This section of Allston will be transformed during the course of the Allston Multimodal Project, which transportation officials say will take eight years to complete. Photo courtesy of MassDOT
Gov. Maura Healey is again asking federal officials for financial help for an infrastructure project that political and business leaders see as vital to unlocking development potential in and around Boston’s Allston neighborhood.
Along with three other projects worth over $2 billion in federal aid – replacement of the Bourne Bridge on Cape Cod, renovating the MBTA’s North Station and its 90-year old drawbridge across the Charles River and rebuilding Route 9 in Williamsburg – Healey is asking the U.S. Department of Transportation for $200 million for the $2 billion Allston Multimodal Project. A previous ask for $1.2 billion in federal funds was passed over.
The work would rebuild and straighten the Massachusetts Turnpike as it curves through Allston, expanding a bicycle path along the Charles River and adding a new MBTA commuter rail and bus station designed to serve 85 acres of former rail yards and highway offramps that Harvard University hopes to redevelop in partnership with private firms into a new, large neighborhood. The school has already secured city approval for the first, four-building phase of the decades-long work.
“The Allston Multimodal Project is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve the lives and livelihoods of families all across our city and region with safer roads, access to jobs, and new parks and housing,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement provided by Healey’s office. “In restoring the neighborhood connections lost to hulking highway infrastructure decades ago, Allston will be home to new spaces for community and access to the Charles River, along with a transit hub to serve the entire region.”
Kate Dineen, CEO of business-backed transit and planning advocacy group A Better City, praised the governor’s second try at getting federal funding, this time with the assistance of former assistant attorney general Quentin Palfrey, now the administration’s quarterback for infrastructure projects seeking federal money, and without the distraction of a rancorous debate over how to rebuild a particularly constricted area where the Mass. Pike, MBTA train tracks, a key bicycle path and Soldiers Field Road all come together.
“With this application, we are one step closer to meeting the moment demanded by our region’s economic challenge and opportunities,” Dineen said in a statement. “The I-90 Allston Multimodal Project is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine the western gateway to Boston, to restore access to the Charles River, to clear the way for new housing and business development at Beacon Park Yard, and to create new transportation options for the entire region. The development of West Station is particularly vital in creating better access to jobs and affordable housing.”
