Seek alternate routes: Weston Road paving scheduled for July 8-9

UPDATE: Due to inclement weather, Weston Road paving has been rescheduled for Wednesday, July 8, and Thursday, July 9. Work will take place from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both days.

Crews are scheduled to pave Weston Road in Wellesley on Tuesday, July 7 and Wednesday, July 8, weather permitting. The work is set to take place 7am-5pm on both days. (DATES CHANGED TO JULY 8 & 9 DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER.)

A quick look at our phone weather app calls for rain at least on Tuesday, so we’ll see what shakes out.

During paving, Weston Road will be closed to through traffic. Drivers will need to use alternate routes.

Police details will be on site to help with vehicle and pedestrian traffic. Please allow extra travel time when in this area on both days.

This work is part of the final phase of the Weston Road Reconstruction Project that is expected to be completed later this summer.

Weston Road, a work in progress

Reconstruction work by the town or public utilities has been a common occurrence for years on busy Weston Road, which in its entirety stretches roughly 3.5 miles from the Weston town line to just past Wellesley Square at the Washington St./Rt. 16 intersection.

During spring 2026 the town worked on the 3,800-ft section of roadway that leads up to the Weston town line. That project included replacing the 40-year-old  roadway, reconstructing the sidewalks, driveway aprons, wheelchair ramps, and loam/seeding work.

This tail-end work is part of an major reconstruction of Weston Road that the Department of Public Works (DPW) Engineering Division began in May 2025. The capital project covered water main replacement between Boulder Brook Road and the Weston town line, new drainage replacement, new sidewalks and wheelchair ramps, new curbing, new roadway surface and pavement markings, new pedestrian crossing lights and speed awareness radars.

Next up

Two other design and construction projects are in the works, one that will affect Weston Road traffic due to its proximity and the other that will directly involve the road.

The first is Wellesley Square Amenities Project. This project encompasses the area along Central Street and Washington Street from Weston Road to Wellesley Avenue. The goal is to enhance the public areas, improve pedestrian safety and intersections, and ease traffic congestion while prioritizing the Square as the Wellesley’s primary commercial corridor.

The second is the Fells-Route 9/Weston Road Interchange. This project, identified during the Complete Streets prioritization process as the number one concern for residents, will evaluate redesigning the Route 9 ramp intersections with Weston Road and Cleveland Road to increase safe access and visibility for local businesses and Hardy School, and to improve safety for pedestrians and vehicles.

Design consultants engaged by the Town are just getting started and you may see survey crews in these areas in the coming weeks. A public engagement process will launch in fall 2026 with opportunities for direct abutters, residents, business owners and merchants to have their say about priorities.

Coming soon(ish)?

So once the Weston Road gets its finishing touches on July 8 & 9, traffic will flow, right? We should be good for decades, right?

Not so fast.

Enter the Fire Department Master Plan.

The Fire Department is facing current challenges with aging and undersized facilities. Fire Station 1 at 104 Central St. is almost 100 years old, and Fire Station 2 at 457 Worcester St. is almost 40 years old. The Wellesley Fire Department presented its Fire Station Master Plan at the June 2 Select Board meeting, which proposes building a new headquarters to replace the century-old Fire Station One in Wellesley Square and heavily renovating Fire Station Two — the current headquarters on Rte. 9 west — to serve as a substation.

Here’s Swellesley’s coverage of that presentation to the Select Board.

The fire department is currently considering three locations for the new station:

• 156 Weston Rd. at the Curve Street intersection
• 156 Weston Rd. at the Howe Street intersection
• 515 Washington St, which is adjacent to the police station

So two out of the three locations suggested are on the fully restored Weston Road, with the ideal location identified as 156 Weston Rd. at Curve Street. The reasoning is that placement there would improve response time in the northwestern section of town, have the most future flexibility and not be impacted by aqueducts, according to the presentation.

If the Town goes forward with placing a new fire station on Weston Road, we can all say goodbye to the carefully restored street, and get ready to dig up—and re-pave—for all the work completed in that area.

It’s early days for the Fire Department Master Plan. Jeff Shaw, president of Context Architecture, the consulting firm hired to develop the plan, said the project’s implementation would take roughly seven years. He said the project would consist of several phases, including feasibility studies, design and construction, during which there will be a temporary station for the firefighters.

The estimated total project cost is between $65 million and $75 million, according to the presentation.

Paving paradise?

Those Weston Road properties under consideration for the new fire station happen to be located on the North 40, a 46-acre, undeveloped parcel of land that the town purchased from Wellesley College for $35 million in 2014. A fire station project there would require about two of the 46 acres of space.

Two out of 46 acres doesn’t sound so bad, except that the acreage in question has been used as the Weston Road Community Garden since the 1940s. Currently, there are about 90 garden plots spread out over a 2.5-acre space.

We can certainly expect the citizenry to show up and engage at future community meetings.

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