Highways & Roads

The I-90 Allston Multimodal Project creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity to dramatically improve livability and connectivity for residents of the Allston neighborhood of Boston, while enhancing regional mobility and creating a new stop on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Worcester/Framingham Commuter Rail Line to be known as West Station.

Why It’s Important

In 1965, Massachusetts officials opened the Allston section of I-90 (commonly referred to as the Mass Pike), shoehorning an eight-lane elevated highway between Boston University and the Charles River, dividing a vibrant working-class community and wounding vital riverfront habitat in the process. Some 60 years later, Boston, Brookline, and Cambridge still endure impacts from this obsolete, failed transportation policy that placed a highway above the needs of neighborhoods and the environment.

Fortunately, this outdated viaduct is nearing the end of its useful lifespan and needs to be replaced, allowing the Commonwealth to construct a future where the needs of public transit riders, cyclists, pedestrians, and the health of the river are as important as motorists traveling on this section of highway. As part of this project, the Commonwealth must decide how to carry I-90 through the narrow strip of land between Boston University and the Charles River referred to as “the throat”—either on an elevated viaduct or at ground level.

Thanks to support from a broad and diverse coalition of regional stakeholders, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is advancing a All At-Grade design for the stretch of the project known as “the throat,” which is the narrow strip of land between Boston University and the Charles River. This design will tear down the existing highway viaduct, place the highway at ground level, establish a living shoreline to beautify and restore the riverbank, and create a new boardwalk that separates and enhances the safety of pedestrians and cyclists and provide sweeping views of the Charles River. Additionally, replacing the viaduct with a straighter, flatter surface road at ground level would be safer for drivers and easier for the state to maintain, while reducing roadway noise and pollution in adjacent communities. This approach would also maintain weekday two-track Commuter Rail service throughout a six to-ten-year construction period—and would be faster, cheaper, and less disruptive to build than other build options.

In addition to replacement of the existing viaduct along the Charles River, the former rail yard west of the river is being replaced with a new, more compact interchange serving Allston and Cambridge in the footprint of the former toll plaza removed several years ago. The reshaped interchange and elimination of the rail yard establish a new local street grid that will support opportunities for mixed use development. Air rights development over the roadway and rail lines can be supported at this pivotal site. The most critical addition that will spark this transformational development opportunity is the addition of the West Station commuter rail station and mobility hub that will provide a center for bus and future rail connections to and from the Allston neighborhood with Harvard Square, MIT, Kendall Square, North Station, the Longwood Medical Area and Roxbury, and the growing center of development in Watertown. The site of these transportation improvements is located near the center of globally significant academic and medical research that these improvements will help to support. Transportation improvements will also sustain much needed residential development to house the people who will help to fuel the future regional economy. A Better City is released an economic benefits study and supplemental technical memorandum that quantifies these contributions.

A Better City’s Role

A Better City serves on a 50-member I-90 Multimodal Project Task Force along with Allston residents, business organizations, advocacy groups, and institutions abutting the interchange and viaduct. Beginning in 2015, A Better City developed and advocated for an At-Grade solution to replace the existing Turnpike viaduct, which was ultimately adopted in 2020. 

RECENT WORK & Key DoCUMENTS

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October 15, 2020 | ACTION ALERT: I-90 ALLSTON MULTIMODAL PROJECT
October 14, 2020 | A LETTER TO SECRETARY POLLACK: I-90 ALLSTON MULTIMODAL PROJECT
October 9, 2020 | A BETTER CITY CONVERSATIONS: I-90 ALLSTON PROJECT: RIVERFRONT ANALYSIS + DESIGN EXPLORATION WITH CBT AND PERKINS&WILL 
SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 | REBUILDING IN 1950S-ERA STYLE WOULD BE A MISSED OPPORTUNITY
APRIL 25, 2019 | ALLSTON I-90 STATUS REPORT: TWO IMPORTANT MEETINGS
OCTOBER 22, 2018 | ALLSTON I-90 STATUS REPORT