BWH garage, park project to start next spring

After several years’ delay, a project to build a garage and park at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) at Brigham Circle is finally moving forward.

The Brigham Green project will create an underground parking garage in front of the Peter Bent Brigham building at 15 Francis St. and landscape the area into green space with benches and open space. Wok will involve lengthy blasting.

Blasting and excavation are planned for three months next summer. A representative from Walsh Brothers Construction said blasting will be kept to 50 percent of the city’s allowable levels during a community meeting on Nov. 1.

Community members present at the meeting expressed concern over the blasting and traffic pattern changes, but seemed satisfied once the project team explained the measures they would take to minimize possible damage and inconvenience.

“We’re very concerned about this,” Mombourquette said, noting that BWH has many buildings with old foundations that could also be disturbed by the blasting.

The project’s construction team said it hopes to implement a regular schedule to minimize inconvenience and surprise to the neighborhood.

BWH would also sacrifice some of its property to create a sidewalk wide enough for a bus shelter on the east side of Huntington Avenue.

The 400-space valet parking garage would be accessed through a private drive from 45 Francis St. Exiting cars would drive back to 45 Francis St. on the street.

The current surface parking lot has approximately 25 spaces for BWH employees.

The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2013. It was delayed from its original 2008 start date because of the economy.

Mombourquette said that, “with the city’s permission,” BWH would love to also landscape the small park across the street in front of the Sovereign Bank.

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