A POLITICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS OF BOSTON'S CENTRAL ARTERY/TUNNEL PROJECT

Conventional wisdom holds that the era of major downtown highway projects is over -- the victim of gridlocked local political systems, fiscal austerity, and ardent opposition from both neighborhoods and environmentalists. Historically, these forces were particularly strong in the Boston metropolitan area. Yet today -- at a cost of almost $10 billion -- Massachusetts is replacing Boston's existing elevated Central Artery with an underground highway and building a third harbor tunnel from the city's downtown to the region's major airport. This report documents how the region's political leaders developed and sustained a broad coalition in support of the project and analyzes this history to suggest important lessons about how to plan, finance, and manage a complex urban transportation project in an era of environmentalism, neighborhood activism, and fiscal austerity.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  Taubman Center for State and Local Government

  Kennedy School of Government, 79 JFK Street
  Cambridge, MA  United States  02138
• Authors:
  • Luberoff, D
  • Altshuler, A
• Publication Date: 1996-10

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 293 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Airports; Analysis; City planning; Environmental impacts; Financing; Institutional issues; Neighborhoods; Political factors; Transportation planning; Tunnels; Urban areas; Urban highways
• Identifier Terms: Central Artery/Tunnel Project
• Geographic Terms: Boston (Massachusetts)
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Bridges and other structures; Environment; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society; Terminals and Facilities; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00728819
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: Final Report
• Contract Numbers: DTRS95-60001
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Nov 21 1996 12:00AM