"We're not in front of your business for five years, we're in front of your business multiple times within that five years." Kristopher Surette of Tighe & Bond, the firm that designed the Mount Auburn Street Project, said it to a room of local business owners last November, according to Watertown News. That sentence explains how the corridor works this fall. The rebuild doesn't hit the whole street at once. Crews make separate passes and return to each block several times. Between those visits, a block is mostly open for business, and the storefronts along it are changing hands now, about two years before the last crew is expected to leave.
Five construction seasons, delivered in passes
The project runs about 9,300 feet, roughly 1.76 miles, from the Cambridge city line to Summer Street just east of Watertown Square. MassDOT's project record lists a construction bid of $26,661,000 and a Notice to Proceed dated February 27, 2024. The design firm says more than $28 million was secured through the State Transportation Improvement Program.
The schedule has stretched. A city project page published in July 2025 still listed completion in 2026. Four months later, Surette told businesses the job would take four to five construction seasons and was expected to finish in 2028. No newer overall completion date has been published since, so 2028 is the most recent estimate on record, not a confirmed date.
Surette described the order the crews follow on any given block:
- Utilities go in first.
- A crew returns for the roadway reconstruction.
- A crew comes back again for sidewalks.
- A final crew installs site furnishings.
Artemis Yoga owner Liz Padula put the shift in plainer terms this June, as the sidewalk crew reached her door between Arlington Street and Bigelow Avenue: "(In prior years) they redid something with the utilities, but now it's go time," she told Watertown News. "This is no longer prep stuff."
What a pass looks like on your block this month
Each week's work is published on the city's Mount Auburn Street project site, and the fall schedule shows the sidewalk pass working its way down the corridor block by block.
| Week | Sidewalk removal, grading and granite curb | Sidewalk pouring | Underground work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct. 5–9 | School Street to Richards Road | Lloyd Road to Upland Road, plus the School Street intersection | Tree trenches, Amherst Road to Walnut Street |
| Oct. 13–16 | Richards Road to Stearns Road | School Street to Richards Road, plus the School Street intersection | Drainage, Amherst Road to Walnut Street |
The School Street to Richards Road block gets its sidewalk removed and curbs set in the first week, then its concrete poured the next. Meanwhile the removal crew has already moved one block over, to Richards Road through Stearns Road. No work was scheduled for Monday, October 12, because of the holiday.
The rules are the same every week. Pedestrians are sent to the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street, and temporary walkways stay in place once a section is finished. If you need to reach a business inside an active work zone, you'll be directed to a rear entrance where one exists, or a police detail will walk you through while construction pauses. One travel lane in each direction stays open. Parking closure signs go up at 7 a.m. and come down by 5 p.m.
A single pass can take longer than people expect. In June, the sidewalk in front of Artemis Yoga came out on June 3 and new concrete went in on June 12. Erin Rathe, the city's Senior Planner for Economic Development, told Watertown News that what she heard at the November meeting "gave the impression that it would be two, three days maximum." Blocks get torn up for about a week and a half at a time, then left alone until the next crew arrives.
The storefronts turning over between passes
New operators are making long-term moves on the corridor while this is going on.
Halva Mediterranean Grill spent nearly three years at 39 Mt. Auburn St., a space that used to be the New Yorker Diner. In August it opened at 55 Main St. in Watertown Square, the former Not Your Average Joe's. Co-owner Joseph Dagdelen told Watertown News the new space is about four times larger. The family didn't give up the Mt. Auburn address. They're keeping 39 Mt. Auburn St. and plan to turn it into a breakfast place serving American food with some Mediterranean touches. No opening date has been announced.
Badam Uyghur Cuisine is taking over 58 Mount Auburn St., the former Home Taste, according to city permits reported by What Now Boston. Owner Adila Sadir told the outlet she bought the business after seeing an online post from Home Taste's owners. She has done this before. Citing earlier reporting from WGBH, What Now Boston notes that she opened Silk Road in Cambridge in 2017, which was the only Uyghur restaurant in Massachusetts at the time. Sadir hopes to open in November 2026. Watertown News reported the Home Taste closure and the change of hands in its September 21 restaurant roundup.
Both moves put a restaurant at a Mt. Auburn Street address for the years after the sidewalks are poured and the furnishings go in. Neither one has an opening date confirmed yet.
Coolidge Square stayed open, and the city added art to prove it
Coolidge Square has had the most visible stretch of construction this year. In June, the sidewalk pass moved from the Arlington Street to Bigelow Avenue block, home to Artemis Yoga, the former Olespana space and CVS, to the south side between Bigelow Avenue and Elton Avenue. That stretch includes Sevan Bakery, Stella Pizza, Boxfish Seafood Restaurant, Victoria Spa, Vasquez Barber Shop and Exotic Nails & Spa. Businesses got the word out themselves. Padula posted lighthearted videos to remind clients that the studio was open, and Rathe credited the messaging from Artemis and Donohue's Bar & Grill with letting customers know they could still get there.
The city's response was public art. According to the city announcement published by Watertown News, "Open for Business" added two site-specific installations to Coolidge Square during the reconstruction, with the stated goal of keeping foot traffic coming to the district.
- "Transitional" by MASARY Studios is a 16-by-9-foot low-relief sculpture on the wall of Coolidge Hardware, 622 Mount Auburn St. It's built from the same lane markers used on roadways, and the reflectors light up as headlights pass in the evening.
- "Dazzling the Pines" by Nighthouse Studio hangs strands of stainless steel spheres in the pine trees beside the playground and basketball court at Sullivan Park. The spheres scatter reflections by day, and projected light plays across the canopy at night.
Both pieces opened with a reception at Coolidge Hardware on May 27. They're the first finished part of a corridor where nearly everything else is still in progress.
What the last crew leaves behind
Here is what Badam, the future Halva breakfast spot and the Coolidge Square regulars will be operating on once the passes are done. For most of the corridor, Mount Auburn Street goes from two travel lanes in each direction to one, with turn lanes at key intersections. Dedicated bike lanes will cover about 95 percent of the project area, and street parking stays. The project page from Tighe & Bond, the design firm, lists signal work at 10 intersections, pedestrian beacons, transit signal priority and green infrastructure. The project site says the work is also meant to make the MBTA's Route 71 bus run more efficiently.
Coolidge Square gets its own identity in stone. Rathe described several corners getting "a big granite wall that's got Coolidge Square embossed right into it," which will double as seating, along with landscaping and new street trees. A landscaped area is planned at Bigelow Avenue. The tree trenches going in this month between Amherst Road and Walnut Street are early pieces of that finished street.
Padula, whose studio has been on the block since December 2015, expects the disruption to pay off. "It will encourage more walkability, more visits," she told Watertown News. "It will be good in the end."
On the calendar for the rest of the fall
- This week, Oct. 13–16: sidewalk removal between Richards Road and Stearns Road, pouring from School Street to Richards Road, and drainage from Amherst Road to Walnut Street.
- November 2026: Badam Uyghur Cuisine's target opening at 58 Mount Auburn St.
- Date to come: Halva's breakfast spot at 39 Mt. Auburn St.
- Every week: a new schedule at mountauburnstreet.com. The city notes that all dates are approximate and depend on weather and testing.
If you own a home near Mount Auburn Street and want to know how a street changing block by block affects what your property is worth today, The Reece Team at Mike Reece can give you a clear, local read on it. Get Your Home Valuation, and we'll walk you through what's happening on your stretch of the corridor.
