Travel Lane to Close in Each Direction on Mass Turnpike for a Year Due to Parcel 12 Project

One traffic lane will close in each direction on the Mass Turnpike effective Saturday, Aug. 22 and lasting for approximately a year as construction proceeds on the Parcel 12 air-rights project, a representative for Samuels & Associates said.

The Boston-based developer’s project will transform the critical intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston and Newbury streets in Back Bay into a sprawling mixed-use complex “featuring storefront retail, a boutique hotel and world-class office space,” according to Morgan McKenna of the local PR firm Denterlein, as well as “connect the South End and the City of Cambridge, and vastly improve the street-level experience along Massachusetts Avenue between Boylston and Newbury streets.”

Samuels & Associates Principal, Abe Menzin said in a statement: “Samuels & Associates is so pleased to finally begin work on this project after years of planning and process. The project will be transformative in fulfilling the neighborhood’s vision and repairing the urban fabric of the Back Bay. The project includes significant safety and transit improvements at the Newbury/Mass Ave. intersection, reconfiguration of a dangerous highway ramp and includes a half-acre public plaza.”

The project will also result in myriad transportation benefits, McKenna wrote, via the creation of separated bike lanes that will connect to the existing lanes on Massachusetts Avenue, a new sheltered MBTA bus stop at Mass. Ave. and Newbury Street (Hynes T Station Southbound), and widened sidewalks and pedestrian amenities in the plaza, as well as updated crossing signals.

A new entrance to the MBTA’s Hynes Convention Center Green Line station will also open as part of the project, McKenna added.

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