Williams Street corridor supports a highly active port business and industry. The condition of the roadway made passage difficult for residents on bike or foot, with no curbs or sidewalks. In an article posted in October 2022 by Grecia White to StreetsblogMASS, “Anyone without access to a car who works at one of the many produce distribution facilities along Beacham and Williams Streets had no choice but to walk or ride a bike down what seemed like no man’s land…”

Frequent bottlenecks and collisions occurred due to the narrow intersections where trucks had to carefully navigate on their daily routes. In addition, settled and corroded utility infrastructure over 50 years in service, and bedded in marine peats and clays regularly left the streets flooded and subject to sewer backups and water main breaks.

Weston & Sampson’s utility, roadway, traffic, environmental, permitting, and geotechnical teams supported design and construction administration efforts. The 4,000 linear foot project included the cleaning and CIPP lining or replacement of all sewers, replacement of all water valves and hydrants, and installation of comprehensive new stormwater collection systems. Our team prepared and administered a comprehensive plan for hazardous materials management, dust control, health and safety, and groundwater treatment in accordance with the Massachusetts Contingency Plan (MCP).
With design and construction of the Beacham Street and Williams Street corridor now complete, residents, businesses, and visitors can safely and confidently travel this corridor. Key highlights include:

• Improvements to the Spruce Street intersection, which includes widened intersection corners for improved truck turning between Williams and Spruce. Improvements to the signalized portion of the intersection with dedicated turning lanes and signals. Improved pedestrian access and safety through out the intersection including new pedestrian crossing signals and improved crossing patterns.
• Improved drainage, including upsizing drainpipes using engineering standards, installing catch basins at proper spacing in the street, and improving roadway grading to provide adequate pitch for drainage to catch basins. Work also included adding tide gates to prevent surcharge from island end river during extreme high tide events.
• Added fire hydrants and improved water valve spacing through the street, allowing for improved fire safety within the project space. Better valve spacing provides added redundancy and opportunity for isolating water main breaks without shutting the broader use area out of water.
• Significantly improved pedestrian safety and use of space from City of Everett line to Mulberry Street. Improvements included new 6-foot-wide concrete sidewalk throughout the entire project space as well as a new 10-foot wide shared use pedestrian and bicycle path on the opposite side of the road. This provides safe access for pedestrian travel through the space. Improvements also include updated crosswalks and improvements to ADA ramps at all project intersections.

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