New State Road Funding Bill Includes $200 Million For DCR Parkways and Trail Projects
A new state funding bill for statewide road maintenance projects will include a new $200 million fund for trails and roadways under the control of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).
The new law – Chapter 100 of the Acts of 2026 – will leverage Fair Share funding to borrow $1.4 billion in new bonds for statewide transportation projects.
Governor Healey signed the bill into law in early June. Press coverage at the time mostly focused on its increased funding for local streets under the state’s “Chapter 90” program, which allocates funds to municipalities according to a weighted formula that considers how many local road miles they have, their population, and their total employment.
The new law sets aside $300 million for Chapter 90 funding, plus an additional $500 million for MassDOT bridge and highway maintenance projects.
But the law also sets aside two smaller line-items for more creative transportation investments.
One is a $200 million fund for “transportation capital projects to support development of housing,” to be allocated in consultation between the state’s secretary of transportation, the secretary of housing and livable communities, and the secretary for administration and finance.
A second $200 million set-aside will create a new “Parkway Resilience Improvement and Safety Modernization (PRISM) investment program, an accelerated deferred maintenance, modernization and safety program for multi-modal transportation infrastructure under the care and control of the Department of Conservation and Recreation” (DCR).
A DCR spokesperson told StreetsblogMASS that DCR does not yet have a specific project list for the new funding, but the agency anticipates using PRISM funds to accelerate its backlog of deferred maintenance projects, conduct transportation-related design and engineering work, and implement infrastructure projects that are in line with DCR’s 2020 Parkways Master plan.
Although it’s ostensibly a parks agency, DCR controls many of the Boston region’s most dangerous highways, including Memorial Drive in Cambridge, Storrow Drive and the Arborway in Boston, the oceanfront Quincy Shore Drive in Quincy, Fellsway in Medford, and the Lynnway in Lynn.
A state commission in 2021 found that “DCR’s parkways have a documented need for significant safety improvements to reduce accidents and injuries, especially for cyclists and pedestrians, as well as improved accessibility for the disabled.”
Many DCR highways also have serious deferred maintenance problems, and there have been doubts about whether DCR has the budget or the staff capacity to take care of all its infrastructure.
The new law allocates the PRISM funding not to DCR, but to MassDOT’s Highway Division, which has considerably more experience managing large transportation projects.
MassDOT has already begun to take a more active role in managing DCR projects. In 2025, for instance, MassDOT took over project management of DCR’s Mystic River bike and pedestrian bridge.
Some other high-profile DCR projects that could be in line for the new PRISM funding include:
- Various bike and pedestrian trail projects, including new segments of the Mass. Central Rail Trail
- Construction of the redesigned Arborway in Jamaica Plain
- Ongoing design work for the Mystic Lakes Path Improvement plan in Medford and Winchester
- Implementation work for the new Southwest Corridor action plan in Boston
- Construction of the planned Mystic to Minuteman path in Arlington and Medford
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