Federal proposal puts $335m grant for realignment of Mass. Pike in Allston in jeopardy
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The state agency declined to comment beyond a spokesperson saying it was 'aware of the proposal.'
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As part of the Republican-led effort to advance Trump's agenda, the
'What we're seeing right now is the Trump administration and a cohort of followers making an extremely partisan play in the executive and legislative branches that would have drastic negative consequences across party lines, whether you look at Massachusetts or elsewhere in the country,' said Seth Gadbois, a clean transportation attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental advocacy organization.
The move by lawmakers followed a
Overall, the transportation agenda of the Trump administration seems geared toward pushing federal dollars toward rural areas, and infrastructure to support private vehicles, and away from mass transit in urban areas with more racially diverse populations,
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'It's deeply concerning to think that an agency that is meant to safely and accessibly move people and goods around in the best possible way to reduce harm is doing the exact opposite,' Muratore said.
In the case of the ambitious proposal for Allston, which would stitch together a stretch of the neighborhood divided by the construction of the Mass. Pike in the 1960s, and has been
Already, as state transportation officials have faced
The loss of the federal funding would not be surprising given the protracted planning, Kane said, but it would 'speak to a bigger issue, which is the fact that we just can't seem to move big projects quickly around here.'
Still, it is early in the complicated budget reconciliation process. The proposal could fail to clear both chambers of Congress — and if it does pass, the move to claw back the funds might end up being challenged in court.
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'We're kind of in the second inning here of a nine-inning game,' said Tom Glynn, one of the most prominent civic leaders in Boston. 'A lot of this is uncharted territory and needs to get sorted out.'
Regardless of what happens, Gadbois, a fierce advocate of the Allston Multimodal Project, said they are confident 'there is still a path forward,' calling the development 'an unfortunate step backwards.'
'But I don't want to treat it like a foregone conclusion either,' Gadbois said. 'In a moment where the federal level of government is attacking these kinds of initiatives, I think it presents an even stronger moment for MassDOT to stand strong to the commitments it's making to the Allston community and build a project that does right by them today and for the future generations of community members that will live there.'
Shannon Larson can be reached at
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