Click here to view this email in your browser.

We can help you fight the heat without losing control of your energy bill. Learn more. Eversource.

CommonWealth Beacon Download. Politics, Ideas, & Civic Life in Massachusetts.

New from CommonWealth Beacon

KEEPING TIME: MBTA General manager Phil Eng talked system improvements and culture change, with major investments recently approved for the troubled transit network, on the latest episode of The Codcast.

FUNDING FREEZE: More than $100 million in federal education grants allocated for Massachusetts are now under review. The funds, which were supposed to arrive July 1, are for summer and after-school programs, behavioral and mental health supports, bullying prevention and intervention, reducing chronic absenteeism, and buying materials and supplies for classrooms, reports Michael P. Norton of State House News Service.

Federal funding for I-90 Allston project in jeopardy

July 8, 2025

By Bruce Mohl

The massive package of tax and spending cuts President Trump signed into law on July 4 contains a provision that eliminates a federal transportation grant program that set aside $335 million last year for the nearly $2 billion I-90 Allston highway project in Boston.

The provision rescinds “the unobligated balances” of the roughly $3 billion Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant program, which included funding for a project that aims to straighten and lower to ground level the Massachusetts Turnpike as it passes between Boston University and the Charles River. The Massachusetts project, complete with a new MBTA station, would pave the way for Harvard University to construct a new neighborhood on its holdings in the area and help knit together a portion of Boston that had been severed by construction of the turnpike in the 1950s and 1960s.

National Grid. We're here with solutions to help manage your summer energy bills. Lean more.

State transportation officials issued a statement confirming the federal funding program is being eliminated but said they are still awaiting clarification on what exactly that will mean for the I-90 Allston initiative.

“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,” said the statement, issued by a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. “MassDOT is awaiting clarification from the US Department of Transportation and assessing what impact this will have on the $335 million grant we received for the Allston Multimodal Project.”

The statement went on to say that the state “project team will continue its work on the environmental documents and design for the project. MassDOT will stay in communication with project partners and stakeholders as we learn more.”

More Context

Getting the I-90 Allston puzzle pieces to fit (April 2024)

I-90 Allston project gets $335m in federal funding (March 2024)

Healey offers few details on I-90 Allston financing (August 2023)

More from CommonWealth Beacon

OPINION: The MBTA’s electric bus mandate is a laudable goal, writes former Massachusetts transportation secretary James Aloisi. But constraints on the US electric bus marketplace, he says, put the MBTA in the position of being forced to purchase the wrong vehicles at the wrong price at the wrong time.

The Codcast: Keeping time with MBTA’s Phil Eng

Phil Eng, General Manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, joins the Codcast to talk about the state of the system and what lies down the track.

LISTEN NOW

What We're Reading

VACCINES: Six groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have sued the federal government after the Department of Health and Human Services changed its policy to no longer recommend Covid vaccines for most children and pregnant women. (WBUR)

WASTE MANAGEMENT: The Mass. Department of Environmental Protection approved a plan to build a waste transfer station in New Bedford. The controversial project, which would cost more than $30 million, would create a facility to sort through up to 1,500 tons of solid waste a day. (The New Bedford Light)

EDUCATION: The Holyoke Teachers Association is protesting the fact that, as the district comes out of state receivership, the new superintendent will retain authority over key parts of the union’s contract, including compensation and teacher evaluations. (The Shoestring)

EPA: Five Boston employees of the Environmental Protection Agency have been put on leave without pay while the agency investigates their involvement in sending a letter to Administrator Lee Zeldin over the “the current administration’s focus on harmful deregulation, mischaracterization of previous EPA actions, and disregard for scientific expertise.” (GBH News)

HEALTH CARE: When the new Republican tax bill goes into effect, Baystate Health, which operates five hospitals in western Massachusetts, expects to lose between $30 and $50 million a year. (The Boston Globe – paywall)