Transformative MassDOT project will reconnect Somerville neighborhoods and improve safety

Ongoing efforts to “Ground McGrath” Highway (Route 28) in Somerville have received a federal funding boost. Last week, the Healey-Driscoll Administration announced that the State has been awarded a more than $43 million federal grant to advance the project, which would replace the elevated McCarthy Overpass with a safer, more accessible ground-level road and people-friendly streetscape. The grant is part of more than $102 million in federal support that Massachusetts won for transportation infrastructure projects. 

Built in the 1950s, the McGrath Overpass has long cut off part of East Somerville from safe and easy access to neighborhoods to its west. Replacing the elevated highway with a ground-level boulevard will knit these neighborhoods back together at human scale.  New features will include a safer, more accessible, and sustainable streetscape designed for all ages, abilities, and transit modes including walking, rolling, biking, riding the bus, and driving. In addition to reuniting neighborhoods and sparking the local economy, the project will further the City’s dogged pursuit of its Vision Zero goal to eliminate transportation-related deaths and serious injuries.  

 

“For too long our community has been divided by a highway that doesn’t serve the needs of our residents. Grounding McGrath will make us safer and more connected, and it will right a decades-old wrong that harmed our neighborhoods,” said Mayor Katjana Ballantyne. “I want to thank Governor Healey, Senator Markey, Senator Warren, and Representative Pressley for continuing to prioritize this project and for their work to help secure this critical funding for our community.” 

 

“I also want to acknowledge the decades of hard work by tireless community advocates who refused to accept the status-quo and called out the harms done by discriminatory transportation policy. Today is a win for not only them but for our full community,” said Mayor Ballantyne.  

 

More About the McGrath Boulevard Project  

The McGrath Boulevard project focuses on portion of McGrath Highway between Third Street in Cambridge and Broadway in Somerville. It is the result of decades of grassroots advocacy and effective collaboration among the City, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), and federal partners.  

“In classic Somerville fashion, our community is tackling another legacy infrastructure challenge to improve safety and quality of life for our residents,” said Brad Rawson, Director of the City’s Mobility Division. “McGrath Boulevard will help people get where they need to go, whether they take transit, walk, bike, or drive. Kudos to our partners at MassDOT, who are not only designing a human-scaled road, but showing real skill and creativity to secure construction funding for this critical project.” 

While the project is still in the early phases of design and there is much work and community process ahead, this funding represents a major step forward.  

 

For more information and to stay up to date on this project, visit mass.gov/mcgrath-boulevard-project.