Allston project hit by ‘Big Beautiful Bill’

A provision contained within the One Big Beautiful Bill approved by congressional Republicans and signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump last week will apparently undo billions in previously approved transportation funding, including potentially hundreds of millions already awarded for major projects in Massachusetts.

The new law calls for the rescission, or cut, of all unspent federal funding slated for the Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program, a provision of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act made law under the Biden Administration.

The “unobligated balances of amounts made available to carry out” the program, according to the nearly 1,000-page budgetary reconciliation package, “are rescinded.”

About $3 billion in grant funding approved for the NAEG program were originally supposed to be available until September 30, 2026, including over $300 million to rebuild the Mass Pike’s Allston interchange through MassDOT’s Allston Multimodal Project.

State officials said the cut, “makes no sense.”

“Every single American relies on transportation. It is essential for quality of life and for the success of our economy. That is why it makes no sense that President Trump and Congressional Republicans just cut billions of dollars in transportation funding, including the Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program,” a MassDOT spokesperson told the Herald.

The state was set to receive $335 million in grant funding for the project to revitalize the primary east-west route between Worcester and Boston, on which hundreds of thousands of people travel daily. The interchange, according to MassDOT, is “crucial to the Commonwealth’s roadway network.”

The project would straighten I-90 where a toll plaza used to be, reconnect Allston with the Charles River waterfront, upgrade the Paul Dudley White Path, see the Allston Viaduct removed, and create an MBTA West Station to provide rail access from central and Western Massachusetts.

MassDOT has been ”developing a concept for the replacement of the Allston Interchange” since as far back as the “spring of 2014.”

When the Healey-Driscoll Administration first applied for federal grant funding in 2023, Mayor Michelle Wu described the plan as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve the lives and livelihoods of families all across our city and region.”

The money was approved by the Biden Administration last year and, when MassDOT approved their new five-year Capital Improvement Plan just last month, it included spending $424 million for the state’s share of the $2 billion I-90 Allston Multimodal project.

Now, according to the transportation agency, they are waiting on more information from their federal partners on the future of that piece of funding.

“MassDOT is awaiting clarification from the U.S. Department of Transportation and assessing what impact this will have on the $335 million grant we received for the Allston Multimodal Project. MassDOT will stay in communication with project partners and stakeholders as we learn more,” their spokesperson said.

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