Dear Wellesley: Take us to your summer homes, please.
Travel from Wellesley into Boston will be tougher than usual this summer, as the MBTA will be replacing trains with shuttle buses for much of the summer during weekends, while Mass Pike and other road restrictions and closures will be in effect, too. So yeah, you might want to just tool around Wellesley, where the streets are relatively traffic-free during summer.
MBTA service on the Worcester/Framingham commuter rail line will be disrupted for seven consecutive weekends (from Saturday, June 23rd through Sunday, August 5th) as equipment is installed in order to comply with a federally mandated upgrade to the Positive Train Control (PTC) signal system. In lieu of train service, free bus shuttles will be available between the Framingham stop and Riverside T Station. So the Wellesley Square, Wellesley Hills and Wellesley Farms stations will be served by buses. Usual schedules will be in place weekdays, including Friday nights.
The double whammy comes in the form of MassDOT’s wrapping up of the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge Replacement Project this summer. As a result, Comm Ave, the BU Bridge, and the Pike will experience closures and lane restrictions similar to last summer. The dates and locations of the disruptions are as follows:
Commonwealth Ave closed (between Packard’s Corner and Kenmore Square, including BU Bridge): Thursday, July 26th at 7:00pm through Saturday, August 11th at 5:00am
Mass Pike lane reduction (down to two lanes in both direction: Friday, July 27th at 8:00am through Monday, August 6th at 5:00am
Eastbound on-ramp from Cambridge St./Soldiers Field Rd. will be closed for this entire period
Westbound Exit 20 Brighton/Cambridge off-ramp will be closed intermittently
Small price to pay for PTC and the signal upgrades that will come with it! CP 6 going live will also improve reliability and resiliency when things go haywire.