It looks better than what's there but that highway shouldn't be there. That noise and pollution between the train station and the residental area is pathetic. There should be third spaces around around the train. The intestate highway should be a boulevard, removed or buried.
I lived in a city which did something a lot like this (Richland Washington) and I have to support this. What doing something like this does is to bring something pretty (like a river) and make it part of people's pleasant walks and part of where kids go to play, with soccer fields, etc. Having another mass transit station also helps lower traffic (even though Richland does not have that). My only beef is that they don't do it "big dig" style and straighten the highway under ground. That would really be what is called for.
I think the overall project is not bad, but I can't help but feel that keeping a highway cutting off most of the waterfront in 2024 during a major redesign seems so backwards. And that's not even mentioning the ridiculous price tag.
I really don’t envy the people trying to redesign the interchange. All of the benefits of a smaller road footprint would be great. But in the design the new roads off the highway are nearly all 4-lane, not nice for a residential area. Cambridge Street in lower Allston is also an extremely unfriendly street to navigate as a pedestrian. So it’s setting up for lots of intersections of all 4-6 lane roads. It would take a lot of design to make the new proposed neighborhood NOT feel like a weird island in the middle of big roads.
Completely agree. I think I90 should be reduced to three-lanes per direction there (which seems more than reasonable given that less people are commuting in to Boston and the commuter rail will be improving a lot in the next decade) and Storrow Drive to one lane per direction.
Where is on the new Project !? Soldier Field to Mass Pike - Entrance Ramp ? Cambridge St to Mass Pike - Entrance Ramp ? Mass Pike to Cambridge St - Exit Ramp ?
I'm curious what happens to that rail line that cuts north across the river at the end of the project... is this CSX or some other freight co line or MBTA? Feels like it could be a good ring connection through Cambridge and Somerville to North station
Well, it's straightening a curve in order to free up land. But I do think that the funding mechanism is a little sketchy. The guy from MassDOT said it would pay for itself but didn't explain how.
Just what I was thinking. How long will it really take and how much will it really cost? And you know that the extra money will come from taxpayers. After all, the Big Dig took about twice as long and cost three times as much as they said it would. And a pleasant river walk right next to a road and an eight lane highway? Not likely.
Storrow drive definitely needs to become a two-lane boulevard, and I90 should only be three lanes in each direction there as well. And if you really want people to enjoy the new waterfront space you're going to have put a noise wall in place because while that area next to the river is nice, it is loud as hell. I've only been on it next to Storrow Drive in Back Bay and that was loud enough; I can't imagine what it's like next to Storrow AND I90. At a time when less people are commuting into Boston for work, it does not make sense to have the same amount of automotive infrastructure that we used to have. Of course there's also the previously mentioned environmental impacts on the river itself. Overall this seems like a very sub-par project for a city that wants to be considered "world-class".
So people are angry that the area pictured is going to stay essentially the same while another part of the city is improved? NIMBY logic at its finest.
Great project, but should absolutely be 3 lanes each direction, not four lanes. The Big Dig tunnels are only 3 lanes, I-90 West of Newton Center is only 3 lanes. Only this little stretch is four lanes, and it should certainly be only 3 lanes to avoid the merging bottlenecks and save hundreds of acres that can be used for park space, development or transit.
Hell yeah funneling _even more_ money to roads in 2024!!!1! Nothing screams connected like the noise of a highway and a shower of emissions. Let's light stacks of cash on fire and think about if it was a good idea later. Of course we shouldn't try to build a functioning transit system first to discourage the use of personal vehicles. Why would we do that when we can spend $330 million in other states' money to straighten an existing road? We have the magic money!! We are so smart.
Having a more direct connection between the Mass Pike & Soldiers Field Road/Storrow Drive would be worth it, but it is worse. You will have to go through multiple city streets instead.
They need to have a more direct connection. Storrow is the main way for people on I-90 to get to Fenway, Longwood, parts of the Back Bay, and Beacon Hill. And making ramps to Storrow, which is basically right next to the pike, doesn’t seem terribly hard (if price consuming)
Keeping the interstate is a poor move that the city of Boston will end up having to correct eventually - and in the meantime, maintain a highway that's poor at carrying local traffic and massively more expensive to maintain than a boulevard or rail line. The problem isn't the cost, it's what you're getting for what you pay. An expensive to maintain highway that still clogs up at rush hour.
While it's nice to see that eternal dirt pile and i90 rats nest get used for housing, I hope the graphic showing 200 single family homes isn't the actual plan. What a waste of such a huge amount of new land in Boston. Of course not a huge fan of adding even more lanes adjacent to the Charles. Storrow already shouldn't exist.
