This post is adapted from a letter to Matthew Beaton, Secretary of Energy & Environmental Affairs sent February 8, 2018 by John Kyper, Co-Chair of the Transportation Committee.
Thank you for inviting public comment on the proposed Allston I-90 Interchange Project. In addition to building a new section of limited access highway, the Project will also create new ramps and streets, and reconfigure the rail lines that border the Massachusetts Turnpike. It should also be a valuable improvement to the abutting neighborhoods and to Greater Boston as a whole -- making the Turnpike a safer highway, and enhancing our public transportation system and creating safer streets that will better serve the needs of pedestrians and bicyclists alike.
When the Turnpike was extended into Boston in the 1960s, a massive interchange was built at Beacon Park Yar d to distribute traffic bound for Allston, Cambridge and the adjacent communities. To accom modate the large New York Central railyard on this site, a mile-long S-shaped viaduct was constructed, as we ll as ramps and tollbooths. Abutters also included truck depots to distribute freight from the highway and rail facilities. This viaduct now is functionally obsolete, badly deteriorated, and needs to be replaced. The railyard has been relocated to facilities in Worcester and elsewhere, and the inauguration of All Electronic Tolling has allowed for the removal of the tollbooths.
This segment of Turnpike and exit can now be totally rebuilt. The highway can be straightened and brought to ground, with new entrance and exit ramps that better suit the adjacen t neighborhoods and removing the gargantuan interchange that obliterated one side of Cambridge Street from Linden Street to Soldiers Field Road. As a visitor, a resident, and for a year in the late 70s as a community outreach worker at the local Little City Hall, then located at the corner of Harvard and Commonwealth Avenues, I have often traveled many of the district's streets and roads, by foot, bicycle, transit and car, including as a taxi driver. This segment of Cambridge Street is one of the most dangerous stretches of roadway in metro Boston, especially when traveling in a mode other than a motor vehicle: As a pedestrian I did not feel comfortable-and as a bicyclist I did not feel safe.
This interchange should be built to reconnect the neighborhoods that were torn apart over half a century ago, better linking them with the surrounding communities. For anyone traveling between Packard's Corner and the Charles River by foot, bicycle or public transportation, the interchange and railyard site is a major impediment necessitating a lengthy detour. The proposed network of streets in the Beacon Park site include two overpasses connecting Brighton and Commonwea lth Avenues with Cambridge Street as it approaches the River. For starters, these new streets should be designed to calm automotive traffic and enhance the safety and experience of persons using non-motorized modes of transportation.
Plans for the Project include the construction of a West Station on the Worcester/Framingham Line that could also offer the service via the Grand Junction Railroad to North Station in addition to its current South Station terminus. Due to budgetary issues, MassDOT now proposes to defer the opening of this station until 2040, a delay that has been roundly condemned. Harvard University plans to develop the former railyard site as an extension of its campus. To enhance transit-oriented growth here and in surrounding neighborhoods, West Station needs to open much sooner-even as a temporary facility. New T bus routes should also be seriously evaluated to further tie this area into the urban fabric.
Very troubling is the plan to build a small railyard here for up to eight commuter train sets-part of another project, the widely criticized plan to expand South Station as a stub end terminal from 13 tracks to 20. This is one of three proposed layover yards (also including Widett Circle and Readville) to store and service trains between the morning and evening rush hours, where the diesel engines would shower yet more fumes and particulates on the city's residents. Abutters to any layover yard would also be subjected to the constant noise of the locomotives, especially from overnight idling during the winter months. Were the North South Rail Link to be constructed instead and the commuter system electrified, this yard would be unnecessary.
The "throat" of the Project, its narrowest segment, after the Turnpike emerges from under Commonwealth Avenue and climbs to the viaduct, is a constricted corridor shared with the railroad, Soldiers Field Road and the Paul Dudley White Bike Path. MassDOT's proposed design for the construction of another viaduct has come under intense criticism-for adding traffic noise to the abutting neighborhoods and Cambridgeport, and for the pollution from cars and trucks ascending the incline. The Commonwealth must seriously evaluate two alternative plans that put the Turnpike at grade and dispense with a new viaduct.
Massachusetts Sierra supports the efforts of the Charles River Conservancy and Walk Boston to improve the Bike Path along the River through the "throat" and create an "Allston Esplanade." Currently, it is an unple asant place to walk, jog or bike, with just a guardrail separating pedestrians and bicyclists from the fast moving traffic. We support expanding the Path, possibly including a boardwalk above the Charles River, with physically separated bicycle and pedestrian lanes and a landscaped river's edge with native plantings. The pathways on this mile-long segment between Boston University and the River Street Bridge must be fully accessible to people with disabilities and include benches for people to sit and rest. And it needs at least one new footbridge to improve access to Commonwealth Avenue, Brookline and the new neighborhood.
The I-90 Allston Interchange Project and the redevelopment of the former railyard has the potential to revitalize and beautify what has long been one of Boston's most neglected and degraded parcels of land. Like the remarkable transformation that occurred when the elevated Central Artery was demolished and transformed into the Rose Kennedy Greenway, this area deserves better than to have one ugly viaduct replaced by another, smaller ugly viaduct. The adjacent neighborhoods, the Charles River and Greater Boston all deserve better.