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Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
Congress pulls the plug on $327 million for Allston megaproject. So what's next?
This funding cut wasn't much of a surprise. The Trump administration is on the warpath to clear out any 'equity' related programs left over from President Biden. And Republicans in Congress were eager for savings to help make a bevy of tax cuts permanent in their 'Big Beautiful Bill.' So a target had been on this funding source, known as the Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program, for months. Advertisement It still hurt to see what's left of this infrastructure program — nearly $2.5 billion awarded but still unspent, per national nonprofit Smart Growth America's accounting — now zeroed out entirely. Advertisement The MassDOT brass already had to make do with two-thirds of the federal grant funds they had initially hoped for — a shortfall that Governor Maura Healey highlighted in January. Now, there will be more scrambling at Ten Park Plaza. So now, it's time for a backup plan. MassDOT will take two important steps to readjust. They'll embark on an in-depth cost analysis, in part to understand recent impacts from tariffs and inflation such as steel costs. That study would be paired with an independent engineering analysis about how to maximize the project's transportation benefits with the remaining available funding sources. These are logical next steps, and now they're likely necessary for the project's survival. So what kind of funding gap are we talking about? That's still not entirely clear. When asked for a breakdown of where the $2 billion would come from, state officials offered elements from the original federal grant application, including $200 million in toll revenue and $100 million from the city of Boston. Harvard University, which owns most of the old Beacon Park Yard land that would be opened up, would kick in $90 million, while Boston University, whose campus is next door, would contribute $10 million. Harvard and the city of Boston would also provide another $100 million, to be collected from future development there. In January, Healey said she would ask the Legislature for approval to use $615 million in borrowed funds, collected through bonds based on the better-than-expected money flow from the so-called millionaires tax, also known as Fair Share funds. That only gets MassDOT halfway there. In its federal grant application, the state agency signaled it would borrow another $470 million from a federal highway loan program known as TIFIA. It's unclear, though, exactly how much would be available, though US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has pledged to increase the maximum amount in financing available to many projects. Advertisement Project advocates hope the Healey administration can pick up more of the slack — maybe through a TIFIA loan, for example, or more Fair Share funds. State officials aren't entertaining this idea right now, at least not openly. Instead, the word is out that it might be time to get more frugal. Tensions have simmered in Allston for years around just how long it's taken MassDOT to get this far in the planning. It was Governor Deval Patrick, after all, who first promised this new transit hub, dubbed West Station, alongside the turnpike realignment, 11 years ago. Back then, both projects' price tags were a fraction of what they are today. Plans got waylaid during Governor Charlie Baker's administration over the so-called 'Throat' area, a narrow band of land between the train tracks and the Charles River. MassDOT finally settled on keeping all highway lanes on the ground through the area, in part to make it easier to develop on decks above them. By the time MassDOT landed the $335 million federal grant in March of last year, Healey was governor and Joe Biden was in the White House. Healey said then that she hoped for a 2027 groundbreaking; her transportation secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt hoped environmental permitting could be done within a year. The former goal just became much tougher to achieve. The latter, now impossible. Healey hired transportation veteran Luisa Paiewonsky last year, to shepherd the Allston project (along with the hoped-for new bridges over the Cape Cod Canal). Toward that end, Paiewonsky has held monthly task force meetings to update the community and solicit feedback. Advertisement Lately, the big debate has been over layover. The plans call for four tracks to park trains at West Station, to accommodate future cross-state service, despite a promise there wouldn't be any. Allston neighbors prefer trains to be parked elsewhere, as does Mayor Michelle Wu. Harvard doesn't want layover, either, and has drawn up preliminary designs for housing to show how its land could be put to better use. All eyes are on Widett Circle, a 24-acre industrial area just south of downtown that the MBTA acquired two years ago. However, the T says it needs all the space for its own layover tracks, as soon as possible, because of an existing shortage and plans to expand the commuter rail fleet. The T plans to build the first six tracks by 2028, to support electric trains coming to the Fairmount line, and the other 20 would go in over the following seven years. MassDOT is working with the Wu administration to find a new spot that could work for layover —the public works yard next to Widett, perhaps? For now, it remains a disliked part of the state's Allston plans. Other issues remain up in the air: what to do about a temporary closing of the train bridge over the Charles, for example, and how to lessen the project's impact on the river itself. And when the task force reconvenes next week, everyone involved faces the most important of unresolved issues: how to pay for it all. Advertisement Jon Chesto can be reached at
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Highway 41 work in Madera County will cost $150 million. Who's paying for it?
Reality Check is a Fresno Bee series holding those in power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a tip? Email tips@ It will cost Madera County an estimated $150 million to expand the two-lane Highway 41 near Riverstone and Tesoro Viejo, where daily rush-hour congestion makes obvious the need to improve the state road. That's a large price tag in a county where many are skeptical of how road work funding generated by their Measure T sales tax dollars has been administered in the past. So, who is footing the bill to improve the state route near Madera County's growing master-planned communities? 'At the end of the day, those improvements are largely going to be borne by the homes that are being built down there,' Madera County District 5 Supervisor Bobby Macaulay told The Bee. The county explained to The Bee how it intends to finance the Highway 41 improvements. The plan does not include any tax dollars from the 0.5% Measure T sales tax voters renewed in November, according to county officials. Development road impact fees and property tax increments generated by the Tesoro Viejo and Riverstone enhanced infrastructure financing districts will ultimately provide the majority of the funding. The rest will come from state and federal grants. Construction on the improvements — led by the county, not Caltrans — is expected to begin early next year. It will widen the highway to four lanes between avenues 10 1/2 and 15, and also add more turning lanes at the major intersections of the four-mile stretch. At $56.4 million, revenues from the road impact fees that Madera County charges developers make up 38% of the Highway 41 improvement funding. The county's Code of Ordinances says developers are charged $24,179 per single-family home they build in southeast Madera County. In the past year, Treber said, the county has collected an average of 'close to $2 million a month' from developers in road impact fees. A federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan is expected to provide 24% of the funding, or $36 million, for the Highway 41 improvements. This loan has been approved for the county, but its amount will be determined based on the actual bid price of the project. If necessary, the loan can fund up to 33% of the Highway 41 project. The county has also obtained a $25 million federal RURAL grant, which will fund an expected 17% of the project. Madera County has also applied for a $25 million grant from the state's Local Partnership Program, which would fund another 17% of the project. Awards for this competitive grant will be announced in June. Treber said the county is confident it will receive the award, but it can use more of the developer road impact fee funding and the federal loan if it does not obtain this grant. The county has also obtained $1.9 million in congressional discretionary funding from Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, which will provide 1% of the funding for this project. The last $3.9 million of the project's funding, or 3%, will come from the property tax increments already generated by the Riverstone and Tesoro Viejo enhanced infrastructure financing districts, known as EIFDs. The county established these two EIFDs in 2018 with the intention of funding parks and Highway 41 improvements. The districts are funded by 25% of the annual increase in county property tax revenue that is generated by development within Riverstone and Tesoro Viejo. Property tax revenues increase when development occurs because development on a property raises its assessed values. 'The homeowners aren't seeing an increase in their taxes,' Treber said. 'It's simply taking that incremental increase from vacant agricultural land into urban development and carving out 25% of that to fund regional infrastructure projects, primarily (Highway) 41.' The EIFDs will also repay the federal TIFIA loan the county is borrowing to fund the Highway 41 improvements. The funding generated by the EIFDs 'increases every year as more homes and more development occurs,' Treber said. The Highway 41 improvements come as Riverstone and Tesoro Viejo continue to add residents to Rio Mesa, the southeastern area of Madera County planned to one day be home to 100,000 people and 30,000 homes. But Treber said the Highway 41 expansion is not solely for the benefit of Riverstone and Tesoro Viejo. 'It's benefiting all of our residents that live on the 41 corridor, that commute down into the Valley every day,' he said. Macaulay, the District 5 county supervisor, also noted that over 1 million vehicles travel Madera County's stretch of Highway 41 each year on their way to Bass Lake and Yosemite National Park's southern gate. 'Beyond that, residents up in the mountain communities often have to travel to Fresno for work, as well as goods and services that they need,' Macaulay said. 'We're all using that road.'
