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Mass. Pike overhaul plans in Allston get a boost from federal lawmakers
Allston could see a major facelift under this multi-year, billion-dollar highway project.
Massachusetts congressional leaders are voicing their support for a $1.9 billion plan to turn a lackluster stretch of highway and rail yard in Allston into a hub of transit and economic growth.
In a joint letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg last week, the state’s legislative delegation backed a request for federal grant funding to boost the long-discussed Allston Multimodal Project.
The project — now years in the making — features a massive neighborhood reconfiguration that would straighten the Massachusetts Turnpike, clear the way for a new commuter rail station, and open more space for real estate development and outdoor recreation along the Charles River.
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Those changes “will transform the Allston neighborhood,” the lawmakers wrote in their Jan. 17 letter. They urged Buttigieg to give “fair and full consideration” to a federal grant application from the City of Boston and Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
“It’s crucial that all of us throw our weight behind what could be a transformational grant for the city of Boston and transportation in the entire region,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement provided to Boston.com. “Families in Boston, especially disadvantaged communities, deserve these federal dollars to connect their communities and bolster our economy, creating thousands of new jobs right here at home.”
What does the Allston Multimodal Project entail?
At the heart of the project is a redesign of Allston’s Interstate 90 interchange, “a complex and outdated sprawl of ramps” built decades ago to accommodate traditional toll booths, the nonprofit organization A Better City explained in a 2022 report.
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MassDOT has been working on plans to replace the labyrinth-like Allston interchange since 2014, and the advent of all-electronic tolling helped clear the way, according to a project webpage. Straightening that section of I-90 will shrink the interchange and improve both regional mobility and roadway safety, MassDOT said.
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As A Better City explained, a new urban interchange will connect the Mass. Pike to “a new grid of city streets integrated with their surroundings” and pave the way for the highly anticipated West Station on the MBTA’s Framingham/Worcester Line.
The nonprofit forecast opportunities for mixed-use development and economic growth, both in the immediate area and in communities located along the commuter rail line.
The Allston Multimodal Project also features plans to pull Soldiers Field Road further away from the Charles River and expand waterfront parks and open space, state and local leaders said in a 2022 grant application. Separate bicycle and pedestrian streams along the Paul Dudley White Path and a pedestrian-bicycle bridge at Agganis Way would be a further boon to outdoor recreation.
When can you expect to see some changes?
Allston 2.0 is still several years away; a timeline included in that grant application put completion around 2032.
The project will pull funding from a handful of sources, including the Fair Share Amendment, federal TIFIA loans, the City of Boston, Harvard University, and Boston University, according to a September MassDOT press release.
“The Allston Multimodal Project is a powerful opportunity to rebuild and modernize a deficient stretch of critical Interstate highway,” then-acting Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt said in a statement at the time. “It will also open up land for new residential, institutional and commercial growth and support that growth with greatly improved transit, walking and biking infrastructure.”
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