When the summer crowds left Surfside Road this year, CC Construction came back. In the last week of August, crews started laying gravel subbase for a new bike path through the State Forest between Rugged Road and Old South Road. That is the first piece of a fall work season meant to finish what the past year left half done.
The Town calls this the Phase 2 Surfside Area Transportation Improvements Project. It rebuilds Lovers Lane, Okorwaw Avenue and Monohansett Road with new drainage, new pavement, traffic calming and full-length shared-use paths on all three roads. Ask people what it's for and most will say "the bike paths," which is only half the answer. The project's real purpose is connection. The Town's project page describes it as "a much-needed connection between the existing shared-use paths on Airport Road, Old South Road, and the Boulevarde." Those three paths already exist on their own, and the stretch being built this fall is what joins them.
The Rule That Sets the Calendar
The work goes quiet each summer and picks up again as the season ends because of one condition in the project terms. The Town's project page says construction is permitted between Labor Day and Memorial Day each year. Work after Memorial Day can be approved only if the contractor asks, and only depending on the type and location of the work.
The project began in early September 2025 and is expected to be fully finished before summer 2027. That gives it two off-seasons of heavy work with one summer break between them. Crews work Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. In practice, the people who use these roads in October, January and April feel the work most, and summer traffic gets the finished result.
It has also been a long time coming. The project has been in the Town's Capital Improvement Plan since 2016. Funding was built up over several Town Meetings:
- 2016 Annual Town Meeting: authorization to borrow $1,000,000 for the Boulevarde, Lovers Lane and Okorwaw Avenue.
- 2017: another $1,000,000 for the same roads.
- 2018: $534,800 of free cash added for the Surfside area, now including Monohansett Road.
- 2023: $13,000,000 for design and construction of the roads and sidepaths.
- 2025: reappropriations and borrowings totaling $6,472,673.
MassDOT Chapter 90 money adds $3,172,854. In November 2025, the Town also announced a $4 million MassWorks Infrastructure Program grant for safety and mobility upgrades in the Surfside area. Bids opened on April 23, 2025, and CC Construction won the contract in June 2025 with a base bid of $18,799,759.58. Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. designed the project and is handling construction administration.
What the First Winter Finished
The first off-season mostly went into work you can't see once it's done. The May/June 2026 Town Manager Newsletter reported that drainage installation was complete and the first layer of pavement was down on Lovers Lane, Monohansett Road and nearby side streets. The first traffic-calming feature, a raised intersection at Lovers Lane and Rugged Road, was also in place. The Town said it was collecting traffic data there to see how well it works. A water main extension on Davkim Lane was finished at the same time.
Drainage came first for a reason. The Town lists stormwater problems alongside safety concerns as the issues the project is meant to fix. Almost all of the permanent work, including drainage and bike paths, sits inside public rights-of-way. There are two exceptions: an underground drainage system in a permanent easement on private property off Lovers Lane, and the bike path through DCR State Forest land between Rugged Road and Old South Road. The easements were approved at the 2023 Special Town Meeting, and all permanent and temporary easements have been recorded.
The same May newsletter set up this fall's work. Fall 2026 was expected to bring road and drainage work on Okorwaw Avenue, bike path construction on Lovers Lane and Monohansett Road, and final paving. The Town said the project was on schedule to finish "well before summer 2027."
This Fall's Work
This fall's segments are the ones that link the paths together. Here is where each section stood in the Town's most recent project update, the August/September 2026 Town Manager Newsletter, published September 3:
| Segment | Where it runs | Status in the Sept. 3, 2026 update |
|---|---|---|
| Lovers Lane | Old South Road to the Boulevarde | Bike path work continuing through early September |
| State Forest path | Rugged Road to Old South Road | Gravel subbase work began the last week of August |
| Monohansett Road | Okorwaw Avenue to Miller Lane | Bike path work continuing through early September |
| Okorwaw Avenue | Lovers Lane to Monohansett Road | Waiting on utility relocations, then drainage, road rebuilding and the Lovers Lane-to-Monohansett path "later this fall" |
Okorwaw Avenue is the last big piece. The Inquirer and Mirror reported in October 2025 that the full build-out comes to 2.4 miles of new bike paths. It also reported that the Okorwaw Avenue and Monohansett Road intersection is planned as a four-way stop. The Inquirer and Mirror published the original schedule in that same article. It listed Okorwaw for May through December 2026, with a punch list and final cleanup in spring 2027. The Town's 2026 updates now put Okorwaw's drainage and road work later this fall, once the utility relocations are done. They do not give a new completion date beyond the "before summer 2027" target.
The Town updates cited here do not say which new path sections are open to bikes and walkers yet. The September/October Town Manager Newsletter, published October 7, does not give a separate Surfside update. Its road-work section points readers to the weekly closures page.
Where to Check Before You Drive
The Town has said that full road closures are expected for the length of the project. Where those closures fall changes as the contractor moves through the work area. Closures for this project are no longer listed on its own project page. They now appear in the Town's weekly Road Closures update, which you can subscribe to by email. Reports usually go up on Mondays, except holidays.
The latest report as of this writing covers the week of October 5. It lists closures on New Street, at 21 India Street and on North Union and Cambridge Streets, plus a house-move route. It lists nothing on Lovers Lane, Okorwaw Avenue or Monohansett Road. The bulletin covers full closures and major disruptions, not every worksite, so a road missing from the list may still have crews and flaggers on it. The closures page itself still shows Surfside Phase II as ongoing through May 2027.
The Stop Sign Town Meeting Kept
On Surfside Road itself, a smaller change has already been settled. In early 2026, town staff recommended adding two stop signs where Surfside Road, Miacomet Road and Surfside Drive meet, turning it into a four-way stop for a trial in April. The plan was to decide afterward, based on public feedback and safety data, whether to keep them. The trial came ahead of a citizen petition on the spring Town Meeting warrant that asked for permanent stop signs at the same intersection.
Transportation program manager Mike Burns was open about the tradeoff. He told the Select Board, as Nantucket Current reported, that the signs could be justified "because of the high crash numbers," but that "there will be some congestion at the intersection."
"If you can imagine what the cues are like for the Bartlett-Surfside Road intersection, [it] probably won't be as bad as that, but comparable, so that's really the trade."
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation reviewed the intersection and agreed the stop signs could be warranted. Opinion was close at first. In a 24-hour Instagram poll run by Nantucket Current, 53 percent of 1,473 votes favored the stop signs and 47 percent opposed them. After about six weeks of drivers living with the signs, Town Meeting was much less divided. Nantucket Current's live coverage reported that Article 35 passed 213 to 35, making the stop signs permanent.
So the Surfside Road intersection is settled, and the planned four-way stop at Okorwaw and Monohansett, along with the raised crossing at Lovers Lane and Rugged Road, come in through the larger project. If the Town's schedule holds, this fall and next spring's punch list are all that's left before summer 2027.
If you own a Surfside home that you rent by the week, finished paths and calmer roads change what you can tell next summer's guests about getting to the beach by bike. When you start planning 2027 bookings, Sanford & Sanford can help you describe the new connections accurately once the Town confirms they're open. Buy, sell, or rent with Sanford & Sanford.
