Re: I-90 Interchange Improvement Project (Allston)
So... the meeting isn't technically over, but I need to justify my leaving early to Dave and Matt and the others who were there (and nice to see you guys). Unlike MassDOT, I won't bury the lede:
We'll get the real images up there in a little while, I'm sure. The highlights of this alternative, which resembles the "Urban" tight concepts from April:
- MassDOT appears fully committed to the Urban theme, tossing out anything with sweeping ramps or wide curves. They showed the lest offensive of those renders for about 10 seconds, sweeping it out along with any ideas about stacking the Turnpike and rail lines.
- There must have been some requirement that they mention "West Station" in every other sentence, because they did so to the point that it got a little silly. The platforms have been shifted to right behind BU's property, but no overpasses on either side. They're really pushing ped/bike connections through the station to the access roads.
- Soldiers Field Road is probably going to shift, but not the part Dave wants, and not very far. I wish they'd pick a color less disingenuous than green to show the new alignment, because the new parkland looks like nothing on maps. It's 36' max, with that less likely alternative tucking the EB lanes of SFR under the Pike. The more likely option would cantilever the highway over 1 lane of EB SFR and provide ten fewer feet of width for the park. The big win they were trumpeting here is a new ped/bike bridge over SFR to connect the White Path with a new fully grade-separated multi-use thruway that would run right along the Turnpike with underpasses at each intersection.
- To keep Cambridge St. narrower (they didn't commit but it's probably 4 lanes), it would be paralleled with new streets on both the north and south. The southern one would likely split SFR/Storrow EB traffic through the site proper and off of Cambridge St, while the northern one would take traffic from Cambridge and SFR to the Turnpike and pull it into a thru movement instead of a left turn.
- MassDOT mentioned talking to Harvard and BU and the importance of continuing to do so. I'm still a little skeptical of how this gets developed (all the AB forumers missed at least some of the BSA presentation), since literally every road through this site would be an access ramp for the Turnpike or SFR. Also, Houghton continues to get lip service on street plans that assume it's gone.
- Finally, they quoted (and the Globe had in advance) a $260M project cost. The majority of that is expected to come from tolls. There is no funding for West Station, but the PM promised that the Secretary is trying to find the money and the design will assume that it exists.
In all, it continues to impress me that MassDOT has actually come as far as they have with this. The traffic study results are encouraging. My biggest question (and it's something MassDOT can't do a thing about) is still how Harvard handles development. I'm concerned that we'll be driving, walking, and biking on a grid of roads with no buildings in 2050.
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