Infrastructure Planning and Finance in Greater Boston

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Infrastructure Planning and Finance in Greater
Boston

• Stephanie Pollack
• Associate Director
• Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy

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The Dukakis Center
The Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy
conducts interdisciplinary research, in
collaboration with civic leaders and scholars
both within and beyond Northeastern University,
to identify and implement real solutions to the
critical challenges facing urban areas throughout
Greater Boston, the Commonwealth, and the nation.
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Infrastructure spending and the economy
Source Political Economy Research Institute,
2009
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US infrastructure spending
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Bostons geography water
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Bostons rivers and harbor

• Boston sits at the confluence of the Charles,
  Neponset and Mystic Rivers
• The combined watersheds of the three rivers
  include 57 cities and towns and drain an area of
  more than 400 square miles
• These rivers come together at Boston Harbor,
  which is experiencing a renaissance following a
  clean-up effort that took more than a decade and
  cost almost 4 billion
• The 30 islands dotting the Harbor have been
  joined into the Boston Harbor Islands National
  Park

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Bostons geography a city on a peninsula
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There are many types of infrastructure

• Parks and open spaces (green infrastructure)
• Transportation
• Roads and bridges
• Trains and subways
• Water and sewer
• Drinking water
• Wastewater treatment

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Infrastructure is planned and financed at all
levels of government

• Parks and open spaces (green infrastructure)
• Transportation
• Roads and bridges
• Trains and subways
• Water and sewer
• Drinking water
• Wastewater treatment

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Bostons parks and open spaces

• The City of Boston has an extensive network of
  more than 7,000 acres of publicly- and
  privately-owned open spaces
• The Citys Parks and Recreation Department owns
  and manages more than 215 parks and playgrounds
• A state agency, the Massachusetts Department of
  Conservation and Recreation, manages 2,200 acres
  of parks as well as recreational facilities such
  as swimming pools and ice rinks
• There are also open spaces owned by private
  groups such as the Boston Natural Areas Network,
  which manages 175 community gardens and more than
  1,400 acres of urban wilds

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History of Boston metropolitan park system

• The Metropolitan Park System was created by the
  Massachusetts state legislature in 1893 and was
  the first regional organization of public open
  space in the United States
• The Metropolitan Park Commission was renamed the
  Metropolitan District Commission in 1919 and the
  MDC was merged with the state park agency in 2004
  to create the Department of Conservation and
  Recreation
• DCRs Division of Urban Parks and Recreation now
  runs the Metropolitan Park System in greater
  Boston, which includes
• 18 saltwater and 3 freshwater beaches
• Recreational facilities including 23 skating
  rinks, 25 tennis courts, 19 swimming pools, 2
  golf courses and 1 downhill ski area
• 6 bicycle/jogging paths
• 52 playgrounds
• 4 harbor islands
• 162 miles of parkways linking the parks and
  reservations

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History of metropolitan Boston water and sewer
system

• The Metropolitan Water Supply Commission operated
  from 1926 to 1946 and created the Quabbin and
  Wachusett reservoirs
• The Metropolitan Sewerage District was formed to
  build one of the first regional sewerage systems
  in the country in 1899 its responsibilities were
  turned over to the Metropolitan District
  Commission in 1919
• In 1946 the MDC also took over the water supply
  system and operated both water and sewer systems
  for metropolitan Boston until 1985

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Creation of the Massachusetts Water Resources
Authority (MWRA)

• In 1985, after a lawsuit was brought to stop the
  pollution of Boston Harbor by the MDCs treatment
  plants, the newly created MWRA assumed control of
  water and sewer systems from the MDC
• The MWRA is a Massachusetts public authority
  established by an act of the Legislature in 1984
  to provide wholesale water and sewer services in
  61 metropolitan Boston communities
• MWRA statistics
• 2.55 million people served
• 890,000 households served
• 5,500 businesses served
• 215 million gallons per day of water supplied
  (average)
• 350 million gallons per day of sewage treated
  (average)

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Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant
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Transportation is often provided by Federal,
state and regional agencies

• The regions extensive public transit network is
  operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation
  Authority (MBTA), which provides bus, rapid
  transit and commuter rail service in a regional
  service area that includes 175 cities and towns
• The MBTA network includes 11 commuter rail lines
  with 125 stations and 5 rapid transit lines with
  150 stations, along with an extensive network of
  local and express busses, and a small but
  important water ferry system
• Inter-city trains are
• operated by a
• Federal authority,
• Amtrak

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How do we pay for transportation infrastructure?

• User fees
• Fares for transit riders
• Tolls on some (but not most) roadways
• Debt
• General obligation bonds
• Revenue bonds
• Usually backed by gasoline tax or user fee
  revenues

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Bostons Big Dig
22 billion
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Bostons Big Dig

• The project includes 161 lanes miles of highway
  in a 7.5 mile corridor, about half in tunnels,
  including four major highway interchanges
• The old road had 27 on- and off-ramps, while the
  new one has just 14
• The elevated highway carried about 75,000
  vehicles a day comfortably when it opened in 1959
  but by 2000, it carried more than 190,000, quite
  uncomfortably
• The underground Central Artery can carry about
  245,000 vehicles a day

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The financial legacy of the Big Dig
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New models for financing transportation
infrastructure

• Public-private partnerships
• User fees based on miles driven and/or congestion
  fees
• Privatization of transportation infrastructure