After decades of talk about improving the area along the Emerald Necklace path where pedestrians and cyclists often have to play a game of Frogger in order to cross Route 9, Brookline is finishing up a bicycle and pedestrian crossing improvement project.

The crossing now has a clearly marked crosswalk and is ADA compliant, along with a crossing light that pedestrians can trigger, and a pedestrian-triggered cross light is on the way.

“The bicycle/pedestrian light is being coordinated with Boston. The ornamental street lights are being ordered for a spring install and the plantings are being tagged this winter and installed in the spring. We are all really excited about the project!” said Director of Parks and Open Space Erin Gallentine in an email to the TAB.

The Board of Selectmen voted to award a contract with UEL Contractors in the amount of $1,436,790 for the construction of a safe crossing for pedestrians and bicycles across Route 9 at River Road to connect the Emerald Necklace Park path from Olmsted Park on the south to Riverway Park.

Previously, the situation for bicyclists and pedestrians traveling between the Riverway and Olmsted Park was to wait for traffic and then chance a run across two lanes of traffic, hang out on the median and then venture across another two lanes at Washington Street at Pond Avenue and River Road in Brookline where there was no crosswalk. The other option was to walk or ride an extra block to the light and cross down the street cross and come back to the path.

Gallentine said construction includes safety improvements intended to reduce the speeds of cars turning.

“It’s the result of tremendous staff collaboration,” said Gallentine.

The Department of Public Works’s Engineering and Transportation Division along with the town’s Parks and Open Space Division and the Planning Department broke ground after a two-year public process that involved an 11-person, selectmen-led advisory committee. The commission published the Emerald Necklace Bicycle and Pedestrian Crossings Final Report in 2013. Collaboration partners include the Department of Conservation and Recreation, Boston Transportation Department, Boston Parks Department and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy.

A Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation Partnership Grant is funding the entire project.

“I think it’s great. It adds a much needed easy bicycle crossing to route 9 and I look forward to the integration to that of all the Gateway East improvements that are on their way. This is just the first step to the redevelopment in the area,” said Chairman of the Board of Selectman Neil Wishinsky.

Wishinsky added that in the spring the plan was for trees to be planted in the area.

Gallentine said the town has been discussing plans to do something to the area, which borders Boston, for more than 20 years. “[But] plans were shelved due to jurisdiction issues,” she told the TAB last year.