Pollack’s Allston decision: Pike at grade, Soldiers Field Rd. elevated
Decision will allow enough room for separate bike, pedestrian paths along Charles
TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY Stephanie Pollack announced on Thursday that she intends to replace the deteriorating, elevated portion of the Massachusetts Turnpike near Boston University with an at-grade highway and make room for the roadway by elevating Soldier’s Field Road above it. The highway arrangement, with commuter rail tracks alongside, is expected to allow enough room for separate bike and pedestrian paths along the Charles River.
Pollack has been struggling with the decision for months, and went back to the drawing board after her initial list of options were panned by transportation advocates. She brought in an independent review team, headed by Jack Wright of Weston & Sampson, the same engineer who figured out a way to build the Green Line extension for less, and his team proposed as an option the one she selected.
The secretary said none of the choices before her were perfect. Even the option she selected has weaknesses, she said. “It is very complicated to build and it will take longer and be disruptive to travelers,” she said in a telephone interview.
Her formal decision said the approach she selected would require the current bike/pedestrian path along the Charles to be closed for the entire eight-year construction period, so bikers would probably have to travel along the north side of the river. Her option would also require the complicated relocation of water mains and utilities and the so-called Grand Junction Railroad that crosses the Charles and connects to Cambridge. Her formal decision said the Grand Junction, which is used by the MBTA to relocate equipment to the north side of the commuter rail system and by Amtrak and freight traffic, could be closed for four years “in the worst case.”
The other major option before Pollack was to put all the transportation infrastructure — commuter rail tracks, Grand Junction Railroad, Turnpike, Soldier’s Field Road, and bike/pedestrian path — at grade level. She rejected that approach because it would have required altering or filling a significant portion of the Charles River to make all the elements fit. She concluded the impact on the Charles, which she described as a protected resource under state and federal law, would not be allowed.
The cost of the construction project is currently estimated at just over $1 billion, but Pollack acknowledged cost estimates at this stage are iffy and could change. She said cost did not enter into her decision.
Pollack seemed pleased with the outcome. She said was proud the deliberative process was transparent and she said it “identified a better way to build the project.”
A big hurdle that remains is when to build West Station, a new MBTA commuter rail and bus station to service the area. Pollack had originally proposed that construction of the station be put off until 2040, when Harvard University’s plans for the vast open space called Allston Landing become clearer. That timetable was met with fierce resistance by transportation advocates, who urged an earlier construction date.
Pollack said Thursday that she now plans to ask the team hired to design and build the new Turnpike when would be the first possible date West Station could be built, given that initial construction in the area will preclude starting the project. Once a date for possible construction is established, the secretary said, she will then begin a process to determine when the station should be built, taking into consideration service needs in the area.
The state will now go through the environmental permitting process for the project, with the schedule calling for the filing of a final environment review by the end of this year. She hopes to start interviewing companies to design and build the project late in 2020, so the project is more than two years away from beginning.