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 Advisory Board

Massachusetts Port Authority

Regional Transportation Advisory Council

City of Boston

City of Beverly

City of Everett

City of Framingham

City of Newton

City of Somerville

Town of Arlington

Town of Acton

Town of Brookline

Town of Burlington

Town of Hull

Town of Norwood

Town of Wrentham

Federal Highway Administration (nonvoting)

Federal Transit Administration (nonvoting)

This document was funded in part through grants from the US Department of Transportation. Its contents do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the US Department of Transportation.

Notice of Nondiscrimination Rights and Protections

CIVIL RIGHTS NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC

Welcome. Bem Vinda. Bienvenido. Akeyi. 欢迎. 歡迎

You are invited to participate in our transportation planning process, free from discrimination. The Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is committed to nondiscrimination in all activities and complies with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin (including limited English proficiency). Related federal and state nondiscrimination laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of age, sex, disability, and additional protected characteristics.

For additional information or to file a civil rights complaint, visit www.bostonmpo.org/mpo_non_discrimination.

To request this information in a different language or format, please contact:

Boston Region MPO Title VI Specialist

10 Park Plaza, Suite 2150

Boston, MA 02116

Phone: 857.702.3700

Email: civilrights@ctps.org

For people with hearing or speaking difficulties, connect through the state MassRelay service, www.mass.gov/massrelay. Please allow at least five business days for your request to be fulfilled.

Contact MPO staff:

By mail:

Boston Region MPO

MPO Activities Group, Central Transportation Planning Staff

10 Park Plaza, Suite 2150

Boston, MA 02116

By telephone:

857.702.3700 (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 email:

tip@ctps.org

Global Warming Solutions Act Requirements for Transportation

This form will certify that the Transportation Improvement Program and Air Quality Conformity Determination for the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization’s (MPO) Long-Range Transportation Plan is in compliance with all applicable requirements in the Massachusetts State Regulation 310 CMR 60.05: Global Warming Solutions Act Requirements for Transportation (GWSA). The regulation requires the MPO to conduct the following activities:

1. Evaluate and report the aggregate transportation greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions impacts of Regional Transportation Plans (RTPs) and Transportation Improvement Plans (TIPs). (310 CMR 60.05(5)(a)1)
2. In consultation with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), develop and utilize procedures to prioritize and select projects in RTPs and TIPs based on factors that include aggregate transportation GHG emissions impacts. (310 CMR 60.05(5)(a)2)
3. Quantify net transportation GHG emissions impacts resulting from the projects in RTPs and TIPs and certify in a statement included with RTPs and TIPs pursuant to 23 CFR Part 450 that the MPO has made efforts to minimize aggregate transportation GHG emissions impacts. (310 CMR 60.05(5)(a)3)
4. Determine in consultation with the Regional Planning Agency (RPA) that the appropriate planning assumptions used for transportation GHG emissions modeling are consistent with local land use policies, or that local authorities have made documented and credible commitments to establishing such consistency. (310 CMR 60.05(5)(a)4)
5. Develop RTPs and TIPs. (310 CMR 60.05(8)(a)2.a)
6. Ensure that RPAs are using appropriate planning assumptions. (310 CMR 60.05(8)(a)2.b)
7. Perform regional aggregate transportation GHG emissions impact analysis of RTPs and TIPs. (310 CMR 60.05(8)(a)2.c)
8. Calculate aggregate transportation GHG emissions impacts for RTPs and TIPs. (310 CMR 60.05(8)(a)2.d)
9. Develop public consultation procedures for aggregate transportation GHG emissions impact reporting and related GWSA requirements consistent with current and approved regional public participation plans. (310 CMR 60.05(8)(a)2.e)
10. Prior to making final endorsements on the RTPs, TIPs, State TIPs (STIPs), and projects included in these plans, MassDOT and the MPOs shall include the aggregate transportation GHG emission impact assessment in RTPs, TIPs, and STIPs and provide an opportunity for public review and comment on the RTPs, TIPs, and STIPs. (310 CMR 60.05(8)(c))
11. After a final GHG assessment has been made by MassDOT and the MPOs, MassDOT and the MPOs shall submit MPO-endorsed RTPs, TIPs, STIPs or projects within 30 days of endorsement to the Department of Environmental Protection for review of the GHG assessment. (310 CMR 60.05(8)(a)1.c)

                                                           for        F

Monica Tibbits-Nutt, Secretary and CEO

Massachusetts Department of Transportation

Chair, Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization

____________________________________

Date

Executive Summary

Introduction

The Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization’s (MPO) five-year capital  plan, the Federal Fiscal Years (FFYs) 2025–29 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 and reliable transportation for all modes, enhance livability, support clean air and healthy communities, promote equity, resiliency, and sustainability, and improve mobility throughout the region. These investments fund roadway and intersection improvements, maintenance and expansion of the public transit system, shared-use path construction, first-and-last-mile improvements for users of active transportation, 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 2025–29 TIP Investments

The complete TIP project list 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 roadways, resurfacing highways, and replacing bridges.

In Massachusetts, Federal-Aid Highway Program funding, which is apportioned by the Federal Highway Administration and distributed by MassDOT, goes toward projects within various statewide programs, Grant Anticipation Notes (GANs) payments, and Regional Targets for the state’s MPOs. In the FFYs 2025–29 TIP, roadway, bridge, and bicycle and pedestrian programs account for nearly $2.37 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 2025–29 TIP includes $4.05 billion in transit investments for the transit authorities in the Boston MPO region to support state of good repair, modernize transit systems, and increase access to transit. Additionally, beginning in FFY 2025, the MPO will allocate $2.5 million of its annual Regional Target funds to its new Transit Transformation 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. The MPO is funding transit projects in FFY 2025 using the $2.5 million set-aside and a surplus of funds available in that year, as detailed in Table ES-1. For the following years, the MPO has reserved $5 million for FFY 2026 and $6.5 million annually in FFYs 2027 through 2029 for the Transit Transformation investment program.

Regional Target Program Details

During FFYs 2025–29, the Boston Region MPO plans to fund 69 projects with its Regional Target funding. In total, 32 new projects were added to the MPO’s Regional Target Program during this TIP cycle. These 32 projects included ten in the Community Connections investment program; eight in the Transit Transformation investment program; six in a project design funding pilot in FFY 2025; and two projects listed in the MPO’s Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP), Destination 2050, that will receive initial design funding in FFY 2026. Six roadway projects were newly funded for construction in the FFYs 2025–29 TIP Regional Target Program, including two projects previously listed under MassDOT’s Statewide Highway Program. Details on these projects are available in Table ES-1.

Table ES-1
New Regional Target Projects Funded in the FFYs 2025–29 TIP

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

* These projects are funded starting in FFY 2029 of the TIP, with further funding expected to be programmed in FFY 2030 of the FFYs 2026–30 TIP.
ADA = Americans with Disabilities Act. CATA = Cape Ann Transportation Authority. FFY = federal fiscal year. MassDOT = Massachusetts Department of Transportation. MBTA = Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. MWRTA = MetroWest Regional Transit Authority. N/A = not applicable. NB = northbound. TIP = Transportation Improvement Program.

Source: Boston Region MPO.

The signing of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), on November 15, 2021, increased the amount of Regional Target funding available to the Boston Region MPO in the previous FFYs 2024–28 TIP cycle by approximately nine percent from the funding levels in the FFYs 2023–27 TIP. This funding level was sustained in the development of this FFYs 2025–29 TIP.

The majority of the funding available for allocation by the MPO during the FFYs 2025–29 TIP cycle was in the fifth and final year of the TIP, FFY 2029. During the development of the FFYs 2025–29 TIP, the MPO had significant amounts of funding available to program in FFYs 2025, 2026, and 2029.  However, there were shortfalls of funding in FFYs 2027 and 2028 as a result of delayed programming of 14 projects.

Projects already programmed in the TIP to receive Regional Target funds could not be accelerated to utilize surplus funding in FFYs 2025 and 2026, so the MPO worked with MassDOT, the MBTA, MWRTA, and CATA to identify other projects that could be funded in those years. Jointly, these agencies presented more than 13 projects to the MPO for consideration, from which the MPO selected 11 projects for funding in the Transit Transformation program in FFYs 2025 and 2026:

• Additional funding for Columbus Avenue Bus Lanes, Phase 2 ($7,500,000)
• Additional funding for Rail Transformation Early Action Items—Reading Station and Wilbur Interlocking ($6,000,000)
• Additional funding for Jackson Square Station Accessibility Improvements ($7,250,000)
• Procurement of three 29-foot compressed natural gas (CNG) buses for the MWRTA ($1,980,000)
• Design funding for improvements to customer and personnel facilities at the MWRTA’s Blandin Hub ($2,500,000)
• Funding to modernize CATA’s Gloucester facility ($1,293,000)
• Funding for procurement of four hybrid buses to replace four vehicles in CATA’s fleet at the end of their useful life ($2,460,000)
• Funding to upgrade cashless fare payment systems for CATA’s ADA and Dial-A-Ride services ($65,000)
• Partial funding to support accessibility improvements to Central Station on the MBTA Red Line, with a focus on adding a new elevator ($5,000,000)
• Funding for bus circulation improvements at Nubian Station in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood ($5,000,000)
• Funding to support the modernization of MBTA’s “Pedal and Park” bicycle storage facilities at 13 MBTA stations in nine municipalities regionwide ($2,500,000).

The MPO also voted to fund two projects in FFY 2025 that were previously incorporated into MassDOT’s Statewide Highway Program:

• 609531 – Arlington– Stratton School Improvements (Safe Routes to Schools) ($1,625,250)
• 611982 – Medford– Shared-Use Path Connection at the Route 28/Wellington Underpass ($5,509,294)

Because many of these projects were identified later in the project evaluation life cycle—that is, months after the regular cycle of project submissions—scoring information is included in the TIP with some delay compared to other project line items. While these projects were identified too late in the TIP cycle to be quantitatively evaluated using the MPO’s scoring criteria, these projects align well qualitatively with many of the MPO’s goals, including enhancing bicycle and pedestrian safety and access, and expanding the accessibility of and maintaining a state of good repair for the region’s transit system. These projects may be scored using the MPO’s scoring criteria in a later TIP cycle.

In addition to selecting projects, several other key decisions were made by the MPO in the drafting of the FFYs 2025–29 Regional Target Program:

• The MPO allocated additional funding to three MBTA projects that it had voted to support in prior TIPs. These were the Jackson Square Station Accessibility Improvements, Rail Transformation Early Action Items at Reading Station and Wilbur Interlocking, and the Columbus Avenue Bus Lanes, Phase 2, projects. The Jackson Square project received $7.25 million in addition to the $26.25 million programmed in the FFYs 2024–28 TIP. The Rail Transformation project received $6 million in addition to the $14 million programmed in the FFYs 2024–28 TIP to address a cost increase at the Reading turn track location. The Columbus Avenue, Phase 2, project received $7.5 million in addition to the $11.75 million in FFY 2024 of the FFYs 2024–28 TIP and an additional $14.8 million programmed in FFY 2021 of the FFYs 2021–25 TIP. The total contribution by the Boston Region MPO to these projects is $33.5 million for Jackson Square Station Accessibility Improvements, $20 million for Rail Transformation Early Action Items at Reading Station and Wilbur Interlocking, and $34.05 million for Columbus Avenue Bus Lanes, Phase 2.
• The MPO programmed $6.15 million for six projects in eight municipalities in FFY 2025 for a design pilot funding program intended to reduce barriers for municipalities that plan to advance projects for Regional Target funding, as programming on the TIP requires the completion of 25 percent design plans.
• The MPO programmed $3.05 million to design two projects in FFY 2026. These projects, the Route 4/225 Interchange project in Lexington and Intersection Improvements at Route 126/135/MBTA and CSX Railroad in Framingham, are listed in the MPO’s Long-Range Transportation Plan. These projects will be scored in the development of the FFYs 2026–30 TIP for their design funding as FFY 2026 approaches.
• The programmed amount of Project 607981, Somerville—McGrath Boulevard Construction, was increased to $30,310,000 in FFY 2029.  Prior advance construction schedules for the project recommended $20,000,000 in FFY 2029 and $13,840,000 in FFY 2030. This action was taken to alleviate financial pressures on future TIP cycles.
• The programmed amount of Project 606226, Boston–Reconstruction of Rutherford Avenue from City Square to Sullivan Square, was increased to $45,000,000 in FFY 2029. Prior advance construction schedules for the project recommended $33,500,000 in FFY 2029. This action was taken to alleviate financial pressures on future TIP cycles through FFY 2032.
• In order to address funding constraints in FFY 2027, the MPO voted to delay Project 610662, Woburn–Roadway and Intersection Improvements at Woburn Common, Route 38 (Main Street), Winn Street, Pleasant Street and Montvale Avenue, to FFY 2029 given a lack of significant design progress on the project since the FFYs 2021–25 TIP cycle.

Figure ES-1 shows how the Regional Target funding for FFYs 2025–29 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 transit infrastructure through investments in Major Infrastructure and Transit Transformation projects. The MPO also elected to leave approximately $4.8 million unprogrammed.

Figure ES-1
FFYs 2025–29 TIP Regional Target Funding by MPO Investment Program

FFY = federal fiscal year. MPO = metropolitan planning organization. TIP = Transportation Improvement 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 to each program in the FFYs 2025–29 TIP. As noted in Figure ES-1, the MPO has programmed more than 99 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 2025–29 Boston Region MPO Regional Target Investment Summary

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

* This figure includes $7 million in BikeShare Support funding starting in FFY 2026.

FFY = federal fiscal year. MPO = metropolitan planning organization. N/A = not applicable.

Source: Boston Region MPO.

When making decisions about which projects to fund, the MPO considers how the allocation of funds to each investment program compares to the funding goals outlined in the MPO’s current Long-Range Transportation Plan. The FFYs 2025–29 TIP is the first to be informed by the LRTP Destination 2050, which was adopted by the MPO in 2023. The funding goals for investment programs 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 is available in Chapter 1, and a comparison between LRTP investment program goals and program funding levels in the FFYs 2025–29 TIP is shown in Figure ES-2.

Figure ES-2
FFYs 2025–29 TIP: Regional Target Funding Levels Relative to LRTP Investment Program Goals

FFY = federal fiscal year. LRTP = Long-Range Transportation Plan. TIP = Transportation Improvement Program.

Source: Boston Region MPO.

The investments made in the FFYs 2025–29 TIP will be implemented in 48 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 shows 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 2025–29 TIP: Regional Target Funding Levels Relative to Key Indicators

Note: Unprogrammed funds and funds held for the MPO’s Transit Transformation and Community Connections programs are not included in this figure.

FFY = federal fiscal year. MAGIC = Minuteman Advisory Group on Interlocal Coordination. MAPC = Metropolitan Area Planning Council. MetroWest = MetroWest Regional Collaborative. NSPC = North Suburban Planning Council. NSTF = North Shore Task Force. SSC = South Shore Coalition. SWAP = South West Advisory Committee. TIP = Transportation Improvement Program. TRIC = Three Rivers Interlocal Council.

Source: Boston Region MPO.

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

FINANCING THE FFYS 2025–29 TIP

Highway Program

The TIP Highway Program was developed with the assumption that federal funding for the state would range between $818 million and $882 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 funding levels for the FFYs 2025–29 TIP’s Highway Program represent an increase of approximately two percent over those in the FFYs 2024–28 TIP.

The process of deciding how to use this federal funding in the Boston region follows several steps. First, MassDOT reserves funding for Grant Anticipation Notes (GANs) debt service payments for the Accelerated Bridge Program; annual GANs payments range between $122 million and $134 million annually over the first two years of this TIP. GANs payments for the Accelerated Bridge Program are expected to conclude in FFY 2026 but will pick back up in FFY 2032 (in future TIP cycles) to provide debt service payments for MassDOT’s Next Generation Bridge Program.

The remaining Federal-Aid Highway Program funds are budgeted to support state and regional (i.e., MPO) priorities. In the FFYs 2025–29 TIP, $1.09 billion to $1.18 billion annually was available for programming statewide, including both federal dollars and the local match. MassDOT customarily provides the non-federal 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. Required matching funds for project design, capital purchases, and municipally-initiated operating service projects are often borne by the proponent of the project.

Next, MassDOT allocates funding across the following funding categories:

• Reliability Investments: 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 Investments: 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 Investments: These programs include the Bicycle and Pedestrian Program and transit network expansions.

After accounting for GANs repayments, planning adjustments, and several other line items, MassDOT allocates roughly one-third of the total core formula funding apportioned by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) among the state’s 13 MPOs for programming. This discretionary funding for MPOs is suballocated 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 $125 million and $161 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 Transformation 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.

The current federal transportation legislation, the BIL, allocates funding to transit projects through the following formula programs:

• 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 across the MPO’s six goal areas:

• Safety
• Mobility and Reliability
• Access and Connectivity
• Resilience
• Clean Air and Healthy Communities
• Transportation Equity

More information on the MPO’s goal areas can be found on the Destination 2050 website at bostonmpo.org/destination2050

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, which includes a Bikeshare Support Program
• Transit Transformation

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 and descriptions of the MPO’s investment programs are available in Chapter 2.

The MPO incorporates 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 and measurable outcomes for the transportation system. MPO investments directly relate to the PBPP framework and further the MPO’s goals and performance targets.  With the development of the FFYs 2025-29 TIP, the MPO leveraged funding availability across all federal fiscal years to program new projects to address transit system reliability, traffic safety for all users, NHS bridge condition, and other priorities. The MPO will continue to closely link its performance targets, investment decisions, and monitoring and evaluation activities. More information on PBPP is available in Chapter 4 and Appendix A (Table A-2).

Outreach and Data Collection

The outreach process begins early in the federal fiscal year. 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 staff of cities and towns in the region to identify their priority projects. MPO staff compiles the project funding requests into a Universe of Projects, which is 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. In the development of the FFYs 2025–29 TIP, staff also began tracking potential Community Connections projects in the Universe of Projects.

Transit Transformation projects are not typically listed in the Universe of Projects as priority projects. Rather, projects from regional transit authorities are typically identified during their annual program development process. During the fall of this TIP cycle, the MPO invited the regional transit authorities to submit applications for funding from the new Transit Transformation program.  The MPO also solicited additional transit projects later during the development of the FFYs 2025–29 TIP to utilize funding availability in FFYs 2025 and 2026.

The Universe includes 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 functional design report is usually prepared 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.

In response to significant cost increases in recent TIP cycles for projects already programmed for funding, the MPO board created a committee in the wake of the FFYs 2022–26 TIP cycle to further explore the causes of project cost increases and devise MPO policy changes to support more reliable project delivery. The TIP Project Cost Ad Hoc Committee began its work in June 2021 and advanced a set of policy recommendations to the full MPO board in September 2021. These changes were formally adopted by the MPO on November 4, 2021, and were in effect for the development of the FFYs 2025–29 TIP.

Among other changes, the MPO elected to codify its policy of requiring that project proponents submit 25 percent designs and obtain an updated cost estimate for their projects prior to being programmed in the TIP. While this new policy was in effect for the FFYs 2025–29 TIP cycle, the MPO desired to keep this threshold flexible; the design progress demonstrated by proponents of selected projects since their application for funding in the FFYs 2024–28 TIP indicated sufficient readiness for programming in the outer years of the FFYs 2025–29 TIP.

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 appropriate 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.

Among the other new policies advanced by the TIP Project Cost Ad Hoc Committee, the MPO board adopted a policy requiring proponents of projects that experienced a cost increase of 25 percent or more (for projects costing less than $10 million) or $2.5 million or more (for projects costing more than $10 million) to present to the MPO board on the reasons for these cost increases. The MPO would then compare these projects—at the new costs—to other projects and consider this cost-effectiveness evaluation when deciding whether or not to fund the projects at the higher costs. These cost changes are most often revealed through conversations between MassDOT staff and MPO staff during TIP Readiness Day, making this new policy especially relevant at this stage of TIP development.

Staff Recommendation and Draft TIP

Using the evaluation results and information about project readiness (i.e., 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 $723 million of Regional Target funding available to the Boston Region MPO for FFYs 2025–29. 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 2024.

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 April, the MPO board votes to release the draft TIP for a 21-30 day public review period. The comment period typically begins in late April, 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 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 schedules, project costs, 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 review 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 engagement 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 MPO Activities Group, 10 Park Plaza, Suite 2150, Boston, MA 02116-3968

Telephone: 857.702.3700 (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

Email: publicinfo@ctps.org

The Executive Summary of the FFYs 2025–29 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)

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Chapter 1: 3C Transportation Planning in the Boston Region

Chapter 1—3C Transportation Planning in the Boston Region

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 (MPO) provide a forum for this decision-making process. Each metropolitan area in the United States with a population of 50,000 or more is required by federal legislation to establish an MPO, which decides how to spend federal transportation funds for capital projects and planning studies in the area.

The Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization performs this function for the 97 municipalities in eastern Massachusetts that comprise the MPO’s planning area. This MPO develops plans for funding transportation projects and programs; maintains transportation models and data resources to support studies, system performance monitoring, and air quality determinations; and conducts an ongoing public engagement process.

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.

The most recent reauthorization of the federal surface transportation law is the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).The BIL sets policies related to metropolitan transportation planning and requires that all MPOs carry out a continuing, comprehensive, and cooperative (3C) transportation planning process.

The Boston Region MPO, which is responsible for carrying out the 3C planning process in the Boston region, 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 BIL, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Clean Air Act of 1990, 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

Planning Area

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

MPO Board Members and Staff

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

 A Vision for the Region

The following paragraph is the MPO’s vision statement, as adopted in Destination 2050, the MPO’s current Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP), which was adopted in July 2023:

The Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization envisions an equitable, pollution-free, and modern regional transportation system that gets people to their destinations safely, easily, and reliably, and that supports an inclusive, resilient, healthy, and economically vibrant Boston Region.

When developing this vision statement, the MPO members took into consideration the significant public input received during the drafting of the Needs Assessment for Destination 2050. This statement also reflects the desire to emphasize the maintenance and RES of the transportation system while supporting the MPO’s six core goals: Transportation Equity; Safety; Mobility and Reliability; Access and Connectivity; Resiliency; and Clean Air and Healthy Communities.

More information on the MPO’s vision, goals, and objectives for the transportation system is available in Figure 1-3.

Figure 1-3
Vision, Goals, and Objectives

Certification Documents

As part of its 3C process, the Boston Region MPO produces the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and the Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) annually, and the Long-Range Transportation Plan every four years. These documents, referred to as certification documents, 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. An inclusive public engagement process accompanies the development of each certification document.

The Long-Range Transportation Plan

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 the established goals and objectives.

Destination 2050, the current LRTP, was endorsed by the MPO board in July 2023 and went into effect on October 1, 2023.

The Transportation Improvement Program

The TIP is a multimodal program of transportation improvements, consistent with the LRTP, that describes and prioritizes transportation projects that are expected to be implemented during a five-year period. The TIP contains a financial plan that shows the current or proposed revenue sources for each project.

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.

An MPO-endorsed TIP is incorporated into the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) for submission to the FHWA, FTA, United States Environmental Protection Agency, and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection for approval. Investments programmed in the TIP and STIP are also reflected in Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s (MassDOT) Capital Investment Plan, which shows capital expenditures in the state over a five-year period.

The Unified Planning Work Program

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 often offers 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, MassDOT, 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 1-4
Relationship between the LRTP, TIP, UPWP,
and Performance-Based Planning Process

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Chapter 2: The TIP Process

INTRODUCTION TO THE TIP PROCESS

Transportation improvements are part of the solution to many critical regional, state, national, and even global problems, such as traffic congestion, air pollution, fatalities and injuries on roadways, climate change, and environmental injustice. Therefore, one of the most important decisions a metropolitan planning organization (MPO) faces is deciding how to allocate limited funds for transportation projects and programs. Because there is insufficient funding available for all projects that would address these problems, an MPO’s investment choices must be guided by policies that help identify the most viable and effective solutions.

The Boston Region MPO is guided by the policies in its Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) and the MPO develops a Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) to prioritize the expenditure of federal funds on transportation projects. The MPO staff manages the development of both plans.

During the annual development process for the TIP, the MPO staff supports the MPO board by evaluating project funding requests from municipalities and state transportation agencies. The staff proposes a range of alternative scenarios for the programming of new and ongoing projects based on anticipated yearly funding levels, and work with the board to create a draft TIP document. The staff facilitates a public engagement process that affords the public an opportunity to comment on proposed projects and review the draft TIP before the MPO board endorses the final document.

   FUNDING the TIP

Federal Funding Framework

The first step in allocating federal transportation funds is the passage by the United States Congress of a multiyear act that establishes a maximum level of federal transportation funding per federal fiscal year (FFY). The establishment of this level of funding is referred to as an authorization. The most recent authorization act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), was signed into law on November 15, 2021. The BIL governed the development of the FFYs 2025–29 TIP by establishing new formula funding levels, reauthorizing existing discretionary grant programs and creating new ones, and setting policy priorities. (More information on the impacts of the BIL on the development of the FFYs 2025–29 TIP is available throughout this report, with specific guidance on new BIL Planning Emphasis Areas available in Appendix E.)

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 TIP Highway Program was developed with the assumption that funding for Massachusetts from the Federal-Aid Highway Program would range between $818 million and $882 million annually over the next five years. These figures do not include matching funds provided for projects by the state or local entities. Projects are typically funded with 80 percent federal dollars and 20 percent state dollars, depending on the funding program, while costs for project design are often borne by the proponent of the project. With the addition of matching funds, approximately $1.09 billion to $1.18 billion was available statewide for projects in FFYs 2025–29.

The process of determining the MPO’s share of this federal funding for the Boston region followed several steps. First, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) reserved funding for Grant Anticipation Notes (GANs) debt service payments for the Accelerated Bridge Program; these payments are expected to conclude in FFY 2026. Then, the remaining Federal-Aid Highway Program funds were budgeted to support state and regional (i.e., MPO) priorities. The funding for regional priorities is referred to as Regional Target funds.  

Regional Targets

The Regional Targetsare discretionary funds for MPOs, suballocated 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. The Boston Region MPO does this by engaging its 97 cities and towns in an annual TIP development process. 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.

In addition, this FFYs 2025–29 TIP includes an annual allotment of funding to the MPO’s Transit Transformation Program. This commitment to flex Federal-Aid Highway funds to transit projects on a yearly basis is an affirmation of the regional 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 $727.9 million, an average of $145.6 million per year. As with the overall increase in funding for the Highway Program from the BIL, the MPO’s Regional Target funds increased 4.4 percent per year in the FFYs 2025–29 TIP relative to the levels planned for in the development of the FFYs 2024–28 TIP. The continued absence of GANs funding in FFY 2029 drove this increase. Funding levels in FFYs 2025 through 2028 remain unchanged from the previous TIP.

Federal Highway Administration Programs

The Federal-Aid Highway Program dollars discussed in this chapter are delivered through several Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) funding programs, each of which has unique requirements. Table 2-1 lists the programs in the BIL that fund projects in the FFYs 2025–29 TIP.

Table 2-1
Federal Highway Administration Programs Applicable to the FFYs 2025–29 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. As previously noted, the MPO also converts some of its FHWA funding to FTA to support transit investments. Table 2-2 shows FTA programs in the BIL that support transit investments in the FFYs 2025–29 TIP.

Table 2-2
Federal Transit Administration Programs Applicable to the FFYs 2025–29 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 that 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 2050, which is the LRTP the MPO endorsed in July 2023. Chapter 1 lists these goals and objectives.

MPO Investment Programs

In Destination 2050 and the prior LRTP, 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 Transformation    
• Bikeshare Support

The MPO has taken a clear stance that investing in transit is central to improving the region’s broader transportation system. The MPO established the Transit Modernization program in Destination 2040, which became the Transit Transformation program in Destination 2050. The Transit Transformation program represents a significant shift in the MPO’s investment strategy as funding will be allocated to transit projects on an annual basis. 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 reallocate 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 funded multiple Transit Transformation projects in FFY 2025 and FFY 2026 to make use of funding surpluses. The MPO has also continued to reserve funding in the amount of $5 million in FFY 2026 and $6.5 million in each following fiscal year for future allocation. 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; the FFYs 2025–29 TIP invested in five projects from regional transit authorities, a first for the Transit Transformation program. In addition to two other MBTA projects in Central Square in Cambridge and Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, a systemwide Pedal-and-Park modernization project spanning 13 MBTA stations in nine municipalities was funded by the MPO in FFY 2025.

As with the original Transit Modernization program, the MPO also will continue to work with municipalities to develop and fund transit improvements as part of larger projects through the Complete Streets investment program. In Destination 2040, the MPO added dedicated bus lanes and climate resiliency measures as eligible projects.

In this FFYs 2025–29 TIP, the MPO funded 10 other Community Connections projects in addition to the 34 projects funded in the previous four TIP cycles. Funding for the Community Connections, Transit Transformation, and Bikeshare Support Programs continues to be reserved in FFYs 2026–29 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

Major Infrastructure Projects

Since 2015, the MPO has chosen to prioritize lower-cost, smaller-scale projects in most investment areas, while limiting larger projects to the Major Infrastructure program. 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. This revised definition persists in the FFYs 2025–29 TIP. 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 revised definition classifies Major Infrastructure projects as follows:

• Roadway projects:
• Capital projects that improve facilities that are important to regional travel, which include
• interstate highways
• principal arterial freeways and expressways
• all sections of roadways classified as principal arterial “other” that have fully or partially controlled access
• Regionally significant 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
• Regionally significant 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 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 region. This allows the MPO to better compare projects when conducting project evaluations.

Categorizing Projects

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 2-1), properly categorizing projects is a critical component of the MPO’s decision-making process. Funding allocation goals 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 2-1
Destination 2050 Funding Goals by MPO Investment Program

Source: Boston Region MPO.

Project Cost Estimates

The MPO requires that project proponents submit 25 percent designs and obtain an updated cost estimate for their project prior to being programmed in the TIP. This standard was set by the MPO as part of a multi-pronged effort to reduce the prevalence of cost increases and delays for projects that have already been selected for funding in the TIP.

MassDOT and Transit Agency Investment Frameworks

MassDOT and the MBTA each update their rolling five-year Capital Investment Plans (CIP) on an annual basis. MassDOT’s CIP identifies priority roadway, bridge, and statewide infrastructure projects for the five MassDOT divisions and includes funding for specific transit projects such as the South Coast Rail. The MBTA’s CIP outlines the agency’s five-year investment strategy for transit projects in its service area. Both CIP processes use a similar framework that prioritizes funding according to statewide strategic goals for the transportation system. Reliability is the top priority for MassDOT and the MBTA, followed by modernization and then expansion. Both agencies have created investment programs for their respective CIPs 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 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, the Rail Transformation 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 Red-Blue Connector extension of the Blue Line from Bowdoin Station to Charles/MGH Station.

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 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.

Following the adoption of Destination 2050 in July 2023, the MPO revised the TIP evaluation criteria to better align with the MPO’s updated goals, objectives, and investment programs, including a new resilience goal area. These new criteria were employed during the project selection process for the FFYs 2025–29 TIP. The final criteria were informed by robust public engagement conducted during the development of Destination 2050, and developed through an update process that engaged MPO members, staff, and external stakeholders. The most significant update to the criteria for the FFYs 2025–29 TIP was the development of new and broader resilience evaluation metrics to align with the resilience goal area in Destination 2050 and elevate resilience to equal consideration in project prioritization alongside other goal-focused TIP criteria. To develop these metrics, staff held a stakeholder workshop that engaged environmental advocates, community-based organizations, municipalities, and environmental agencies, and also distributed a survey and held one-on-one meetings with stakeholders. In addition, staff used data from this engagement to create a Climate Resilience Guidance for Planners StoryMap to highlight strategies and resources for municipalities to address resilience and meet new TIP criteria in project design. The outcomes of this process are discussed further in the Project Evaluation section on the following pages.

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. In November of 2023, MPO staff held two virtual workshops for municipalities in the region to develop an understanding of the TIP process. MPO staff also held several one-on-one virtual office hours throughout the fall and winter for proponents to ask more detailed questions about advancing specific projects for funding.

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. These include projects seeking design funding as well as construction funds. 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, Bikeshare Support, and Transit Transformation projects must apply for funding directly to MPO staff, as these projects do not require initiation with 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 a future TIP cycle. 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 if an application is received. Projects that are not ready for programming remain in the Universe for consideration in future TIP cycles. In developing the FFYs 2025–29 TIP, MPO staff began incorporating Community Connections projects into the Universe.     

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:

• Facilitate an inclusive and transparent transportation-planning process and make investments that eliminate transportation-related disparities borne by people in disadvantaged communities.       
• Achieve zero transportation-related fatalities and serious injuries and improve safety for all users of the transportation system.    
• Support easy and reliable movement of people and freight.    
• Provide transportation options and improve access to key destinations to support economic vitality and quality of life.    
• Provide transportation that supports sustainable environments and enables people to respond and adapt to climate change and other changing conditions.    
• Provide transportation free of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants and that supports good health.    

As noted previously, the MPO undertook a process of revising the TIP evaluation criteria prior to the launch of the FFYs 2025–29 TIP to enhance the alignment between the TIP project selection process and the MPO’s updated goals, objectives, and investment programs outlined in Destination 2050. 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 Transformation program    
• Revisions to the existing criteria for the MPO’s Bicycle Network and Pedestrian Connections, Complete Streets, Community Connections, and Intersection Improvements, allowing for each program to have a distinct set of criteria that better evaluates the specific aspects of each type of project
• Consolidation of Major Infrastructure criteria to be classified under Complete Streets or Transit Transformation, depending on the nature of the project.  

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

• Safety criteria were revised to provide emphasis in all areas for investments that enhance usability by vulnerable populations.
• The ways in which the MPO considers resiliency in project selection was broadened by adding a dedicated resiliency scoring category.    
• New criteria were added to emphasize projects that provide access to existing or planned residential and mixed-use developments, with additional points for projects sited near 40B or Section 3A MBTA Communities developments and districts.1      

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. Projects scored using both sets of criteria are programmed in each of these six investment programs in the FFYs 2025–29 TIP, so both sets of criteria are referenced throughout this document.

Prior to the FFYs 2025–29 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 past four years of administering the program. In these revisions, MPO staff created 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 addressed the discrepancies between projects that serve a limited set of locations, such as small-scale purchases of bicycle racks or transit signal priority installations versus projects that serve larger areas, such as on-demand microtransit. The original criteria favored projects that had broad service areas. The new criteria are specific to each project type: Bicycle Lanes, Bicycle Racks, Bikeshare (Expansion and Replacement), Microtransit Pilots, and Wayfinding Signage.2 These adjustments result in more balanced scores to better reflected the goals of the program.

More information on the scoring areas for these criteria is available in Figures 2-2 and 2-3, and all criteria are available in Appendix A. For this TIP, Community Connection projects were scored using both the old and new criteria for, so both sets of criteria are referenced throughout this document.

Figure 2-2
TIP Project Evaluation Criteria: Point Distributions by Community Connections Project Type

Source: Boston Region MPO.

Figure 2-3
TIP Project Evaluation Criteria: Point Distributions by Project Type
(All Investment Programs except Community Connections)

LRTP = Long-Range Transportation Plan.

Source: Boston Region MPO.

In order for the MPO staff to conduct a complete project evaluation, each project proponent must provide enough information so that staff can meaningfully apply the evaluation criteria. Bicycle Network and Pedestrian Connections, Complete Streets, Intersection Improvements, and Major Infrastructure projects must have submitted 25 percent design plans to MassDOT, 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.)

Projects seeking design funding are required to provide a written scope or vision for development consistent with the information provided in a MassDOT Project Initiation Form. For Community Connections projects, proponents must submit a complete application to the MPO, including required supporting documentation such as budget sheets, letters of support from partner entities, and work estimates. Transit Transformation project applicants must submit an application with all relevant forms, budget sheets, and designs based on the scope of work proposed.

After MPO staff has completed an initial round of project scoring, draft scores are distributed to project proponents for their review. The MPO’s goal is to assess all projects fairly and accurately, making this review a critical component of the TIP process. Proponents are encouraged to submit feedback to MPO staff on their projects’ scores if they believe 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 takes all proponent feedback into consideration and makes 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, MPO staff meets with members of the MassDOT Highway Division and Office of Transportation Planning 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 committee in the wake of the FFYs 2022–26 TIP cycle to further explore the causes of project cost increases and devise MPO policy changes to support more reliable project delivery by all parties.

The TIP Project Cost Ad Hoc Committee began its work in June 2021 and advanced a set of policy recommendations to the full MPO board in September 2021. These changes were formally adopted by the MPO on November 4, 2021, and went into effect for the development of the FFYs 2023–27 TIP. In addition to the requirement that project proponents submit 25 percent design plans and obtain an updated cost estimate for their project prior to obtaining funding in the TIP, the committee’s work resulted in several other policy changes. Most notably, the MPO board adopted a policy that proponents of any projects that experienced a cost increase of 25 percent or greater (for projects less than $10 million in cost) or of greater than $2.5 million (for projects more than $10 million in cost) would be required to present to the MPO board on the reasons for these cost increases. The MPO would then compare this project—at its new cost—to other projects based on a cost-effectiveness evaluation before deciding whether or not to fund the project at its higher cost. These cost changes are most often revealed through conversations between MassDOT staff and MPO staff during TIP Readiness Day, making this policy especially relevant at this stage of TIP development.

More information on the work of the TIP Project Cost Ad Hoc Committee 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 gathers 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.

In the FFYs 2025–29 TIP, the MPO selected and funded 23 new projects for implementation during this TIP cycle, including the following:

• 2 Complete Streets projects
• 7 Transit Transformation projects
• 3 Bicycle Network and Pedestrian Connections projects
• 1 Intersection Improvement project
• 10 Community Connections projects, including
• 1 Bicycle Lane project
• 3 Bicycle Racks projects
• 1 Bikeshare Expansion project
• 4 Bikeshare Replacement projects
• 1 Microtransit Pilot project

In addition to these projects, the MPO also selected 9 new projects to be funded for design work, with construction anticipated in future TIP development cycles.  These projects included the following:

• 2 Complete Streets Projects
• 2 Bicycle Network and Pedestrian Connections Projects
• 2 Intersection Improvement Projects
• 1 Transit Transformation Project
• 2 Major Infrastructure projects listed in the MPO’s LRTP, being designed for the Route 126/135 Interchange in Framingham and Route 4/225 Hartwell Avenue in Lexington

In total, the MPO allocated more than $51 million in this TIP cycle to projects not previously funded in the Regional Target program. More information on the projects funded in the FFYs 2025–29 TIP 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 the CIPs produced by MassDOT and the MBTA. These agencies evaluate projects for inclusion in CIP programs using criteria established by the independent Project Selection Advisory Council (PSAC). The following criteria are from the PSAC process guide project evaluation:

• System Preservation: Projects should contribute to a state of good repair on the system and align with asset management goals.
• Mobility: Projects should provide efficient and effective modal options for all users.
• 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: Projects should equitably distribute the social, economic, and health benefits of investments among all communities.
• Environmental and Health Effects: Projects should advance state goals of improving air quality and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and pollution.
• 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 each agency’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 previously, 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 for all four agencies, these agencies submit their lists of bridge and roadway projects, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, 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.

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.

A history of TIP Amendments can be found at https://www.ctps.org/tip.

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 Engagement 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.

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Chapter 3: 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) 2025–29. 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 2025–29 TIP Regional Target Program complies with financial constraint requirements.

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

Source: Boston Region MPO.

As discussed in Chapter 2, the signing of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), on November 15, 2021, increased the amount of Regional Target funding available to the Boston Region MPO in the previous FFYs 2024–28 TIP cycle by approximately nine percent from the funding levels in the FFYs 2023–27 TIP. This funding level was sustained in the development of this FFYs 2025–29 TIP. The projects selected by the MPO for funding for the first time in the FFYs 2025–29 TIP are listed in Table 3-2.

During the development of the FFYs 2025–29 TIP, the MPO had significant amounts of funding available to program in FFYs 2025, 2026, and 2029.  However, there were significant shortfalls of funding in 2027 and 2028 as a result of delayed programming of 14 projects.

Projects already programmed in the TIP to receive Regional Target funds could not be accelerated, so the MPO worked with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), MetroWest Regional Transit Authority (MWRTA), and Cape Ann Transportation Authority (CATA) to identify other projects that could be funded in FFYs 2025 and 2026. Jointly, these agencies presented more than 13 projects to the MPO for consideration, from which the MPO selected 11 projects for funding in the Transit Transformation program in FFYs 2025 and 2026:

•  Additional funding for Columbus Avenue Bus Lanes, Phase 2 ($7,500,000)
• Additional funding for Rail Transformation Early Action Items—Reading Station and Wilbur Interlocking ($6,000,000)
• Additional funding for Jackson Square Station Accessibility Improvements ($7,250,000)
• Procurement of three 29-foot compressed natural gas (CNG) buses for the MWRTA ($1,980,000)
• Design funding for improvements to customer and personnel facilities at the MWRTA’s Blandin Hub ($2,500,000)
• Funding to modernize CATA’s Gloucester facility ($1,293,000)
• Funding for procurement of four hybrid buses to replace four vehicles in CATA’s fleet at the end of their useful life ($2,460,000)
• Funding to upgrade cashless fare payment systems for CATA’s ADA and Dial-A-Ride services ($65,000)
• Partial funding to support accessibility improvements to Central Station on the MBTA Red Line, with a focus on adding a new elevator ($5,000,000)
• Funding for bus circulation improvements at Nubian Station in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood ($5,000,000)
• Funding to support the modernization of MBTA’s “Pedal and Park” bicycle storage facilities at 13 MBTA stations in nine municipalities regionwide ($2,500,000).

The MPO also voted to fund two projects in FFY 2025 that were previously incorporated into MassDOT’s Statewide Highway Program:

• 609531 – Arlington– Stratton School Improvements (Safe Routes to Schools) ($1,625,250)
• 611982 – Medford– Shared-Use Path Connection at the Route 28/Wellington Underpass ($5,509,294)

Because many of these projects were identified later in the project evaluation life cycle—that is, months after the regular cycle of project submissions—scoring information is included in the TIP with some delay compared to other project line items. While these projects were identified too late in the TIP cycle to be quantitatively evaluated using the MPO’s scoring criteria, these projects align well qualitatively with many of the MPO’s goals, including enhancing bicycle and pedestrian safety and access, and expanding the accessibility of and maintaining a state of good repair for the region’s transit system. These projects may be scored using the MPO’s scoring criteria in a later TIP cycle.

Table 3-2
New Regional Target Projects Funded in the FFYs 2025–29 TIP

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

* These projects are funded starting in FFY 2029 of the TIP, with further funding expected to be programmed in FFY 2030 of the FFYs 2026–30 TIP.
ADA = Americans with Disabilities Act. CATA = Cape Ann Transportation Authority. FFY = federal fiscal year. MassDOT = Massachusetts Department of Transportation. MBTA = Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. MWRTA = MetroWest Regional Transit Authority. N/A = not applicable. NB = northbound. TIP = Transportation Improvement Program.

Source: Boston Region MPO.

In addition to the project selection, several other key decisions were made by the MPO in the drafting of the FFYs 2025–29 Regional Target Program:

• The MPO allocated additional funding to three MBTA projects that it had voted to support in prior TIPs. These were the Jackson Square Station Accessibility Improvements, Rail Transformation Early Action Items at Reading Station and Wilbur Interlocking, and the Columbus Avenue Bus Lanes, Phase 2, projects. The Jackson Square project received $7.25 million in addition to the $26.25 million programmed in the FFYs 2024–28 TIP. The Rail Transformation project received $6 million in addition to the $14 million programmed in the FFYs 2024–28 TIP to address a cost increase at the Reading turn track location. The Columbus Avenue, Phase 2, project received $7.5 million in addition to the $11.75 million in FFY 2024 of the FFYs 2024–28 TIP and an additional $14.8 million programmed in FFY 2021 of the FFYs 2021–25 TIP. The total contribution by the Boston Region MPO to these projects is $33.5 million for Jackson Square Station Accessibility Improvements, $20 million for Rail Transformation Early Action Items at Reading Station and Wilbur Interlocking, and $34.05 million for Columbus Avenue Bus Lanes, Phase 2.
• The MPO programmed $6.15 million for six projects in eight municipalities in FFY 2025 for a design pilot funding program intended to reduce barriers for municipalities that plan to advance projects for Regional Target funding, as programming on the TIP requires the completion of 25 percent design plans.
• The MPO programmed $3.05 million to design two projects in FFY 2026. These projects, the Route 4/225 Interchange project in Lexington and Intersection Improvements at Route 126/135/MBTA and CSX Railroad in Framingham, are listed in the MPO’s Long-Range Transportation Plan. These projects will be scored in the development of the FFYs 2026–30 TIP for their design funding as FFY 2026 approaches.
• The programmed amount of Project 607981, Somerville—McGrath Boulevard Construction, was increased to $30,310,000 in FFY 2029.  Prior advance construction schedules for the project recommended $20,000,000 in FFY 2029 and $13,840,000 in FFY 2030. This action was taken to alleviate financial pressures on future TIP cycles.
• The programmed amount of Project 606226, Boston–Reconstruction of Rutherford Avenue from City Square to Sullivan Square, was increased to $45,000,000 in FFY 2029. Prior advance construction schedules for the project recommended $33,500,000 in FFY 2029. This action was taken to alleviate financial pressures on future TIP cycles through FFY 2032.

In order to address funding constraints in FFY 2027, the MPO voted to delay Project 610662, Woburn–Roadway and Intersection Improvements at Woburn Common, Route 38 (Main Street), Winn Street, Pleasant Street and Montvale Avenue, to FFY 2029 given a lack of significant design progress on the project since the FFYs 2021–25 TIP cycle.

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, 2C, and 3B) 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 MBTA, MWRTA, and CATA plan to undertake.

Detailed descriptions of projects funded through both the Regional Target and statewide portions of the Highway Program follow the tables. The descriptions note the 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, MassDOT, MBTA, CATA, and MWRTA that are documented in the FFYs 2025–29 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.

The MPO’s Regional Target Program increased in size by approximately $30.4     million between the FFYs 2024–28 TIP and the FFYs 2025–29 TIP to a total program size of more than $727.9 million.

     Table 3-3
FFYs 2025–29 Boston Region MPO Regional Target Investment Summary

.

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

* This figure includes $7 million in BikeShare Support funding starting in FFY 2026.

FFY = federal fiscal year. MPO = metropolitan planning organization. N/A = not applicable.

Source: Boston Region MPO.

Table 3-4 shows MassDOT’s FFYs 2025–29 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 description pages in the second section of this chapter.

As detailed above for the MPO’s Regional Target Program, the BIL significantly increased the funding available to MassDOT for programming projects in the statewide Highway Program. Most notably, the BIL’s Bridge Formula Program allowed MassDOT to increase the funding allocated to federal-aid bridge projects. Furthermore, FFY 2026 represents the conclusion of Grant Anticipation Notes (GANS) payments for MassDOT’s Accelerated Bridge Program (ABP). As this program winds down, the passage of the 2021 Massachusetts Transportation Bond Bill and the new federal funding available through the BIL has allowed for the creation of MassDOT’s Next Generation Bridge Program (NGBP).

Like the ABP, the NGBP leverages state bonding capacity to accelerate the rehabilitation and replacement of critical or structurally deficient bridges in Massachusetts. In the FFYs 2025–29 TIP, 13 bridge projects are funded by MassDOT through the NGBP using state bond bill funds. These projects are shown in the TIP as debt payments on these bonds, which will use future federal formula funding.

Continued funding from the BIL supports increased investment across MassDOT’s other programs represented in the FFYs 2025–29 TIP, including the Bicycle and Pedestrian Program, the Intersection Improvements Program, the Interstate and Non-Interstate Pavement Programs, the Roadway Reconstruction Program, and the Safety Improvements Program. MassDOT’s Highway Program is substantively similar in total programming between the FFYs 2024–28 TIP and FFYs 2025–29 TIP. The FFYs 2025–29 TIP introduces a new Highway Resiliency Improvement Program.

Table 3-4
FFYs 2025–29 MassDOT Highway Program Investment Summary

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

* Three projects receiving earmark funding are also receiving funding through other sources: Project 607977—Interstates 90/495 Interchange Reconstruction—is funded through MassDOT’s Roadway Reconstruction and NFA Programs; Project 605313—Natick Bridge Replacement over Route 9 and Interchange Improvements—is funded through MassDOT’s Bridge On-System NHS NB Program; and Project 608436—Ashland Rehabilitation and Rail Crossing Improvements on Cherry Street—is funded through MassDOT’s Railroad Crossings Program. Each project is counted in the tally for each funding category but is only counted once in the total number of projects funded.

Table 3-5 shows the MBTA’s programs and associated FFYs 2025–29 TIP funding amounts. Additional details on the MBTA’s programs and projects are in Tables 3-8 and 3-9. The MBTA’s capital program is substantively similar between FFYs 2024–28 TIP and the FFYs 2025–29 TIP, decreasing from a total program size of $3.99 billion to $3.85 billion. 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. Further information on how the MBTA’s investments support system safety and condition is available in Chapter 4.

Table 3-5
 FFYs 2025–29 MBTA Transit Program Investment Summary

Note: Federal Transit Administration formula funds (Sections 5307, 5337 and 5339) are based on estimated apportionments for FFYs 2025–29. These apportionments include additional funding to be made available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, based on current estimates. TIP programs and projects are based on a preliminary draft Capital Investment Plan (CIP) as of April 2022. 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.

* Positive Train Control investments are funded with RRIF funds.

† RRIF/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.

FFY = federal fiscal year. N/A = not applicable. RRIF = Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing. TIFIA = Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act. TIP = Transportation Improvement Program.

Sources: MBTA and the Boston Region MPO.

Table 3-6 summarizes CATA and MWRTA investments included in the FFYs 2025–29 TIP, and more information is 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 MWRTA projects funded in the MWRTA’s capital program include the electrification of the agency’s paratransit fleet and investments in technology to support travel training and customer service efforts.

The program sizes for CATA and MWRTA increased greatly between the FFYs 2024–28 TIP and FFYs 2025–29. This was driven by a 91 percent increase in the state budget for regional transit authorities in state fiscal year 2024. These agencies collectively received an approximate $41.52 million increase in funding levels in this TIP, increasing from $65.36 million to a total program size of $106.88 million. This funding level also includes approximately $8.3 million in flexed funding from the Boston Region MPO’s Regional Target Program between FFYs 2025 and 2026.

Table 3-6
FFYs 2025–29 CATA and MWRTA Transit Program Investment Summary

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

CATA = Cape Ann Transportation Authority. FFY = federal fiscal year. MWRTA = Metro West Regional Transit Authority. N/A = not applicable. RTA = regional transit authority.
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 2025–29 TIP Highway Table

Table 3-8
FFYs 2025–29 TIP Transit Table (MBTA Federal Capital Program)

Table 3-9
FFYs 2025–29 TIP Transit Table (MBTA Federal Capital Program – Project List and Descriptions [80% Federal Share])

Table 3-10
FFYs 2025–29 TIP Transit Table (MWRTA)