I-90 Interchange Improvement Project & West Station | Allston

FK4 said:
What's "EJ"?

And while I am very glad this finally, at long last, is getting funded, it's pretty silly to say this project is going to meaningfully reknit the two sides of the barrier. Having literally one road bridge this divide, for buses and pedestrians only, aint exactly a re-connection.
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Pol PR speak. I'm sure it sounds better than "We're going to spend $330M to make Harvard a ton of money"

Here's hoping they deliver at least.
 
KCasiglio said:
Environmental Justice. Ask 10 agencies what constitutes an EJ community and you’ll get ten different answers. There is no official federal definition.
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Pretty much this. It's basically: "I helped secure money for justice! You wouldn't vote against someone who supports justice, right?"
 
More details on the grant announcement. Key point: the feds only gave MassDOT 2/3rds of the money they requested. That means a large budget gap still remains – even moreso if (as is likely) project costs have gone up since the last estimate from a year ago.

mass.streetsblog.org

MassDOT Wins $335 Million Federal Grant for Allston Highway Megaproject - Streetsblog Massachusetts

On Monday, federal officials announced the first major committment of federal funding for the Allston Multimodal Project, a massive realignment of Interstate 90 in Boston’s Allston neighborhood. “I am proud to announce that after advocacy to Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the Department of...
mass.streetsblog.org mass.streetsblog.org
 
W-4 said:
Pretty much this. It's basically: "I helped secure money for justice! You wouldn't vote against someone who supports justice, right?"
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That's not true in DOT's case. "EJ" might have different definitions, but "EJ Community" or "Disadvantaged Area" does not. Under Justice40, there's a scoring system and a map of identified census tracts:


If you look, Lower Allston and the tract that includes Beacon Yard is in a Disadvantaged Area.
 
Equilibria said:
That's not true in DOT's case. "EJ" might have different definitions, but "EJ Community" or "Disadvantaged Area" does not. Under Justice40, there's a scoring system and a map of identified census tracts:


If you look, Lower Allston and the tract that includes Beacon Yard is in a Disadvantaged Area.
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That is true in DOTs case. DOT’s definition does not align with the EPA’s, or the Department of Commerce’s, or the Office of Management and Budget. Each has their own definition and tool for identifying EJ communities and disadvantaged areas. Justice40 very explicitly does *not* define EJ communities or disadvantaged areas, it requires agencies to have a definition. The tool you shared is OMB's, and is different than the DOT's

Notably, these also don’t align with local definitions. The MPO has their own definition separate from all of these, for example.

The policy roll out of J40 has been a nightmare for local/regional agencies who are seeking currently open federal firehose but have to navigate several different definitions and tools depending on who they are applying to.

Edit: Further, there’s not even significant guidance in how to develop that definition. The MPO does not use DOTs definition primarily because the data they use is 2016-2020.
 
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KCasiglio said:
That is true in DOTs case. DOT’s definition does not align with the EPA’s, or the Department of Commerce’s, or the Office of Management and Budget. Each has their own definition and tool for identifying EJ communities and disadvantaged areas. Justice40 very explicitly does *not* define EJ communities or disadvantaged areas, it requires agencies to have a definition. The tool you shared is OMB's, and is different than the DOT's

Notably, these also don’t align with local definitions. The MPO has their own definition separate from all of these, for example.

The policy roll out of J40 has been a nightmare for local/regional agencies who are seeking currently open federal firehose but have to navigate several different definitions and tools depending on who they are applying to.

Edit: Further, there’s not even significant guidance in how to develop that definition. The MPO does not use DOTs definition primarily because the data they use is 2016-2020.
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Without getting too much in the weeds (it's clear you also have professional experience with this), USDOT updated their data and definitions last summer and that was a bit confusing, but in the work I've done it's not been a nightmare. You are correct that I shared the wrong tool for DOT - sloppy Googling.

If this were a USDOT grant, then I'd say it was 100% clear what EJ meant for this project. As an earmark I'm not sure, but I assume they're just carrying over what the grant application said.
 
Equilibria said:
Without getting too much in the weeds (it's clear you also have professional experience with this), USDOT updated their data and definitions last summer and that was a bit confusing, but in the work I've done it's not been a nightmare. You are correct that I shared the wrong tool for DOT - sloppy Googling.

If this were a USDOT grant, then I'd say it was 100% clear what EJ meant for this project. As an earmark I'm not sure, but I assume they're just carrying over what the grant application said.
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I get what you're saying, and in that sense there is a definition for any specific agency's project. I believe we're talking about two different things. Yes, there are specific definitions used by each agency, but there isn't A definition. The general public to whom Senator Markey is speaking is going to (or want to) understand EJ as having a specific and broadly applicable definition. If saying a DOT project and an EPA project are going to help EJ communities, it's reasonable to expect that they are not two different definitions. Nightmare was hyperbolic, but my own experience has been one of providing technical assistance to low-capacity municipalities and RTAs. A unifying federal definition would be welcome.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
6 simultaneous bus berths for only 3 proposed jitney routes?

I'll say it again: those busways--either configuration option--are overdesigned to complete absurdity. That station still needs a lot of conceptual work at both the rail and bus levels.
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Can we please get a transit-design team from another first-world country to consult or just design this for the MDOT, who clearly do not understand or have any demonstrated expertise in transit design?

Also, can the Governor's office and the Mayor's office please insist that the Pike be right-sized to align with Commonwealth and City objectives to reduce motor vehicle traffic? No matter how many lanes they build, car-drivers will demand more – so start with fewer and improve the transit connections.
 
GIL said:
Also, can the Governor's office and the Mayor's office please insist that the Pike be right-sized to align with Commonwealth and City objectives to reduce motor vehicle traffic? No matter how many lanes they build, car-drivers will demand more – so start with fewer and improve the transit connections.
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Not happening. The Pike is the main thruway to Logan Airport for one.
 
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