Prepared by
The Central Transportation Planning Staff:
Staff to the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization

Directed by the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization,
which is composed of the

Massachusetts Department of Transportation
Metropolitan Area Planning Council
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA)
MBTA Advisory Board
Massachusetts Port Authority
Regional Transportation Advisory Council
City of Beverly, North Shore Task Force
City of Boston
City of Everett, At-Large City
City of Framingham, MetroWest Regional Collaborative
City of Newton, At-Large City
City of Somerville, Inner Core Committee
City of Woburn, North Suburban Planning Council
Town of Acton, Minuteman Advisory Group on Interlocal Coordination
Town of Arlington, At-Large Town
Town of Brookline, At-Large Town
Town of Medway, SouthWest Advisory Planning Committee
Town of Norwood, Three Rivers Interlocal Council
Town of Rockland, South Shore Coalition
Federal Highway Administration (nonvoting)
Federal Transit Administration (nonvoting)

NOTICE OF NONDISCRIMINATION RIGHTS AND PROTECTIONS

Contact MPO staff:

By mail:

Boston Region MPO

Certification Activities Group, Central Transportation Planning Staff

10 Park Plaza, Suite 2150

Boston, MA 02116

By telephone:

857.702.3702 (voice)

For people with hearing or speaking difficulties, connect through the state MassRelay service:

Relay Using TTY or Hearing Carry-over: 800.439.2370

Relay Using Voice Carry-over: 866.887.6619

Relay Using Text to Speech: 866.645.9870

For more information, including numbers for Spanish speakers,
visit https://www.mass.gov/massrelay

By fax:

617.570.9192

By email:

mgenova@ctps.org

This document was funded in part through grants from the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Its contents do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

[Certification Statement]

These pages will list the eleven requirements of the transportation planning process to be conducted by Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), and certify that the Boston Region MPO complies with these requirements. The certification of the Transportation Planning Process will be signed by the chair of the Boston Rsolution Actegion MPO after the final endorsement of the FFYs 2022–26 TIP.]

These pages will list the eleven requirements of State Regulation 310 CMR 60.05: Global Warming Solutions Act to be conducted by Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), and certifies that the Boston Region MPO complies with these requirements. The certification of State Regulation 310 CMR 60.05: Global Warming Solutions Act will be signed by the chair of the Boston Region MPO after the final endorsement of the FFYs 2022–26 TIP.

Abbreviations

Executive Summary

introduction

The Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization’s (MPO) five-year capital investment plan, the Federal Fiscal Years (FFYs) 2022–26 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), is the near-term investment program for the region’s transportation system. Guided by the Boston Region MPO’s vision, goals, and objectives, the TIP prioritizes investments that preserve the current transportation system in a state of good repair, provide safe transportation for all modes, enhance livability, promote equity and sustainability, and improve mobility throughout the region. These investments fund arterial roadway and intersection improvements, maintenance and expansion of the public transit system, bicycle path construction, infrastructure improvements for pedestrians, and major highway reconstruction.

The Boston Region MPO is guided by a 22-member board with representatives of state agencies, regional organizations, and municipalities. Its jurisdiction extends roughly from Boston north to Ipswich, south to Marshfield, and west to municipalities along Interstate 495. Each year, the MPO conducts a process to decide how to spend federal transportation funds for capital projects. The Central Transportation Planning Staff (CTPS), which is the staff to the MPO, manages the TIP development process.

MPO staff coordinates the evaluation of project funding requests, proposes programming of current and new projects based on anticipated funding levels, supports the MPO board in developing a draft TIP document, and facilitates a public review of the draft before the MPO board endorses the final document.

ffys 2022–26 tip investments

The complete TIP program is available in Chapter 3 of this document and online at bostonmpo.org/tip. The TIP tables provide details of how funding is allocated to each programmed project and capital investment program. These tables are organized by federal fiscal year, and are grouped by highway and transit programs.

Highway Program

The Highway Program of the TIP funds the priority transportation projects advanced by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) and the cities and towns within the Boston region. The program is devoted primarily to preserving and modernizing the existing roadway network by reconstructing arterial roadways, resurfacing highways, and replacing bridges.

In Massachusetts, Federal-Aid Highway Program funding is apportioned by MassDOT, which allocates funding to Grant Anticipation Notes (GANs) payments, various statewide programs, and Regional Targets for the state’s MPOs. In the FFYs 2022–26 TIP, roadway, bridge, and bicycle and pedestrian programs account for more than $1.2 billion in funding to the Boston region. The Regional Target funding provided to the MPOs may be programmed for projects at the discretion of each MPO, whereas MassDOT has discretion to propose its recommended projects for statewide programs, such as those related to bridge repairs and interstate highway maintenance.

Transit Program

The Transit Program of the TIP provides funding for projects and programs that address the capital needs prioritized by the three transit authorities in the region: the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), the Cape Ann Transportation Authority (CATA), and the MetroWest Regional Transit Authority (MWRTA). The Transit Program is predominantly dedicated to achieving and maintaining a state of good repair for all assets throughout the transit system.

The FFYs 2022–26 TIP includes nearly $3.6 billion in transit investments by the transit authorities that will support state of good repair, modernize transit systems, and increase access to transit. The Green Line Extension project is a major project programmed in this TIP that will expand transit service. Additionally, beginning in FFY 2025, the MPO will allocate five percent of its annual Regional Target funds to its new Transit Modernization investment program. This program aims to build on the investments made through the Transit Program by using a portion of Highway Program funding to fulfill unmet transit project needs in the region.

regional target program details

During FFYs 2022–26, the Boston Region MPO plans to fund 45 projects with its Regional Target funding. In total, nine new projects were added to the MPO’s Regional Target program during this TIP cycle, all of which were funded through the MPO’s Community Connections Program. Two additional fiscal years of funding were also added for one project already programmed by the MPO, the Newton Microtransit Service project. Details on these projects are available in table ES-1.

Table ES-1
New Regional Target Projects Funded in the FFYs 2022–26 TIP

Note: All projects in this table are funded through the MPO’s Community Connections Program.

*The first FFY of funding for the Newton Microtransit Service project is in FFY 2021, in which $300,000 was allocated to the project.

Source: Boston Region MPO.

Other investment decisions made this year include the allocation of more than $10 million in new funding in FFY 2026 to the Reconstruction of Rutherford Avenue in Boston. FFY 2026 is the fourth year of a five-year funding commitment made by the MPO to this project, which is expected to be completed in FFY 2027. The MPO also set aside continued funding for its Community Connections Program (in FFYs 2023–27) and allocated a second year of funding to its Transit Modernization Program in FFY 2026 (in addition to the funds already reserved in FFY 2025). The funding set aside through both of these programs will be allocated to specific projects during future TIP programming cycles.

During the development of the FFYs 2022–26 TIP, the MPO was very limited in its financial capacity to fund new projects. In addition to the inherently constrained nature of transportation infrastructure funding, the need for which greatly exceeds available resources in any given year, significant cost increases for many projects already programmed in FFYs 2021–25 consumed funding for prospective new projects in FFY 2026. Though this challenge inevitably arises to some extent during every TIP cycle, both this year and last year’s FFYs 2021–25 TIP cycle saw especially severe levels of cost increases. This dynamic drove decision making during this fiscal year and led to no new projects being selected for programming in the FFYs 2022–26 TIP except the $2.5 million in Community Connections projects listed above in Table ES-1.

The MPO’s long-time practice has been to fully fund cost increases for projects already programmed in the TIP. This practice provides certainty for project proponents that the investments they make in project design and permitting will lead to capital funding to support the completion of their project. Given the severity of project cost increases in sequential TIP cycles, however, the MPO has formed a subcommittee of board members to examine the issue further and assess whether changes to this policy—or any of the MPO’s other programming policies outlined in this TIP—are warranted. This subcommittee intends to conduct this work during the summer of 2021, with the intent of providing policy change recommendations to the MPO board for adoption prior to the beginning of the FFYs 2023–27 TIP cycle in the fall of 2021.

Figure ES-1 shows how the Regional Target funding for FFYs 2022–26 is distributed across the MPO’s investment programs. As the chart shows, the Boston Region MPO’s Regional Target Program is devoted primarily to enhancing mobility and safety for all travel modes through significant investments in Complete Streets projects. A large portion of the MPO’s funding also supports the modernization of key regional roadways and expansion of transit infrastructure through investments in Major Infrastructure projects. The MPO also elected to leave approximately $20.5 million unprogrammed, preferring that the use of these funds be determined after the conclusion of the policy dialogue discussed above.

Figure ES-1
FFYs 2022–26 TIP Regional Target Funding by MPO Investment Program

Source: Boston Region MPO.

In addition to the distribution of funding across the MPO’s investment programs listed above, Table ES-2 further details the number of projects and the allocation of funds across each program in the FFYs 2022–26 TIP. As noted in Figure ES-1, the MPO has programmed more than 96 percent of its available funding over five years. More details about every project funded through the MPO’s Regional Target program are available in Chapter 3.

Table ES-2
FFYs 2022–26 Boston Region MPO Regional Target Investment Summary

Note: Funding amounts in this table include both federal and non-federal funds, including matching funds.

¹ The MPO will flex federal highway improvement dollars to support the Green Line Extension.

² In FFY 2022, the MPO will contribute $11,046,213 to Project 606476—Summer Tunnel Improvements—and MassDOT will contribute other funds. This project is included in the total number of projects in this category.

Source: Boston Region MPO.

When making decisions about which projects to fund, the MPO considers not only the relative distribution of funds across projects and investment programs, but also how the allocation of funds to each investment program compares to the funding goals outlined in the MPO’s Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP), Destination 2040. The investment program sizes set forth in the LRTP reflect the types of projects the MPO seeks to fund to help it achieve its goals and objectives for the region, from enhancing safety for all users to promoting mobility and accessibility across the region. More information on the MPO’s goals and objectives are available in Chapter 1, and a comparison between LRTP investment program sizes and program funding levels in the FFYs 2022–26 TIP is shown in Figure ES-2.

Figure ES-2

FFYs 2022–26 TIP: Regional Target Funding Levels Relative to LRTP Investment Program Goals

LRTP = Long-Range Transportation Plan. TIP = Transportation Improvement Program.

Source: Boston Region MPO.

The investments made in the FFYs 2022–26 TIP will be implemented in 37 cities and towns throughout the Boston region, ranging from dense inner core communities to developing suburbs further from the urban center. Figure ES-3 illustrates the distribution of Regional Target funding among the eight subregions within the Boston Region MPO’s jurisdiction, as defined by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC). This figure also includes information about how the distribution of funds compares to key metrics for measuring the need for funding by subregion, including the percent of regional population, employment, and Federal-Aid roadway miles within each subregion.

Figure ES-3
FFYs 2022-26 TIP: Regional Target Funding Levels Relative to Key Indicators

Note: Unprogrammed funds and funds held for the MPO’s Transit Modernization and Community Connections Programs are not included in this figure. Funds allocated to the MBTA’s Systemwide Bicycle Rack project ($275,740 in FFY 2022) are also not included, as these funds will be distributed regionwide.

Source: Boston Region MPO.

Additional information on the geographic distribution of Regional Target funding across the region, including a breakdown of historical funding by municipality, is included in Appendix D.

financing the ffys 2022–26 tip

Highway Program

The TIP Highway Program was developed with the assumption that federal funding for the state would range between $668 million and $721 million annually over the next five years. These amounts include the funds that would be set aside initially by MassDOT as payments for the Accelerated Bridge Program and exclude required matching funds.

The process of deciding how to use this federal funding in the Boston region follows several steps. First, MassDOT reserves funding for GANs debt service payments for the Accelerated Bridge Program; annual GANs payments range between $86 million and $134 million annually over the five years of this TIP.

The remaining Federal-Aid Highway Program funds are budgeted to support state and regional (i.e., MPO) priorities. In this planning cycle, $726 million to $750 million annually was available for programming statewide, including both federal dollars and the local match. MassDOT customarily provides the local match (which can also be provided by other entities); thus, projects are typically funded with 80 percent federal dollars and 20 percent state dollars, depending on the funding program.

Next, MassDOT allocates funding across the following funding categories:

• Reliability Programs: These programs include the Bridge Program—comprising inspections, systematic maintenance, and National Highway System (NHS) and non-NHS improvements—the Pavement Program, the Roadway Improvements Program, and the Safety Improvements Program.
• Modernization Programs: These programs include the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Retrofit Program, the Intersection Improvement Program, the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Program, and the Roadway Reconstruction Program.
• Expansion Programs: These programs include the Bicycle and Pedestrian Program and the Capacity Program.

Finally, once these needs have been satisfied, MassDOT allocates the remaining funding among the state’s 13 MPOs for programming. This discretionary funding for MPOs is sub-allocated by formula to determine the Regional Target amounts. The Boston Region MPO receives the largest portion of MPO funding in the state, with approximately 43 percent of Massachusetts’ Regional Target funds allocated to the region. MassDOT develops these targets in consultation with the Massachusetts Association of Regional Planning Agencies (MARPA). This TIP was programmed with the assumption that the Boston Region MPO will have between $105 million and $110 million annually for Regional Target amounts, which consist of federal funding and state funding for the local match.

Each MPO may decide how to prioritize its Regional Target funding. Given that the Regional Target funding is a subset of the Highway Program, the MPO typically programs the majority of funding for roadway projects; however, the MPO has flexed portions of its highway funding to the Transit Program for transit expansion projects and through its Transit Modernization and Community Connections Programs. The TIP Highway Program details the projects that will receive Regional Target funding from the Boston Region MPO and statewide infrastructure projects within the Boston region. Details on these investments are outlined in Chapter 3.

Transit Program

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) allocates the funds programmed in the TIP Transit Program according to formula. The three regional transit authorities in the Boston Region MPO area that are recipients of these funds are the MBTA, CATA, and MWRTA. The MBTA, with its extensive transit program and infrastructure, is the recipient of the preponderance of the region’s federal transit funds.

Under the federal transportation legislation, Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, funding is allocated by the following categories:

• Section 5307 (Urbanized Area Formula Grants): Provides grants to urbanized areas to support public transportation based on levels of transit service, population, and other factors
• Section 5337 (Fixed Guideway/Bus): Seeks to maintain public transportation systems in a state of good repair through replacement and rehabilitation capital projects
• Section 5309 (Fixed Guideway Capital Investment Grants): Provides grants for new and expanded rail, bus rapid transit, and ferry systems that reflect local priorities to improve transportation options in key corridors
• Section 5339 (Bus and Bus Facilities): Provides funding to replace, rehabilitate, and purchase buses and related equipment, and to construct bus-related facilities
• Section 5310 (Enhanced Mobility of Seniors and Individuals with Disabilities): Provides funding to support transportation to meet the special needs of older adults and persons with disabilities

the tip development process

Overview

When determining which projects to fund through the Regional Target funding process, MPO members collaborate with municipalities, state agencies, members of the public, advocacy groups, and other stakeholders. The MPO board uses evaluation criteria in its project selection process to help identify and prioritize projects that advance progress on the MPO’s six goal areas:

• Safety
• System Preservation and Modernization
• Capacity Management and Mobility
• Clean Air/Sustainable Communities
• Transportation Equity
• Economic Vitality

Additionally, the MPO has established investment programs, which are designed to direct Regional Target funding towards MPO priority areas over the next 20 years, to help meet these goals. The investment programs are as follows:

• Intersection Improvements
• Complete Streets
• Major Infrastructure
• Bicycle Network and Pedestrian Connections
• Community Connections
• Transit Modernization

Projects that the MPO selects to receive Regional Target funding through the TIP development process are included in one of the six investment programs listed above. More information on the MPO’s investment programs is available in Chapter 2.

In recent years, the MPO has been incorporating performance-based planning and programming (PBPP) practices into its TIP development and other processes. These practices are designed to help direct MPO funds towards achieving specific outcomes for the transportation system. The MPO’s goals and investment programs are key components of its PBPP framework. In FFY 2018, the MPO began to set targets for specific performance measures. Over time, the MPO will more closely link its performance targets, investment decisions, and monitoring and evaluation activities. More information on PBPP is available in Chapter 4 as well as in Appendix A (Table A-2).

Outreach and Data Collection

The outreach process begins early in the federal fiscal year, when cities and towns designate TIP contacts and begin developing a list of priority projects to be considered for federal funding, and the MPO staff asks the staffs of cities and towns in the region to identify their priority projects. MPO staff compiles the project funding requests into a Universe of Projects, a list of all Bicycle Network and Pedestrian Connections, Complete Streets, Intersection Improvements, and Major Infrastructure projects identified as potential candidates to receive funding through the TIP. Projects seeking funding through the MPO’s Community Connections Program are not included in the Universe, as all projects that apply for this program’s discrete application process are considered for funding. The Universe include projects at varying levels of readiness, from those with significant engineering and design work complete to those still early in the conceptual or planning stage. MPO staff collects data on each project in the Universe so that the projects may be evaluated.

Project Evaluation

MPO staff evaluates projects based on how well they address the MPO’s goals. For MPO staff to conduct a complete project evaluation, Bicycle Network and Pedestrian Connections, Complete Streets, Intersection Improvements, and Major Infrastructure projects must have a functional design report or the project plans must include the level of detail defined in a functional design report, a threshold typically reached when a project nears the 25 percent design stage. To complete an evaluation for projects under consideration through the MPO’s Community Connections Program, project proponents must submit a completed application to MPO staff.

The evaluation results for all projects are presented to the MPO board members for their consideration for programming in the TIP. Draft scores are shared directly with project proponents, at which point proponents are encouraged to review the scores and provide feedback so that MPO staff may make any warranted adjustments to arrive at accurate final results. Once proponents review their scores, final scoring results are posted on the MPO’s website where MPO members, municipal officials, and members of the public may review them.

TIP Readiness Day

An important step toward TIP programming takes place midway through the TIP development cycle at a meeting—referred to as TIP Readiness Day—that both MassDOT and MPO staff attend. At this meeting, MassDOT project managers provide updates about cost and schedule changes related to currently programmed projects. These cost and schedule changes must be taken into account as MPO staff helps the MPO board consider updates to the already programmed years of the TIP, as well as the addition of new projects in the outermost year of the TIP.

Staff Recommendation and Draft TIP

Using the evaluation results and information about project readiness (that is, the extent to which a project is fully designed and ready for construction), MPO staff prepares a recommendation or a series of programming scenarios for how to program the Regional Target funding in the TIP. Other considerations, such as whether a project was included in the LRTP, addresses an identified transportation need, or promotes distribution of transportation investments across the region, are also incorporated into these programming scenarios. The staff recommendation is always financially constrained—meaning, subject to available funding. There was approximately $539 million of Regional Target funding available to the Boston Region MPO for FFYs 2022–26. In this TIP cycle, the MPO board members discussed several scenarios for the Regional Target Program for highway projects and selected a preferred program in April 2021.

In addition to prioritizing the Regional Target funding, the MPO board reviews and endorses the statewide highway program that MassDOT recommends for programming. The board also reviews and endorses programming of funds for the MBTA’s, CATA’s, and MWRTA’s transit capital programs.

Approving the TIP

After selecting a preferred programming scenario, usually in late March, the MPO board votes to release the draft TIP for a 21-day public review period. The comment period typically begins in late April or early May, and during this time the MPO invites members of the public, municipal officials, and other stakeholders in the Boston region to review the proposed program and submit feedback. During the public review period, MPO staff hosts public meetings to discuss the draft TIP document and elicit additional comments.

After the public review period ends, the MPO board reviews all municipal and public comments and may change elements of the document or its programming. The MPO board then endorses the TIP and submits it to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for approval. MassDOT incorporates the MPO-endorsed TIP into the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). The FHWA, FTA, and United States Environmental Protection Agency review the STIP for certification by September 30, the close of the federal fiscal year.

Updates to the TIP

Even after the TIP has been finalized, administrative modifications, amendments, and adjustments often must be introduced because of changes in project schedule, project cost, funding sources, or available revenues. This may necessitate reprogramming a project in a different funding year or programming additional funds for a project.

Notices of administrative modifications and amendments are posted on the MPO’s website. If an amendment is necessary, the MPO notifies affected municipalities, stakeholders, and members of the public via email. The MPO typically holds a 21-day public review period before taking final action on an amendment. In extraordinary circumstances, the MPO may vote to shorten the public comment period to a minimum of 15 days. Administrative modifications and adjustments are minor and usually do not warrant a public review period.

Stay Involved with the TIP

Public input is an important aspect of the transportation planning process. Please visit bostonmpo.org for more information about the MPO, to view the entire TIP, and to submit your comments. You also may wish to sign up for email news updates and notices by visiting bostonmpo.org/subscribe and submitting your contact information. To request a copy of the TIP in accessible formats, please contact the MPO staff by any of the following means:

Mail: Boston Region MPO c/o CTPS Certification Activities Group, 10 Park Plaza, Suite 2150, Boston, MA 02116-3968

Telephone: 857.702.3702 (voice)

For people with hearing or speaking difficulties, connect through the state MassRelay service:

Relay Using TTY or Hearing Carry-over: 800.439.2370
Relay Using Voice Carry-over: 866.887.6619
Relay Using Text to Speech: 866.645.9870

Fax: 617.570.9192

Email: publicinfo@ctps.org

The Executive Summary of the FFYs 2022–26 TIP is also available as a translation:

• 執行總結 (PDF)
• 执行总结 (PDF)
• Rezime Egzekitif (PDF)
• Resumen Ejecutivo (PDF)
• Resumo Executivo (PDF) 

back to top

Chapter 1
3C Transportation Planning and the Boston Region MPO

Decisions about how to allocate transportation funds in a metropolitan area are guided by information and ideas gathered from a broad group of people, including elected officials, municipal planners and engineers, transportation advocates, and interested residents. Metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) are the bodies responsible for providing a forum for this decision-making process. Each metropolitan area in the United States with a population of 50,000 or more, also known as an urbanized area, is required by federal legislation to establish an MPO, which decides how to spend federal transportation funds for capital projects and planning studies for the area. 

THE TRANSPORTATION PLANNING PROCESS

The federal government regulates the funding, planning, and operation of the surface transportation system through the federal transportation program, which was enacted into law through Titles 23 and 49 of the United States Code. Section 134 of Title 23 of the Federal Aid Highway Act, as amended, and Section 5303 of Title 49 of the Federal Transit Act, as amended, require that urbanized areas conduct a transportation planning process, resulting in plans and programs consistent with the planning objectives of the metropolitan area, in order to be eligible for federal funds.

The most recent reauthorization of the surface transportation law is the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. The FAST Act sets policies related to metropolitan transportation planning. The law requires that all MPOs carry out a continuing, comprehensive, and cooperative (3C) transportation planning process.

3C Transportation Planning

The Boston Region MPO is responsible for carrying out the 3C planning process in the Boston region. The MPO has established the following objectives for the process:

• Identify transportation problems and develop possible solutions
• Ensure that decision-making balances short- and long-range considerations and adequately reflects the range of possible future scenarios, options, and consequences  
• Represent both regional and local considerations, and both transportation and non-transportation objectives and impacts in the analysis of project issues
• Assist implementing agencies in effecting timely policy and project decisions with adequate consideration of environmental, social, fiscal, and economic impacts, and with adequate opportunity for participation by other agencies, local governments, and the public
• Help implementing agencies prioritize transportation activities in a manner consistent with the region’s needs and resources
• Comply with the requirements of the FAST Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Clean Air Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Executive Order 12898 (regarding environmental justice), Executive Order 13166 (regarding outreach to populations with limited English-language proficiency), and Executive Order 13330 (regarding the coordination of human-services transportation)

More information about the federal, state, and regional guidance governing the transportation planning process, and about the regulatory framework in which the MPO operates can be found in Appendix E.

THE BOSTON REGION MPO

The Boston Region MPO’s planning area extends across 97 cities and towns from Boston north to Ipswich, south to Marshfield, and west to Interstate 495.

Figure 1-1 shows the map of the Boston Region MPO’s member municipalities.

Figure 1-1: Municipalities in the Boston Region

The MPO’s board comprises 22 voting members. Several state agencies, regional organizations, and the City of Boston are permanent voting members, while 12 municipalities are elected as voting members for three-year terms. Eight municipal members represent each of the eight subregions of the Boston region, and there are four at-large municipal seats. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) participate on the MPO board as advisory (nonvoting) members. More details about the MPO’s permanent members can be found in Appendix F.

Figure 1-2 shows MPO membership and the organization of the Central Transportation Planning Staff, which serves as staff to the MPO.

Figure 1-2: Boston Region MPO Organizational Chart

MPO Central Vision Statement

The following paragraph is the MPO’s central vision statement, as adopted in Destination 2040, the MPO’s current Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP).

The Boston Region MPO envisions a modern, well-maintained transportation system that supports a sustainable, healthy, livable, and economically vibrant region. To achieve this vision, the transportation system must be safe and resilient; incorporate emerging technologies; and provide equitable access, excellent mobility, and varied transportation options.

This vision statement takes into consideration the significant public input received during the drafting of the Needs Assessment for Destination 2040. This statement also reflects the MPO’s desire to add emphasis to the maintenance and resilience of the transportation system while supporting the MPO’s six core goals: Safety, System Preservation and Modernization, Capacity Management and Mobility, Clean Air and Sustainable Communities, Transportation Equity, and Economic Vitality. More information on the MPO’s vision, goals, and objectives for the transportation system is available in Figure 1-3 below.

Certification Documents

As part of its 3C process, the Boston Region MPO annually produces the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and the Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP). These documents, along with the quadrennial LRTP, are referred to as certification documents and are required for the federal government to certify the MPO’s planning process. This federal certification is a prerequisite for the MPO to receive federal transportation funds. In addition to the requirement to produce the LRTP, TIP, and UPWP, the MPO must establish and conduct an inclusive public participation process, and maintain transportation models and data resources to support air quality conformity determinations and long- and short-range planning work and initiatives. 

The following is a summary of each of the certification documents.

The LRTP guides decision-making on investments that will be made in the Boston region’s transportation system over the next two decades. It defines an overarching vision of the future of transportation in the region, establishes goals and objectives that will lead to achieving that vision, and allocates projected revenue to transportation projects and programs consistent with established goals and objectives. The Boston Region MPO produces an LRTP every four years. Destination 2040, the current LRTP, was endorsed by the MPO board in August 2019 and went into effect on October 1, 2019. Figure 1-3 shows the MPO’s goals and objectives as adopted by the MPO board in Destination 2040.

The TIP is a multiyear, multimodal program of transportation improvements that is consistent with the LRTP. It describes and prioritizes transportation projects that are expected to be implemented during a five-year period. The types of transportation projects funded include major highway reconstruction and maintenance, arterial and intersection improvements, public transit expansion and maintenance, bicycle paths and facilities, improvements for pedestrians, and first- and last-mile connections to transit or other key destinations. The TIP contains a financial plan that shows the revenue sources, current or proposed, for each project. The TIP serves as the implementation arm of the MPO’s LRTP, and the Boston Region MPO updates the TIP annually. An MPO-endorsed TIP is incorporated into the State Transportation Improvement Program for submission to the FHWA, FTA, and United States Environmental Protection Agency for approval. 

The UPWP contains information about transportation planning studies that will be conducted by MPO staff during the course of a federal fiscal year, which runs from October 1 through September 30. The UPWP describes all of the supportive planning activities undertaken by the MPO staff, including data resources management, preparation of the federally required certification documents, and ongoing regional transportation planning assistance. The UPWP, produced annually, is often a means to study transportation projects and alternatives before advancing to further design, construction, and possible future programming through the TIP. The studies and work products programmed for funding through the UPWP are integrally related to other planning initiatives conducted by the Boston Region MPO, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the Massachusetts Port Authority, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, and municipalities in the Boston region. 

Figure 1-4 depicts the relationship between the three certification documents and the MPO’s performance-based planning and programming process, which is a means to monitor progress towards the MPO’s goals and to evaluate the MPO’s approach to achieving those goals.

Figure 1-3
LRTP Goals and Objectives 

Central Vision Statement

The Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization envisions a modern, well-maintained transportation system that supports a sustainable, healthy, livable, and economically vibrant region. To achieve this vision, the transportation system must be safe and resilient; incorporate emerging technologies; and provide equitable access, excellent mobility, and varied transportation options.

Figure 1-4: Relationship between the LRTP, TIP, UPWP, and Performance-Based Planning Process

back to top

Chapter 2
The TIP Process

INTRODUCTION TO THE TIP PROCESS

The first step in allocating federal transportation funds is the passage by the United States Congress of a multi-year act that establishes a maximum level of federal transportation funding per federal fiscal year (FFY).2-1 The establishment of this level of funding is referred to as an authorization.

After the authorization level has been established, the United States Department of Transportation annually allocates funding among the states according to various federal formulas. This allocation is referred to as an apportionment. The annual apportionment rarely represents the actual amount of federal funds that are ultimately committed to a state because of federally imposed limitations on spending in a given fiscal year, referred to as the obligation authority. In Massachusetts, TIPs are developed based on the estimated obligation authority.

Federal Highway Program

The FFYs 2022–26 TIP’s Highway Program was developed with the assumption that funding from the Federal-Aid Highway Program for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts would range between approximately $668 million and $721 million annually over the next five years. These amounts include the funds that would be set aside initially by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) as payments for the Accelerated Bridge Program and exclude required matching funds.

The process of deciding how to use this federal funding in the Boston region follows several steps. MassDOT first reserves funding for Grant Anticipation Notes (GANs) debt service payments for the Accelerated Bridge Program; annual GANs payments range between approximately $86 million and $134 million annually over the five years of this TIP.

The remaining Federal-Aid Highway Program funds are budgeted to support state and regional (i.e., MPO) priorities. In the FFYs 2022–26 TIP, there is a total of approximately $726 million to $750 million assumed to be annually available statewide for programming (these amounts include both federal dollars and the state-provided local match). MassDOT customarily provides the local match (which can also be provided by other entities); thus, the capital costs of projects are typically funded with 80 percent federal dollars and 20 percent state dollars, depending on the funding program. Costs for project design are borne by the proponent of the project.

Regional Targets

The Regional Targets are discretionary funds for MPOs, sub-allocated by formula to each metropolitan planning region. The Boston Region MPO receives about 43 percent of the total funds available statewide for Regional Targets. MassDOT developed the target formula for determining this distribution of funds in consultation with the Massachusetts Association of Regional Planning Agencies (MARPA).

Each MPO in the state can decide how to prioritize its Regional Target funding. Given that the Regional Target funding originates from the Federal-Aid Highway Program, the Boston Region MPO board typically programs the majority of its target funding on roadway projects; however, the MPO board has flexed portions of its TIP Highway Program funding to the TIP’s Transit Program, most notably when the MPO board provided funding in support of the Green Line Extension transit expansion project. Additionally, the FFYs 2022–26 TIP includes an annual allotment of funding to the MPO’s Transit Modernization Program beginning in FFY 2025. This represents the MPO’s first formalized effort to flex Federal-Aid Highway funds to transit projects on a yearly basis, an affirmation of the region’s goals to support multimodal transportation options in a meaningful way. More information on the MPO’s investment strategy is discussed later in this chapter.

During the next five years, the Boston Region MPO’s total Regional Target funding will be approximately $539 million, an average of $107.8 million per year. To decide how to spend its Regional Target funding, the MPO engages its 97 cities and towns in an annual TIP development process.

Federal Highway Administration Programs

The Federal-Aid Highway Program dollars discussed in this chapter come through several Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) funding programs, each of which has unique requirements. Table 2-1 lists these programs, which come from the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act and fund projects in the FFYs 2022–26 TIP.  

Table 2-1
Federal Highway Administration Programs Applicable to the FFYs 2022–26 Transportation Improvement Program

Source: Federal Highway Administration 

Federal Transit Program

Federal aid for public transit authorities is allocated by formula to urbanized areas (UZAs). MassDOT is the recipient of this federal aid in the Boston MA-NH-RI UZA. In UZAs with populations greater than 200,000, such as the Boston MA-NH-RI UZA, the distribution formula factors in passenger-miles traveled, population density, and other factors associated with each transit provider. The three regional transit authorities (RTAs) in the Boston Region MPO area are the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), MetroWest Regional Transit Authority (MWRTA), and Cape Ann Transportation Authority (CATA). The MBTA, with its extensive transit program and infrastructure, is the recipient of the preponderance of federal transit funds in the region.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) distributes funding to transit agencies through several different programs. Table 2-2 shows FTA programs that come from the FAST Act and support transit investments in the FFYs 2022–26 TIP.

Table 2-2
Federal Transit Administration Programs Applicable to the FFYs 2022–26 Transportation Improvement Program 

Source: Federal Transit Administration

INVESTMENT FRAMEWORKS

MPO Investment Framework

As mentioned previously, each MPO in the state can decide how to prioritize the Regional Target funding it receives through the processes established by FHWA and MassDOT. The Boston Region MPO’s LRTP defines the investment framework that informs the specific investment decisions made in the TIP by establishing

• the MPO’s transportation vision, goals, and objectives, which shape the MPO’s project evaluation criteria;
• MPO investment programs; and
• other guidelines that help the MPO determine how to allocate funding across its investment programs.

MPO Goals and Objectives

The MPO’s goals and objectives provide the foundation for the evaluation criteria the MPO board uses when selecting transportation projects to be funded with Regional Target dollars. MPO staff compares candidate projects’ characteristics to these criteria to evaluate whether individual projects can help the MPO advance its various goals. The criteria used to select projects for this TIP are based on the MPO’s goals and objectives, adopted as part of Destination 2040, which is the LRTP the MPO endorsed in August 2019. These goals and objectives are listed in Chapter 1.

MPO Investment Programs

In Destination 2040, the MPO strengthened the link between its spending and improvements to transportation performance by revising its investment programs to include a broader range of prospective projects. These investment programs focus on specific types of projects that the MPO expects will help achieve its goals and objectives for the transportation system. The MPO created these programs to give municipalities the confidence that if they design these types of projects the MPO will be willing to fund them through the TIP:

• Complete Streets
• Intersection Improvements
• Bicycle Network and Pedestrian Connections
• Major Infrastructure (including highway funds flexed to major transit infrastructure)
• Community Connections
• Transit Modernization

Figure 2-1 provides details about the Destination 2040 investment programs and their relationship to the MPO’s goals. When developing the FFYs 2022–26 TIP, the MPO allocated its Regional Target dollars to these investment programs by assigning them to projects that meet the investment programs’ criteria.

Figure 2-1
Destination 2040 Investment Programs

Newly created in Destination 2040, the Transit Modernization Program represents a significant shift in the MPO’s investment strategy, as funding will be allocated to transit projects on an annual basis beginning in FFY 2025. In prior years, the MPO only funded transit projects on a one-off basis when funding was requested for specific projects in the region. By creating the programming infrastructure to flex Regional Target highway funds to transit projects annually, the Boston Region MPO has established itself as a leader among MPOs nationally by crafting an investment strategy that is truly multimodal. The MPO has taken a clear stance that investing in transit is central to improving the region’s broader transportation system. The MPO’s five other investment programs were created during the development of prior LRTPs.2-2

While the MPO did not fund any specific Transit Modernization projects in this TIP cycle, funding was reserved in FFYs 2025 and 2026 for future allocation. In the meantime, the MPO will continue to work with municipalities and transit providers in the region to identify transit needs and determine the most effective use of this funding to address those needs.

Destination 2040 also reflects an updated set of priorities for the MPO's Complete Streets investment program, adding dedicated bus lanes and climate resiliency measures to the types of projects targeted for funding through this program. As with the Transit Modernization program, the MPO will continue to work with municipalities in future TIP cycles to develop and fund projects in these new areas of emphasis.

Finally, while the MPO’s Community Connections investment program was created through the 2015 LRTP, Charting Progress to 2040, the FFYs 2021–25 TIP represented the first TIP cycle that allocated this funding to specific projects. In prior TIP cycles, the $2 million in annual funding for this program was reserved for future use but not allocated, as the development timeline for the first- and last-mile projects funded through this program is much shorter than for other TIP projects. In the FFYs 2022–26 TIP, the MPO built on the success of last year’s pilot round of the Community Connections Program, funding nine additional projects on top of the five projects funded in the previous TIP cycle. Funding continues to be reserved in FFYs 2023–26 for allocation in future TIP cycles. More information on the projects selected for funding in each of the MPO’s investment programs can be found in Chapter 3.

Other Funding Guidelines

When creating investment program guidelines for Destination 2040, the MPO elected to decrease the amount of funding allocated to large-scale projects that would be included in its Major Infrastructure Program in order to focus a larger percentage of funding on lower cost, operations-and-management projects. Such a funding mix will help the MPO address its goals and provide more opportunities for the MPO to distribute federal transportation dollars to projects throughout the region, as opposed to concentrating it on a few large-scale projects.

Early in the development of the FFYs 2022–26 TIP, the MPO reassessed its definition of Major Infrastructure projects, adopting a new definition through sequential votes on August 20, 2020, and October 1, 2020. The MPO previously defined Major Infrastructure projects as those that cost more than $20 million or that add capacity to the transportation network. The MPO’s new definition classifies Major Infrastructure projects as those that meet any of the following criteria:

• Roadway projects:
• Capital projects that improve facilities that are important to regional travel, which include
• interstate highways;
• principal arterial freeways and expressways; and
• and all sections of roadways classified as principal arterial “other” that have fully or partially controlled access.
• Projects that cost $50 million or more
• Transit projects:
• Capital projects that add new connections to or extend the rail or fixed guideway transit network
• Projects that cost $50 million or more

Under the MPO’s prior Major Infrastructure definition, the relatively low cost threshold caused several large-scale Complete Streets projects to be classified as Major Infrastructure projects although they were more local in nature. The changes outlined above are intended to focus the Major Infrastructure investment program on those projects that are of significant scale or that are truly important for the broader MPO region. This allows the MPO to better compare like projects when conducting project evaluations. Because the MPO considers the five-year distribution of TIP funds across its investment programs relative to the goals set forth in the LRTP (as shown in Figure 2-2), properly categorizing projects is a critical component of the MPO’s decision-making process. Funding allocation goals like these are some of the LRTP-based guidelines the MPO employs to ensure limited Regional Target funding is programmed in ways that best achieve the MPO’s goals for transportation in the region.

Figure 2-2
Destination 2040 Funding Goals by MPO Investment Program

Source: Boston Region MPO.

MassDOT and Transit Agency Investment Frameworks

MassDOT, in coordination with the MBTA, updates its rolling five-year Capital Investment Plan (CIP) on an annual basis. This planning document identifies priority roadway, transit, bridge, and statewide infrastructure projects for the five MassDOT divisions and the MBTA. The CIP process uses a framework that prioritizes funding according to MassDOT’s strategic goals. Reliability is the top priority for MassDOT, followed by modernization and then expansion. MassDOT and the MBTA have created investment programs for the CIP that relate to these strategic goals, and allocate funding to these programs in ways that emphasize their priority. These goals and investment programs are as follows:

• Reliability: These investments are oriented toward maintaining and improving the overall condition and reliability of the transportation system. They include capital maintenance projects, state-of-good-repair projects, and other asset management and system preservation projects. The MassDOT Highway Division programs in this area include the Bridge Program—including inspections, systematic maintenance, and National Highway System (NHS) and non-NHS improvements—the Pavement Program, the Roadway Improvements Program, and the Safety Improvements Program. MBTA reliability programs include its Revenue Vehicles Program; Track, Signals, and Power Program; Bridge and Tunnel Program; Stations Program; Facilities Program; and Systems Upgrade/Other investments.

• Modernization: These investments enhance the transportation system to make it safer and more accessible and to accommodate growth. These projects address compliance with federal mandates or other statutory requirements for safety and/or accessibility improvements; exceed state-of-good-repair thresholds to substantially modernize existing assets; and provide expanded capacity to accommodate current or anticipated demand on transportation systems. The MassDOT Highway Division programs in this area include the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Retrofit Program, the Intersection Improvement Program, the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Program, and the Roadway Reconstruction Program. MBTA programs in this area include the Red and Orange Line Improvements Program, the Commuter Rail Safety and Resiliency Program, the Accessibility Program, the Risk Management and Mitigation Program, the Automated Fare Collection (AFC) Program, and the Customer Experience and Technology Improvements Program.

• Expansion: These investments provide more diverse transportation options for communities throughout the Commonwealth. They expand highway, transit, and rail networks and/or services, or they expand bicycle and pedestrian networks to provide more transportation options and address health and sustainability objectives. The MassDOT Highway Division programs in this area include the Bicycle and Pedestrian Program and the Capacity Program. The MBTA’s major expansion program is for the Green Line Extension.

DEVELOPING THE TIP

Project Selection Process

Overview

The MPO applies its investment framework when developing the TIP. The MPO board’s process for selecting projects to receive highway discretionary—or Regional Target—funding relies on evaluation criteria to help identify and prioritize projects that advance the MPO’s goals. The criteria are based on the MPO’s goals and objectives outlined in the LRTP. All projects are required to show consistency with the LRTP and other statewide and regional plans. Other considerations include the readiness of a project for construction and municipal support for the project. Background information about the TIP project evaluation process is presented in Appendix A.

In the wake of the adoption of Destination 2040 in August 2019, the MPO began the process of revising the TIP evaluation criteria to enhance alignment with the MPO’s updated goals, objectives, and investment programs. These new criteria were adopted by the MPO on October 1, 2020, and were employed during the project selection process for the FFYs 2022–26 TIP. The final criteria were the result of a 15-month process that engaged nearly 1,100 members of the public through surveys and focus groups. This process also prioritized the inclusion of significant direct input from MPO members, which was gathered from more than a dozen presentations, discussions, and focus groups. The outcomes of this process are discussed further in the Project Evaluation section on the following pages.

Because of the limitations on in-person gatherings caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a vast majority of the surveys, focus groups, and presentations discussed above were conducted virtually, with participation options both online and over the telephone. These virtual engagement opportunities allowed MPO staff to pursue new ways of building relationships with members of the public and other key stakeholders in the region. Given the increase in access to the TIP criteria revision process afforded by these virtual events, MPO staff intend to develop a hybrid outreach model that would support both in-person and virtual engagement when it is safe to resume in-person meetings.

In addition to the process outlined above, which focused on developing new criteria for five of the MPO’s investment programs (Bicycle Network and Pedestrian Connections, Complete Streets, Intersection Improvements, Major Infrastructure, and Transit Modernization), the MPO also adjusted the project selection criteria used to evaluate and fund projects through the Community Connections Program. These revisions were made based on the lessons learned by MPO staff through the pilot round of this program, which took place during the FFYs 2021–25 TIP cycle. More information on these criteria is available in the Project Evaluation section of this chapter, as well as in Appendix A.

Outreach and Data Collection (October–November)

The TIP development process begins early in the federal fiscal year when cities and towns in the region designate staff as TIP contacts and begin developing a list of priority projects to be considered for federal funding. Each fall, the MPO staff asks these TIP contacts to identify their city or town’s priority projects and then MPO staff elicits input from interested parties and members of the general public.

These discussions on municipalities’ priority projects mark the start of a robust dialogue between MPO staff and project proponents that continues through the duration of the TIP cycle. As noted above, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the transition of all of these conversations for the FFYs 2022–26 TIP cycle to take place virtually. During the fall of 2020, MPO staff held two virtual workshops for municipalities in the region to develop an understanding of the TIP process. MPO staff provided additional one-on-one virtual office hours throughout the fall for proponents to ask more detailed questions about advancing specific projects for funding, with more than two dozen office hour sessions booked for this purpose during the early stages of developing the FFYs 2022–26 TIP.

Once project proponents have decided to pursue federal funding, they must begin the formal project initiation process. All new Bicycle Network and Pedestrian Connections, Complete Streets, Intersection Improvements, and Major Infrastructure projects must be initiated with the MassDOT Highway Division before they can be considered for programming in the TIP. MassDOT details this process on its project initiation webpage, mass.gov/info-details/massdot-highway-initiating-a-project. To be considered for programming, proponents of Community Connections projects must submit an application for funding directly to MPO staff, as these projects do not need to be initiated by MassDOT.   

The MPO staff compiles project funding requests for projects into a Universe of Projects list, which consists of all identified projects being advanced for possible funding in the Bicycle Network and Pedestrian Connections, Complete Streets, Intersection Improvements, and Major Infrastructure investment programs. The Universe includes projects that are at advanced stages of project design, those that are undergoing preliminary engineering and design, and projects still in the conceptual planning stage. Those projects that are active municipal priorities and that are feasibly ready to be programmed in the current TIP cycle continue forward into the MPO’s project evaluation process. Projects that are not ready for programming remain in the Universe for consideration in future TIP cycles. A project Universe is not developed for Community Connections projects, as all eligible projects within this program will be considered for funding during the TIP cycle in which project proponents apply.

Project Evaluation (December-February)

The MPO staff uses its project evaluation criteria to logically and transparently evaluate and select projects for programming in the TIP that advance the MPO’s vision for transportation in the region. This process favors projects that support the following goals:

• Transportation by all modes will be safe
• Maintain and modernize the transportation system and plan for its resiliency
• Use existing facility capacity more efficiently and increase transportation options
• Ensure that all people receive comparable benefits from, and are not disproportionately burdened by, MPO investments, regardless of race, color, national origin, age, income, ability, or sex
• Create an environmentally friendly transportation system
• Ensure our transportation network provides a strong foundation for economic vitality

As was noted earlier in Chapter 2, the MPO undertook a process of revising the TIP evaluation criteria prior to the launch of the FFYs 2022–26 TIP to enhance the alignment between the TIP project selection process and the MPO’s updated goals, objectives, and investment programs outlined in Destination 2040. In terms of the overall structure of the criteria, this process resulted in the following outcomes:

• The creation of criteria for the MPO’s Transit Modernization Program, as well as for scoring transit expansion projects through the MPO’s Major Infrastructure Program
• Revisions to the existing criteria for the MPO’s Bicycle Network and Pedestrian Connections, Complete Streets, Intersection Improvements, and Major Infrastructure (Roadway) investment programs, allowing for each program to have a distinct set of criteria that better evaluates the specific aspects of each type of project
• The transition to an overall scoring scale of 100 points (from 134 points under the former scoring system)
• The reconfiguration of the way in which Transportation Equity is scored, from simply being a measure of equity populations in a project area to additionally considering how the most vulnerable people who use the transportation system would benefit from the investments made by a project 

In addition to these broader structural changes, a number of updates were made to individual criteria to better accomplish the MPO’s goals in the LRTP:

• The percentage of the overall score allocated to Transportation Equity was more than doubled, from nine percent to 20 percent.
• The multimodal nature of the criteria was enhanced through more fully measuring investments in transit-supporting infrastructure, such as dedicated bus lanes and transit-signal-priority equipment.
• The ways in which the MPO considers resiliency in project selection was broadened by expanding the types of resiliency investments awarded points.
• A new criterion was added that considers the intersection of equity and health through the measurement of the expected emissions impacts of a project in areas with high concentrations of certain air pollutants. 

Several other changes were made to the project evaluation criteria, which are detailed in Appendix A. The point distributions by MPO investment program and LRTP goal area are also available in Figure 2-4. 

Though many of the adjustments listed above were in development prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the emerging lessons from this event reinforced the importance of making such changes. These changes include emphasizing criteria that award points to projects that invest in walking, bicycling, and transit infrastructure. Also, the need for new criteria that more directly address existing disparities in health and transportation access for minorities and low-income households has been put into stark relief throughout the pandemic. While the MPO did not elect to rescore any currently programmed projects with these new criteria, the revised criteria will be employed in coming TIP cycles to support the funding of transportation projects that act on the lessons learned from COVID-19.

Prior to the FFYs 2022–26 TIP cycle, the MPO also undertook a parallel process to update its evaluation criteria for the smaller-scale, first- and last-mile projects considered for funding through the Community Connections Program. These adjustments were based on the lessons learned from the pilot round of this program during the FFYs 2021–25 TIP cycle. In these revisions, MPO staff aimed to create a more focused set of criteria that better aligned with the types of projects pursuing funding through this program. Revisions to the Community Connections criteria also addressed the discrepancies between capital and operating projects, as the pilot criteria more heavily favored operating projects. These adjustments resulted in more balanced scores that better reflected the goals of the program when implemented for the FFYs 2022–26 TIP cycle. More information on the scoring areas for these criteria is available in Figure 2-3, and all the criteria are available in Appendix A.

Figure 2-3
TIP Project Evaluation Criteria: Point Distribution for Community Connections Projects

Source: Boston Region MPO.

Figure 2-4
TIP Project Evaluation Criteria: Point Distributions by Project Type (All Other Investment Programs)

Source: Boston Region MPO.

In order for the MPO staff to conduct a complete project evaluation, each project proponent must provide enough information to meaningfully apply the criteria listed above. Bicycle Network and Pedestrian Connections, Complete Streets, Intersection Improvements, and Major Infrastructure projects must have a functional design report or be near the 25 percent design stage, or its plans must include the level of detail defined in a functional design report. (See MassDOT’s Project Development and Design Guide for information about the contents of a functional design report. This guide is available at mass.gov/lists/design-guides-and-manuals.) For Community Connections projects, proponents must submit a complete application to the MPO, including required supporting documentation.  

After MPO staff have completed an initial round of project scoring, draft scores are distributed to project proponents for their review. The MPO’s goal is to fairly and accurately assess all projects, making this review a critical component of the TIP process. Proponents are encouraged to submit feedback to MPO staff on their scores if they feel any criteria have been applied inaccurately. Proponents are also encouraged to submit additional supporting documentation on their projects if doing so would help clarify or correct any elements of the draft scoring. MPO staff take all proponent feedback into consideration and make any warranted adjustments to project scores before considering the evaluation process final and preparing the scores for presentation to the MPO.

For more details about the criteria used to score projects and project evaluation results for projects considered for programming in this TIP, see Appendix A.

TIP Readiness Day (February)

On TIP Readiness Day, the MPO staff meets with members of the MassDOT Highway Division to review cost and schedule changes related to currently programmed projects, which are undergoing design review, permitting, and right-of-way acquisition. The MPO board then considers these updated project construction costs and changes to the expected dates for construction advertisement when making decisions about changes to TIP programming. These changes have an impact on the ability of the MPO to program its target funds for new projects in the five-year TIP. 

Between the development of the FFYs 2021–25 TIP and the FFYs 2022–26 TIP, more than half of the projects programmed by the MPO experienced cost increases, many of which represented significant increases in percentage terms or in absolute cost. These changes placed severe limitations on the MPO’s ability to consider new projects for funding during the FFYs 2022–26 TIP cycle. As a partner to MassDOT’s Highway Division and Office of Transportation Planning, the MPO recognizes its role in supporting the on-time and on-budget delivery of projects by proponents. For this reason, the MPO board created a subcommittee to further explore the causes of project cost increases and devise MPO policy changes to support more reliable project delivery by all parties. The MPO expects this subcommittee to conclude its work in advance of the project selection process for the FFYs 2023–27 TIP. More information on this subject is available in Chapter 3. 

Staff Recommendation and Project Selection (March-April)

Using the evaluation scores and information gathered about project readiness (when a project likely would be fully designed and ready for advertisement) and cost, staff prepares possible TIP project programming scenarios for the MPO’s consideration. When developing these scenarios, MPO staff also considers whether a project was programmed in the LRTP, LRTP-based guidelines for allocating funds to different programs or project types, the distribution of investments across the region, and availability of sufficient funding. The MPO staff gather feedback from board members, project proponents, and the public to inform a final staff recommendation, which is then presented to the MPO for approval before it is included in the draft TIP for public review.

Given the project cost escalation issues outlined above, the MPO elected not to fund any new projects in the FFYs 2022–26 TIP except for those funded with approximately $2.5 million of Community Connections Program funds that had been previously reserved for such projects. This decision resulted in approximately $20.5 million remaining unprogrammed, allowing the MPO to reassess the use of these funds after any policy changes are made by the board prior to the FFYs 2023–27 TIP cycle. More information on the projects funded in the FFYs 2022–26 TIP, including the Community Connections projects funded with Regional Target funds, is available in Chapter 3.

Selection Process for Projects Prioritized by the State and Transit Agencies

As discussed above, the selection of transit, bridge, and statewide infrastructure projects for programming in the TIP draws primarily from MassDOT’s CIP. MassDOT and the MBTA evaluate projects for inclusion in CIP programs using criteria established by the independent Project Selection Advisory Council (PSAC). The following criteria from the PSAC process guide project evaluation:

• System Preservation: Projects should contribute to a state of good repair on the system.
• Mobility: Projects should provide efficient and effective modal options.
• Cost Effectiveness: Projects should result in benefits commensurate with costs and should be aimed at maximizing the return on the public’s investment.
• Economic Impact: Projects should support strategic economic growth in the Commonwealth.
• Safety: Projects should contribute to the safety and security of people and goods in transit.
• Social Equity and Fairness: Projects should equitably distribute both the benefits and the burdens of investments among all communities.
• Environment and Health Impacts: Projects should maximize the potential positive health and environmental aspects of the transportation system.
• Policy Support: Projects should get credit if they support local or regional policies or plans or state policies not addressed through the other criteria.

Projects that receive the highest priority are those that meet MassDOT’s goals for maintaining and improving the overall condition and reliability of the system; modernizing the system to make it safer and more accessible and to accommodate growth; and expanding and diversifying transportation options for communities. These project-prioritization processes may also reflect other planning initiatives, such as Focus40, the MBTA’s 25-year investment plan, or MassDOT’s modal plans. More information on regulatory and planning guidance governing TIP project prioritization is available in Appendix E. Once project prioritization is complete, programming decisions are made based on these evaluations and information regarding project readiness, program sizing, and existing asset management plans.

As discussed above, the transit element of the TIP also includes the Federal-Aid Programs of the other two RTAs in the region, CATA and MWRTA. Once selection processes are complete, these agencies submit their lists of bridge projects, statewide infrastructure items, and transit capital projects to the MPO for review.

APPROVING THE TIP

Approval of the Draft TIP for Public Review

The MPO board considers the project evaluation results and staff recommendation when prioritizing projects for Regional Target funding. The board also considers public comments, the regional importance of projects, and other factors. In addition to prioritizing the Regional Target funding, the MPO board reviews MassDOT’s proposed statewide highway programming and the proposed capital programs for the MBTA, CATA, and MWRTA before voting to release a draft TIP for public review.

The MPO board votes to release the draft document for public review and invites members of the public, municipal and elected officials, and other stakeholders in the Boston region to review the proposed TIP. The MPO staff hosts outreach events during the public review period to elicit comments on the draft document. (See Appendix C for a full list of public comments submitted on the draft TIP.)

Approval of the Draft TIP

After the public review period ends, the MPO staff and board review all public comments, and the board may change the programming or the document as appropriate before endorsing the TIP. MassDOT staff incorporates the MPO-endorsed TIP into the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) and submits it to the FHWA and FTA for approval. The FHWA, FTA, and US Environmental Protection Agency review the STIP and certify it by September 30, the end of the federal fiscal year.

uPDATING THE TIP

The TIP is a dynamic program that may be amended and adjusted throughout the year. Administrative modifications and amendments are often introduced because of changes in project status (advertisement readiness), project cost, project design scope, or available revenue. An amendment is a revision that requires public review and a demonstration of fiscal constraint.

Consistent with federal guidelines, the Boston Region MPO must release an amendment if there is: (1) a change in project cost of $500,000 or more for projects valued at $5 million or less, or (2) a change of 10 percent or more of the project cost for projects valued greater than $5 million. TIP amendments are also released if there is a proposal to add or remove a project from the TIP or if the programming year of a project is changed. Cost changes that are less than the above threshold amounts may be considered in the form of administrative modifications or adjustments, which must still undergo MPO board action for approval. Administrative modifications or adjustments are also undertaken in the event that a project’s funding source changes. Although a public review period is not required for administrative modifications or adjustments, one may be offered at the MPO board’s discretion.

Though amendments to the TIP happen every year, anomalous events occur during certain TIP cycles that require action by the MPO board. During the development of the FFYs 2022–26 TIP, the reduction in ridership across the MBTA system caused by the COVID-19 pandemic—and the resulting decrease in farebox revenue—required an amendment to the FFYs 2021–25 TIP to reallocate a significant amount of MBTA capital funds to cover operating expenses. This decision delayed several federally funded capital projects, but allowed the MBTA the financial flexibility to fund preventative maintenance activities in support of the transit system’s continued operation during the crisis. Such an event reinforces the notion that the TIP is a living capital plan that is regularly amended in response to the changing needs of the region.

Regardless of the nature of an amendment, all proposed TIP amendments are presented in a public setting at an MPO meeting, and details are posted on the MPO’s website, bostonmpo.org. Public notices are distributed through the MPO’s email contact list, which members of the public may join by signing up on the MPO’s website. Municipal staff who are TIP contacts at the affected municipalities and the public are notified of pending amendments at the start of an amendment’s public review period.

Public Notice

Notices of draft TIP amendments include a summary of the amendment’s contents, dates of the public review period, contact information for submitting a comment to the MPO, and the date, time, and location that the MPO will vote on that amendment. Municipal representatives and members of the public are invited to submit written or oral testimony at the MPO meetings at which amendments are discussed or voted upon.

The MPO typically holds a 21-day public review period before taking final action on an amendment. In extraordinary circumstances, the MPO may vote to shorten the public review period to a minimum of 15 days. (These circumstances are detailed in the MPO’s Public Participation Plan.)

The MPO’s website is the best place to find current information about the TIP. All changes to the draft TIP and changes to the endorsed TIP, such as amendments and modifications that have been approved by the MPO, are available on the TIP webpage, bostonmpo.org/tip.

Comments or questions about the draft TIP materials may be submitted directly to the MPO staff via the website, email, or US mail, or voiced at MPO meetings and other public MPO events.

back to top

Chapter 3
Summary of Highway and Transit Programming

The Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) tables included in this chapter present a listing of all the projects and programs funded with federal highway and transit aid in the Boston region during federal fiscal years (FFYs) 2022–26. These funding tables are also included as part of the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP).

Table 3-1 presents a summary of the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization’s (MPO) share of Regional Target funds from the Federal-Aid Highway Program. The allocation of these funds is constrained by projections of available federal aid. As shown in Table 3-1, the MPO has programmed much of the available discretionary funds within the limits of projected funding for highway funding programs. As such, the FFYs 2022–26 TIP Regional Target Program complies with financial constraint requirements.

Table 3-1
Boston Region MPO Regional Target Program
Funding Summary

Source: Boston Region MPO.

In the FFYs 2022–26 TIP, the MPO elected to leave approximately $20.5 million in Regional Target funds unallocated to specific projects. This is uncharacteristic, as the MPO typically strives to fully allocate all of its funds in every fiscal year to the extent possible. In drafting this TIP, a significant number of projects that were selected for funding by the MPO in prior TIP cycles saw sizeable cost increases. The MPO’s historic policy has been—and continues to be—to use any available new funding to cover such cost increases before considering new projects for funding.

To provide certainty for project proponents, the MPO elected to maintain this policy during this TIP cycle, resulting in no allocation of funding for new projects in FFYs 2022–26 other than the 10 projects funded through the MPO’s Community Connections Program, which are listed in Table 3-2 below. The funding of these 10 projects—nine of which are new, and one of which is receiving a second and third year of funding—represents a successful second round of this new funding program for first- and last-mile projects, supporting the MPO’s ability to work towards its goals for the region even in years with limited available funding for new projects. (More information on these projects is available on the following pages of this chapter.) To support the MPO’s ability to fund more projects in future years, the MPO has formed a subcommittee of board members to examine the issue of project cost increases further. This subcommittee intends to conduct this work during the summer of 2021, with the intent of providing policy change recommendations to the MPO for adoption prior to the beginning of the FFYs 2023–27 TIP cycle in the fall of 2021.

Table 3-2
New Regional Target Projects Funded in the FFYs 2022–26 TIP

Note: All projects in this table are funded through the MPO’s Community Connections Program.

*The first FFY of funding for the Newton Microtransit Service project is in FFY 2021, in which $300,000 was allocated to the project.

Source: Boston Region MPO.

Additional details of the specific projects programmed with Regional Target funding are shown in Section 1A of each annual element of the TIP tables (Table 3-7). The other sections in Table 3-7 (Sections 1B, 2A, 2B, and 2C) list the following:

• Projects funded with earmarks or discretionary grant funds
• State-prioritized bridge repairs and rehabilitation, pavement maintenance, safety improvements, retrofits for accessibility (as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act), intersection improvements, roadway reconstruction, and bicycle and pedestrian projects

Tables 3-8, 3-9, 3-10, and 3-11 list the federally funded transit projects and programs in the Boston region that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), MetroWest Regional Transit Authority (MWRTA), and Cape Ann Transportation Authority (CATA) plan to undertake.

The second part of the chapter includes detailed descriptions of projects funded through both the Regional Target and statewide portions of the Highway Program, including evaluation scores (for MPO-funded projects), project proponents, and funding details. The pages are organized alphabetically by the municipality in which each project is located.

Investment Summary

This section summarizes the investments made by the Boston Region MPO, Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), MBTA, CATA, and MWRTA in the FFYs 2022–26 TIP. Table 3-3 shows the Boston Region MPO’s investments of Regional Target funding—including both the number of projects and the dollar amount—by investment program. These investments are aimed at making progress towards the MPO’s goals for the region, including enhancing safety for all users, preserving and modernizing the transportation system, promoting mobility and reducing congestion, supporting clean air and sustainability, ensuring all have equitable access to the transportation system, and fostering economic vitality in the region through investments in transportation.

Table 3-3
FFYs 2022–26 Boston Region MPO Regional Target Investment Summary

Note: Funding amounts in this table include both federal and non-federal funds, including matching funds.

¹ The MPO will flex federal highway improvement dollars to support the Green Line Extension.

² In FFY 2022, the MPO will contribute $11,046,213 to Project 606476—Summer Tunnel Improvements—and MassDOT will contribute other funds. This project is included in the total number of projects in this category.

Source: Boston Region MPO.

Table 3-4 shows MassDOT’s FFYs 2022–26 TIP investments—including both the number of projects or programs and the dollar amount—organized by MassDOT program. MassDOT’s investments are distributed across a variety of programs and will support bridge and pavement improvements, roadway improvements and reconstruction, new bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, and safety improvements. More details on these investments are available on the project summary pages that comprise the second section of this chapter.

Table 3-4
 MassDOT Highway Program Investment Summary

Note: Funding amounts in this table include both federal and non-federal funds, including matching funds.

¹ Funding has been earmarked for two projects, both of which are also receiving funding through MassDOT’s Roadway Reconstruction Program (606476—Summer Tunnel Improvements, and 607977—Interstates 90/495 Interchange Reconstruction). Each project is counted in the tally for the Earmark Projects and Roadway Reconstruction categories, but is only counted once in the total number of projects funded.

² Project 606476—Sumner Tunnel Improvements—is also funded with $22,115,687 in Regional Target funds, which are not shown in this table.

³ One project is funded through this program while also receiving funding through MassDOT’s Safety Improvements Program (608562—Signal and Intersection Improvements on Interstate 93 at Mystic Avenue and McGrath Highway in Somerville). This project is counted the tally for the Intersection Improvements and Safety Improvements categories, but is only counted once in the total number of projects funded.

Sources: MassDOT and the Boston Region MPO.

Table 3-5 shows the MBTA’s programs and associated TIP funding amounts, with additional details on the MBTA’s programs and projects in Tables 3-8 and 3-9 on the following pages. Investments made through these programs allow the MBTA to continue to maintain and modernize its infrastructure in support of the agency’s role as the largest transit provider in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The MBTA caters to a wide range of needs, serving the Boston region with commuter rail, light rail, subway, fixed-route bus, and paratransit services. The MBTA prioritizes projects that keep the existing transit system in a state of good repair, including the purchase of new rolling stock, accessibility and resiliency improvements to stations, the rehabilitation of bridges and tunnels, and the replacement of tracks and signals to support system-wide reliability. Limited system expansion projects are also undertaken through the MBTA’s federal capital program, as is currently demonstrated by the ongoing funding provided in support of the Green Line Extension project. Further information on how the MBTA’s investments support system safety and condition is available in Chapter 4.

Table 3-5
 MBTA Transit Program Investment Summary

Note: FTA formula funds (Sections 5307, 5337 and 5339) are based on estimated apportionments. TIP programs and projects are based on a preliminary draft Capital Investment Plan (CIP) as of April 22, 2021. Adjustments will be made to federal projects and budgets as the CIP process is finalized. Funding amounts in this table include both federal and non-federal funds, including matching funds.

¹ Positive Train Control investments are funded with Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) funds.

² RRIF/Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) financing program funding is an initial estimate and will be refined as projects are identified and loans are finalized with the Build America Bureau.

Sources: MBTA and the Boston Region MPO.

Table 3-6 summarizes CATA and MWRTA investments included in the FFYs 2022-26 TIP, with further information available on each agency’s investments in Tables 3-10 and 3-11. Though the MBTA provides commuter rail service to the Cape Ann communities of Rockport and Gloucester, CATA provides additional paratransit and fixed-route bus services to these communities, and to Danvers, Peabody, Ipswich, Essex, and Beverly. CATA’s federal capital program supports its role in providing critical transportation alternatives to residents and visitors of the area, including through the replacement of buses, the modernization of facilities, and the maintenance of assets. MWRTA similarly complements MBTA commuter rail service, operating fixed-route bus, on-demand microtransit, and commuter shuttle services to a number of communities in the MetroWest subregion. MWRTA’s federal capital program supports this mission by funding vehicle replacements, station and facility maintenance and improvements, and operating assistance for paratransit services, among other efforts. Other projects funded in MWRTA’s 2022-26 TIP include the electrification of the agency’s paratransit fleet and investments in technology to support travel training and customer service efforts.

Table 3-6
 CATA and MWRTA Transit Program Investment Summary

Note: Funding amounts in this table include both federal and non-federal funds, including matching funds.
Sources: CATA, MWRTA, and the Boston Region MPO.

Tables 3-7 through 3-11 build on the summary tables listed above by detailing investments made through both the Highway and Transit Programs by project, program, and funding year.

Table 3-7
FFYs 2022-26 TIP Highway Table

Table 3-8
FFYs 2022-26 TIP Transit Table (MBTA Federal Capital Program)

Table 3-9
FFYs 2022-26 TIP Transit Table (MBTA Federal Capital Program – Project List and Descriptions [80% Federal Share])

Table 3-10
FFYs 2022-26 TIP Transit Table (MWRTA)