Recent Streetsblog MASS posts about Highways

A rendering of the proposed McGrath Highway road diet in Somerville. The project proposes to turn two of the highway's six lanes into buffered bike lanes. Courtesy of MassDOT.

Before Its Teardown, Somerville’s McGrath Highway Could Get A Road Diet

By Christian MilNeil | Feb 24, 2021 | No Comments

An obsolete six-lane expressway that slices through East Somerville will, by the end of this summer, become a four-lane expressway with wide buffered bike lanes. MassDOT plans to repave McGrath Highway later this year, and when the project is over, the roadway’s stripes will be repainted in a new layout (pictured above) that will transform […]

The proposed new cross-section of Hammond Pond Parkway in Newton. Courtesy of the Massachusetts DCR.

DCR Planning Another Parkway Road Diet in Newton

By Christian MilNeil | Jan 22, 2021 | No Comments

The project would reallocate two of the street's four motor vehicle lanes to create additional greenspace plus a dedicated pathway for bikes and pedestrians.

A view of the Allston I-90 tollbooths and Beacon Yards in 2015. Photo by Nick Allen, licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0.

Senate Considering $10B for Highway Teardowns

By Kea Wilson | Jan 11, 2021 | No Comments

The Restoring Neighborhoods and Strengthening Communities Program — known among advocates as the “Highways to Boulevards” initiative — would be available for projects located in regions with a high concentration of low income residents or residents of color.

The site of the future West Station, seen from the Cambridge Street overpass in Allston. A realignment of the Massachusetts Turnpike through this area is poised to touch off a massive urban development scheme on the vacant Harvard-owned lands visible in the distance.

Highway Boondoggles 2020: Boston’s Big Choice

By Gideon Weissman | Jan 4, 2021 | No Comments

Will the commonwealth will invest in a bold, transformative plan that will help it meet its transportation and climate goals, or will it rebuild the auto-intensive infrastructure of generations ago?

An unrealistically traffic-free rendering of MassDOT's proposed new interchange at I-495 and I-90, a federally-funded project that's expected to cost about $300 million.

Rep. Pressley Calls on Feds to Fund Highways, Transit Equally

By Christian MilNeil | Dec 11, 2020 | 2 Comments

Since 1982, federal transportation funding has been governed by the "80-20 split," which restricts the federal Department of Transportation from spending more than 20 percent of its Highway Trust Fund money on transit projects, leaving the majority of federal funding for highway projects.

Highway Teardowns Make Great Investments

By Kea Wilson | Dec 10, 2020 | No Comments

In a groundbreaking new policy proposal, nonprofits Transportation for America and Third Way recommended that the next administration create a new, $5-billion competitive grant program that states could draw on to tear down their misguided downtown highways and redevelop the land that’s left behind in better ways.

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