Photo courtesy of MassDOT
Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt had an unusual exchange with a MassDOT board member on Tuesday that raised questions about whether the Healey administration is serious about funding the $1.97 billion I-90 Allston project.
At a meeting of the MassDOT board, a staffer made a brief presentation about the agency’s five-year capital investment plan and then urged the board to vote to release the draft plan to obtain public feedback on it.
Rick Dimino, a member of the MassDOT board and a big supporter of the I-90 Allston project, said he first wanted to amend the plan to include funding for the final design and initial construction of the project. He said the money needed to be included in the capital investment plan to signal to the Federal Highway Administration, which has provided a $335 million grant for the project, that the state is serious about moving forward.
The legal counsel to the board indicated an amendment would be inappropriate at this time and suggested it might make more sense to discuss the I-90 Allston funding in July when the board is expected to give final approval to the capital investment plan.
Dimino responded that he didn’t want to block the release of the capital investment plan for public review, but he wanted to have the board go on record saying the money for final design and initial construction of the I-90 Allston project needed to be included in the final plan.
“I think this was an oversight,” Dimino said of the failure to include the money. “I’m just trying to correct that oversight.”
Tibbits-Nutt balked at that characterization. “This is not an oversight,” she said, adding that federal highway officials are aware of what MassDOT is doing.
“I don’t want this to be characterized as an oversight by our staff because it wasn’t,” she said.
Dimino didn’t back down. “We’ll agree to disagree on this particular matter,” he said.
Tibbits-Nutt then suggested she ordered staff to not include money in the capital investment plan for the final design and initial construction of the project “The staff did an excellent job at the direction of me. It was not an oversight,” she said.
Asked for clarification after the meeting, MassDOT officials said only that the capital investment plan is in draft form and offered no explanation for why the funding for the I-90 Allston project was not included. The plan is not available yet on MassDOT’s website, but it appears money is included for initial construction of one of the two Cape Cod bridge replacements.
At a later point in the board meeting, state Highway Commissioner Jonathan Gulliver gave a presentation that suggested the Healey administration is moving forward with the project. He released a rough timetable that indicated permitting and major design elements would be completed in 2025, the final design work and a contract would be awarded in 2026, construction would begin in 2027, and the project could be completed as early as 2035.
In response to a question from Dimino, Gulliver confirmed there is no money in the capital investment plan during 2026 and 2027 for the I-90 Allston project.
In addition to the $335 million from the federal government, the state is counting on $300 million from Harvard University, the city of Boston, and Boston University. Gulliver said the state is expected to put up the remainder of the funding, but said exactly where the money will come from has not been determined yet.
This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
