The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has informed City of Boston officials that it does not intend to deliver on a 2022 pledge to pay $20 million towards the cost of rebuilding three major streets in Roxbury.
The grant cancellation is part of a nationwide wave of funding cuts for projects that reportedly aren't sufficiently focused on increasing traffic with additional motor vehicle travel.
Transportation policy experts are warning that additional cancellations are possible as we approach the end of the federal fiscal year, on September 30. City of Boston officials declined to tell StreetsblogMASS whether any other local grants had been cancelled beyond the $20 million pledge for its project in Roxbury.
“The City won these competitive federal grants to replace sidewalks, improve lighting, upgrade bus stops, and plant trees on neighborhood streets," a city spokesperson wrote to StreetsblogMASS on Wednesday morning. "The federal government’s decision to cancel these grants once again ignores the clear intent of Congress, and we are reviewing our options.”
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, whose district encompasses Roxbury, pledged that she would work with state and city stakeholders to "undo this utterly ridiculous attempt from the White House to cancel these funds.”
Another roadblock for Roxbury's bus riders
In September 2022, the Biden administration announced that the City of Boston would receive $20 million for its "Roxbury Resilient Corridors" project, which planned to add dedicated bus lanes, improved sidewalks, bikeways, and other improvements to Melnea Cass Boulevard, Malcolm X Boulevard, and a 1.3-mile segment of Warren Street between Grove Hall and Nubian Square.
Four frequent-service MBTA bus routes (the 15, 23, 28, and 66) use Malcolm X between Nubian Square and Roxbury Crossing, and two of those routes (the 28 and 23) continue along Warren Street between Nubian Square and Grove Hall.
A 2016 analysis found that the number of bus passengers on both of these streets outnumbers the number of motor vehicles in a typical rush hour.
The City of Boston had proposed to redesign these streets with "dedicated bus corridors, including a center-running dedicated bus lane, new sidewalks, bus shelters, separated bicycle facilities, intersection improvements, green infrastructure, stormwater improvements, and resiliency features," according to a USDOT fact sheet about the cancelled grant award.
'Inconsistent' priorities
As reported by our colleagues at StreetsblogUSA, jurisdictions across the country have been receiving similar notices that they will not receive the funds they'd been promised.
The Connecticut Post reported that the USDOT also cancelled a $5.7 million grant for the proposed Naugatuck River Greenway in the Waterbury region, and that a letter from USDOT officials declared that the project's focus on biking and walking was "inconsistent" with the Trump administration's priorities.
Many of the discretionary grants that the Biden administration promised in 2022 must have their funding formally "obligated" by the end of the 2025 fiscal year, which falls on September 30.
Obligating funding requires a formal agreement between Washington and the grant recipient. Once a federal grant as been obligated, the federal Treasury considers the money spent.
Numerous other USDOT grants to Massachusetts are also in limbo as they await a formal grant obligation before the September 30 deadline. The same year that Boston won its $20 million pledge for the Roxbury project, MassDOT also received a $20.2 million pledge to redesign the Lynnway with center-running bus lanes.
StreetsblogMASS has reached out to the MBTA and MassDOT to learn if those agencies have also received any other grant cancellation notices. We will do additional reporting if we learn of any.
A $15 million federal grant to the City of Boston and MBTA to redesign and rebuild Blue Hill Avenue with center-running bus lanes received a formal obligation in September 2024, and so that funding is not immediately at risk, even though the project has not yet gone under construction.
This story was updated at 4 p.m. on Sept. 18 to add the comment from Rep. Ayanna Pressley.
