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Feds once again say no to funding turnpike rebuild in Allston
By adamg on Tue, 02/06/2024 - 9:08am
Streetsblog Massachusetts reports that for the second year in a row, the federal government has turned down a state request to help pay for the major reconstruction of the Massachusetts Turnpike near where the toll plazas used to be in Allston.
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Comments
Time to try again
The state should take this opportunity to rethink the project. About a dozen lanes at grade is as much of a barrier to the river as an elevated highway, perhaps even more of one because you cannot walk under it. Similarly the proposed streets in the newly freed up land are over wide and car centric compared to the surrounding neighborhoods. Despite claiming this isn’t a highway project, preserving highway capacity has clearly been placed above expanding access to the Charles, expanding park spaces, expanding public transit access, and really stitching neighborhoods back together.
The state has also gotten less and less transparent about what they are calling for here. Time to rethink this whole thing.
Good
I understand the importance of funding infrastructure projects, but I’m not really a fan of my tax dollars subsidizing Harvard’s real estate investments when we have so many other important things to spend money on.
on the flipside
I would much rather my federal tax dollars coming back to MA instead of subsidizing some backwoods flyover state like Kentucky.
Commuting in Boston sucks, universally. Every aspect, from public transit to road infrastructure, needs to improve if we want to ensure that greater Boston, and by extension the whole state, remains economically strong.
Simplistic view
The viaduct needs replacing whether Harvard owned the land or not. So you say it’s better to continue to cut Allston of from the river to spite Harvard?
Obviously not.
Obviously not.
If the wealthiest school in the nation is going to become even wealthier because Beacon Yards is unlocked, I think it’s only fair they kick in a little bit more than they already have. I don’t want my tax dollars helping Harvard becoming even richer when there are so many more pressing needs. Since they are the primary beneficiary of realigning the highway, they should pay up.
A little bit more?
How much are they on the hook for? How much should they be?
Methinks "a little bit more" is a little bit lazy.
No. But this plan is not the
No. But this plan is not the best way to stop cutting off Allston from the river.
Is it time to do skill-based
Is it time to do skill-based hiring at the Mass DOT and the Supreme Judicial Court?
Obviously no skill-based
hiring for boring useless commenters
No coverage from
The Globe, Herald, Commonwealth?
And this is a huge transit/transportation/infrastructure issue.
Odd.
MassDOT appears to be downplaying this failure.
It seems possible that after close to a decade of pandering to "neighborhood" advocates/consultants (from Cambridge,Newton,Somerville, Brookline), they may have designed a mess that USDOT won't touch.