The latest round of public comment on the design wrapped up this week. The project is part of a roughly $163 million overhaul intended to address long-standing transportation and safety concerns on the corridor. Federal grants are expected to cover more than half the cost; the city secured an additional $80 million in March.

The preliminary design calls for two center lanes reserved for buses and emergency vehicles. Bus stops would move from the sidewalks to concrete platforms in the roadway’s center. The wider project also includes new crosswalks, traffic signals and sidewalks, tree planting and 42 parking spaces.

At a Sept. 30 public meeting, Mayor Michelle Wu said the design could nearly halve bus travel time along the corridor, with service arriving every three to six minutes. City and MBTA officials say the center lanes would help buses avoid traffic and make crossings safer by reducing the number of lanes pedestrians need to cross.

For some riders, the promise of more reliable service is compelling. Dorchester resident Samantha Samuels, who takes the Route 28 bus, said daily congestion forces her to allow far more time than her commute should require. A trip that takes about 30 minutes without traffic, she said, can mean setting aside an hour and a half to get to work. Samuels also described drivers stopping on crosswalks and said she nearly was hit while crossing Blue Hill Avenue.

But critics question whether the redesign will make the avenue safer or more usable. State Rep. Christopher Worrell, who helped organize a protest before the town hall, said moving stops to the center could require riders to cross traffic to reach buses. He warned that the arrangement could put children and older residents at risk.

Dorchester resident Willie Pleasants said she fears the plan will intensify conflicts among cars, buses, emergency vehicles and cyclists on a road that will not be widened. She argued that changing the street layout without changing driving behavior could make conditions worse.

Boston City Councilor Miniard Culpepper also opposes center-running bus lanes and has urged officials to consider alternatives, including an Orange Line extension. He said he wants the city to begin improving lighting and sidewalks along the avenue, and suggested grant funding might be redirected to those needs.

Business owners have raised concerns about parking and construction disruption. Peter Papadogiannis, who has owned Boulevard Cleaners in Mattapan since the early 1980s, fears that customers will stop coming if parking becomes harder to find. He said he believes repaving and updating traffic lights could address some problems without a full redesign. City officials have assigned a group to work with businesses on ways to reduce construction impacts.

Supporters see the overhaul as a long-awaited investment in neighborhoods that have experienced disinvestment. At the town hall, resident Grace Richardson praised the project as a step toward directing public investment to Boston’s Black community. Transit advocates also back the design. Katarina Torres-Radisic of Transportation for Massachusetts said it would cut bus travel times and make the corridor fully accessible to people with disabilities.

Boston’s interim chief of streets, Chris Osgood, said the current proposal reflects priorities residents have raised since the city began public discussions about modernizing Blue Hill Avenue in 2019, including safety, reliable travel, beautification and support for businesses and institutions. He said officials found block-by-block feedback especially useful.

The city is about one-third of the way through design. Osgood said Boston and the MBTA hope to release updated plans before December, incorporating comments from the recent meetings. Construction is not expected to begin before 2028 and could take up to three years.