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Rick Dimino
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is currently engaged in a redevelopment of its five-year capital plan. For the first time, this will be a consolidated highway and public transit plan. Over the past two months, MassDOT has been engaged in commendable public outreach in a number of locations throughout the state.
A Better City is supporting this work. But from our position as advocates for economic enablement and development, we want to encourage MassDOT to use this opportunity to reset the vision for infrastructure investment.
There has been much focus on investment to ensure that the vast transportation assets of the commonwealth remain in a state of good repair. But we also have to plan for the future with targeted investments to sustain and promote economic growth.
Key areas in the metropolitan Boston area are either undergoing, or poised to undergo, significant economic growth. Some areas of note are:
The South Boston Waterfront is the fastest-growing urban area in the commonwealth, with 17 million square feet of development underway or in the pipeline.
In Allston, reconstruction of the Turnpike interchange – required for significant safety reasons – can unleash economic development by reconnecting the Charles to the Allston neighborhood, increasing access to open space, improving bicycle and pedestrian routes and establishing multi-modal connections to provide commuter rail service to the area.
Seven million square feet of development is planned for the Longwood Medical Area.
Kendall Square has 8 million square feet of development in process.
It is critical that we increase MBTA core capacity to support this economic growth. Based upon real estate development trends in the metropolitan area, the Urban Land Institute predicts an additional 100,000 to 367,000 more daily public transit riders within the next decade. Already the waterfront portion of the Silver Line is at or above capacity, the Orange and Red Lines in the core are highly congested, and the Green Line central subway is over capacity.
We need to advocate strongly for an expanded South Station, continuing our commitment to the Green Line extension, upgrading MBTA power and signal systems, constructing a new bus maintenance facility, continuing new vehicle procurement plans for the Red, Orange and Silver lines, and providing planning funds for future Bus Rapid Transit routes and commitments made under the Clean Air Act.
These projects require years of planning, engineering, and construction to accomplish. They also highlight the need to address the fact that transportation infrastructure funding is inadequate.
Metropolitan Boston is in a robust, possibly unprecedented, state of economic development. We need to start now to make sure that our residents and future generations are able to reach the jobs waiting for them.
