Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s alma mater Harvard University stands to reap major benefits from a Boston highway mega-project in a neighborhood where it owns about a third of the land and is paying less than 5% of the cost — despite its $53 billion endowment.
Back in March, the US Department of Transportation announced $335 million in federal funding for the I-90 Allston Multimodal Project, an estimated $1.9 billion endeavor to rebuild a worn down portion of the Massachusetts Turnpike and free up multiple acres of land for the Ivy League school.
The project was drawn up over a decade ago and a $1.2 billion funding application had been initially rejected last year before a Harvard administrator got Buttigieg’s approval on a nine-figure bid — all to be drawn from President Biden’s vaunted 2021 infrastructure law.
Harvard has agreed to pay just $90 million to help finance the project and nearby Boston University agreed to pony up $10 million.