Complete Streets Projects: Making Roadways Safer for All

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The Town of Sudbury is advancing through the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s (MassDOT) Complete Streets Funding Program.

A Complete Street is one that provides safe and accessible options for all travel modes – walking, biking, transit, and motorized vehicles – for people of all ages and abilities. Learn about Sudbury’s proposed Complete Streets projects at the Complete Streets Public Meeting on Monday, February 24 at 7 PM in the Police Station Conference Room.

The program was created by legislative authorization through the 2014 Transportation Bond Bill with the intent of rewarding municipalities that demonstrate a commitment to embedding Complete Streets in policy and practice.

Program Objectives for Complete Streets Funding:

1. Provide technical assistance and incentives for adoption of Complete Streets policies by municipalities.
2. Encourage municipalities to adopt a strategic and comprehensive approach to Complete Streets.
3. Facilitate better pedestrian, bicycle, and transit travel for users of all ages and abilities.
4. Distribute funding to reward municipalities who have committed to adopting Complete Streets best practices.
5. Ensure underserved municipalities are served equitably by the program.

Rewards for communities choosing to participate in Complete Streets:

1. Funding for technical assistance to analyze their community needs and develop a Complete Streets Prioritization Plan (up to $38,000).
2. Funding for construction of Complete Streets infrastructure projects (up to $400,000).

The Complete Streets Funding Program is structured with three Tiers to meet municipalities where they are at in the development of their Complete Streets Policy and practices. The Town formed a Complete Streets Advisory Group (consisting of a member of the Board of Selectmen, the Director of Public Works, Town Engineer, Director of Planning & Community Development, Environmental Planner, Police Chief, and Fire Chief) to work with a consultant, THE BETA Group. Inc., to advance through each tier of the program as follows.

Tier 1 – Complete Streets Training and Policy Development

The first Tier of the program is designed to assist municipalities in developing a comprehensive Complete Streets policy and incorporating Complete Streets principles into current and future infrastructure development practices.

The Town of Sudbury has completed this step and the Sudbury Complete Streets Policy was approved by MassDOT on October 17, 2019. 

Tier 2 – Complete Streets Prioritization Plan and Development

The second Tier of the program looks to the municipality to determine its Complete Streets needs and prioritize its Complete Streets infrastructure projects through the development of a Complete Streets Prioritization Plan. The Prioritization Plan must include a minimum of 15 projects.

Sudbury is currently participating in Tier 2. See Complete Streets Concept Plans below for more information on the proposed Complete Streets projects in Sudbury.

Tier 3 – Project Construction Funding 

Tier 3 presents municipalities with the opportunity to receive funding for Complete Streets infrastructure projects. Municipalities can only enter Tier 3 after the successful completion of Tiers 1 and 2. The municipality can submit an application annually for funding.

For more information about the Complete Streets Funding Program, please see: https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2018/08/13/FundingProgramGuidance.pdf

Complete Streets Concept Plans

The draft proposed Tier 2 Complete Streets projects were compiled by the Town’s Complete Streets Advisory Group with the assistance of its engineering consultant, THE BETA Group. Inc. The projects are currently randomly numbered and represent no specific order of priority. The Advisory Group is sharing these projects for the first time with the general public for review and comment at a public meeting on February 24^th. At this time these projects are conceptual in nature and are used to generally show the limits of work and provide a preliminary layout of each Complete Streets project. The consultant uses the concepts to develop a preliminary ballpark cost estimate of project construction. More detailed preliminary design and cost estimates will be developed before a project is identified to apply for infrastructure funding from MassDOT in Tier 3 of the program.

Proposed Complete Streets Projects – draft list of Sudbury Complete Streets projects proposed to MassDOT

Complete Streets Draft Prioritization Plan – provides additional information about each proposed project

All of these proposed projects will be discussed at a Complete Streets Public Meeting on Monday, February 24, 2020 at 7:00 PM in the Police Station Meeting Room, 75 Hudson Road. The public meeting will provide an opportunity to review and comment upon the draft Prioritization Plan. The Town will then direct the consultant to make revisions, as necessary, and will submit the plan to the state by April. We anticipate MassDOT will approve the plan by mid-April, which will allow the Town to be in a position to highlight several Complete Streets projects (based on priority, cost, advancement of Complete Streets goals, project readiness, etc.) in an application for construction funding due in May, as well as in future funding rounds.

To learn more about what other communities have been working on and what they have received in funding, please see the following link: https://masscompletestreets.com/Home/participationreport

For questions, please contact the Planning and Community Development Department at 978-639-3387 or PCD@sudbury.ma.us.

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