Mass. Pike Overhaul In Allston Lands $335M Federal Grant, Paving Way For More Harvard Development
The federal government has awarded $335M to an infrastructure project that would restructure part of the Massachusetts Turnpike in Allston and open up acres of developable land.
State and city officials had initially sought $500M, but the funding is the latest step toward making the decades of planning around the Allston Multimodal Project a reality, the Boston Business Journal reported. Massachusetts is working with the city, Harvard University, Boston University and other local partners on the project.
The state still has to pay a big chunk of the $2B estimated project cost. In August, Boston University pledged $10M and Harvard committed $90M toward the project, the Commonwealth Beacon reported. The city pledged $100M in direct funding and $100M from revenue generated from land developed by Harvard.
Harvard owns roughly 360 acres in the Allston neighborhood, including Beacon Yard Park, a 100-acre former rail yard that is cut off by the Mass. Pike. The university is already redeveloping a neighboring parcel with the first phase of its Enterprise Research Campus, a 900K SF project along Western Avenue in Allston.
The planned Mass. Pike overhaul would open up dozens of those Harvard-owned acres that sit between the highway and the train tracks and allow the university to develop them, The Boston Globe reported.
“The Allston Multimodal Project will improve public transit, expand parkland, reconnect residents to beautiful open space along the Charles River, and create new opportunities for housing and jobs—and bring much-needed fixes for crumbling infrastructure,” Mayor Michelle Wu said in a press release. “We will continue to work with the Allston community to refine a design that improves for our City for generations to come.”
The state was awarded the funds after applying for the Department of Transportation's Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Grant Program in September. The program provides funding to remove or mitigate barriers created by highways or other transportation infrastructure and connect communities.
The project is planned to replace the aging Allston Viaduct, which carries I-90 from the Allston Interchange to Commonwealth Avenue, and bring the highway parallel and at ground level to Soldiers Field Road. The project would also connect the Allston and Brighton communities to the Charles River and the rest of the city.
The state also plans to create a new rail and bus stop called West Station that would run along the Framingham/Worcester Commuter Rail Line.
Sen. Ed Markey, a member of the Senate Transportation Committee, announced the federal funding grant on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.
I am proud to announce that after advocacy to @SecretaryPete and @USDOT we have secured $335.4 million in funding for the Allston I-90 Multimodal Project to reconnect EJ communities in Allston and Brighton that were unjustly severed from Boston's downtown and the Charles River.
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) March 11, 2024
