One Minute, One Slide: I-90: #UnchokeTheThroat was just the beginning

Below is a “One Minute, One Slide” presentation shared by a member of the WalkBoston staff.
Text provided is as prepared for this year’s annual event on March 18, 2019.

Bob Sloane

Unchoke the Throat was just the beginning! It turns out that it was getting a tiger by the tail, and now we’ve found that the tiger has more than one tail, and we have to catch them all! The I-90 project stretches a mile in each direction – most recognizably from the BU Bridge to the River St. Bridge.

It involves making a new interchange for I-90 and several miles of public street to access the 100 acre development parcel surrounding the roads. It involves pedestrian access to a major transit station – West Station – from all directions, along with several off-road paths – the most well-known now being the ones through the throat.

The paths through the throat are now going to be two separate paths – one for peds and one for bikes – thanks to our Unchoke the Throat effort. The paths are in place in all current options.

Turn to Page 17 of your hymnals to see where we are right now.

There are still 2 options for the Throat being worked on. Neither has a very good riverside park, and both involve terminating the use of the riverside path – the Paul Dudley White – for up to 10 years (!) – and diverting walkers and riders
to Cambridge. We’re working on that – we hope to have a temporary boardwalk out in the river through the Throat so that the paths will still work for all of us and we are working on a better park along the river’s edge.

To learn more, check out our project page.