Big Changes In Store For Mass Pike, Route 2 Under New Federal Grant

BOSTON, MA — Massachusetts will receive funding under a new federal grant program aimed at reconnecting cities cut in half by highways, which may mean big changes for two major routes here.

The U.S. Department of Transportation Tuesday awarded about $185 million to 45 projects nationwide under the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program. The two Massachusetts projects would make changes along the Mass Pike and Route 2.

A $1.8 million grant will go to Boston to study how to reconnect the portion of the Mass Pike that runs through Chinatown. That part of the Mass Pike was built beginning in the late 1950s as an extension of the highway from Newton into downtown Boston and linking to I-93.

"As a result, Boston's Chinatown now lacks access to safe and open green space, affordable housing, and is disproportionately impacted by traffic, and unclean air," the department said in a news release. "The City of Boston will develop a plan to connect across the open-cut highway by building an open space for the community and prepare design guidelines to link the surrounding streets and facilities."

At the other end of the state, a similar project along Route 2 saw the construction of an elevated bypass through the downtown area, which effectively split the city in two. North Adams received a $750,000 grant to explore removing the bypass and replacing it with an at-grade multimodal street.

Funding for the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program came from an infrastructure package passed by Congress in 2021. The program will continue in fiscal years 2023 through 2026, with $1 billion in funding available overall.