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BOSTON-The city is undertaking a major initiative to broaden a dozen Downtown streets to make them more pedestrian friendly and create access to the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway and Boston Harbor. Dubbed the Crossroads Initiative, the project is designed to connect neighborhoods once separated by the Central Artery Project and create new ways to navigate the city by widening sidewalks to accommodate seating for outdoor restaurants, upgrading lighting and creating new traffic signs.

Jessica Shumaker, with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, tells GlobeSt.com, "It will make streets more pedestrian friendly, make Downtown more walkable and create livelier streetscapes," says Shumaker. Work on the project has already started on Broad Street, where a number of new restaurants and 140 condominium units are expected to transform the street into a new urban oasis with links to the Old State House and the Customs Tower. The Crossroads Initiative is expected to be completed by 2014 and will cost an estimated $55 million.

Other streets are also due for a makeover, including Congress Street, which will include information kiosks, maps and signs to connect visitors in the heart of the Financial District to the Boston Tea Party Ship, the Fort Point Channel, the South Boston Waterfront and the Boston Children's Museum.