| After facing pushback from local officials and the MBTA board chair, Department of Transportation officials softened their stance on funding requirements for a “once-in-a-generation” infrastructure project in Allston.
The move removes a potential roadblock to the Interstate 90 realignment project, which would unlock large swaths of land for development by Harvard University.
Instead of contributions, the state will explore ways to get other stakeholders such as the City of Boston and Harvard University to help fund the massive work, projected to surpass $1 billion in costs, but will no longer require those entities to pay up as a precondition for recommending one of the more substantial designs they want.
MassDOT had floated a resolution outlining an expectation that an Allston Multimodal Project financing plan “must include multiple funding sources,” including “value-sharing” contributions from municipalities, schools and other private entities that could benefit from opening up space near the Charles River.
Without that commitment, Undersecretary Scott Bosworth warned on Monday, the state would be “forced” to recommend only a repair of the nearly deficient viaduct rather than one of the other project options involving elevating Soldiers Field Road or placing the roads, rail lines and pedestrian paths side-by-side at grade level.
“We cannot drain the system for one particular project,” Bosworth said. “We certainly understand that federal funding is an option, but we have many, many projects from border to border that are eligible for federal funding, so we do need to be fair.”
During debate on Monday, MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board Chair Joseph Aiello called the resolution “unacceptable” and MassDOT board members settled on compromise language calling only for a finance plan that “examine(s)” funding from other stakeholders, not one that demands that funding as a requirement.
“We’ve got a very, very intimate relation with the people in and around the city of Boston,” Aiello said. “Are we going to be telling somebody in East Boston, eventually, that they can’t get an extra schoolteacher because the city of Boston had to put money into an interchange on a roadway they never use? I don’t know if that’s the calculations we want to make.”
