Biden Pledged Massive Grants for Massachusetts Projects. Trump Might Not Follow Through.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in federal transportation grants for Massachusetts could be axed under President-elect Donald Trump’s second administration, according to former Mass. Secretary of Transportation Jim Aloisi.

“We should be concerned, but not panicked,” Aloisi said in a Tuesday interview with The Crimson.

Massachusetts has won several federal grants through the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure law signed by President Joe Biden. Aloisi pointed out that due to measures like the infrastructure bill, Trump’s second administration will be overseeing far larger discretionary one-time grants going to states than his previous administration did.

Just between Cambridge and Boston, the Biden administration has allocated $335 million to support the Allston I-90 Multimodal Project and $472 million to the North Station Drawbridge.

Thomas P. Glynn, who has led both the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Massachusetts Port Authority, expressed the same concerns. In an interview, Glenn said the cuts are “likely” — especially given the projects whose funding is in question have yet to begin construction.

These grants work by reimbursement, meaning Massachussetts won’t actually receive money from the federal government until after funds are spent out of the state’s pocket to complete the work funded by the grant. That gives the Trump administration, which has repeatedly emphasized its intention to slash the federal budget, the opportunity to revoke the funds.

The $1.2 billion North Station Drawbridge, which the T is hoping to replace, connects commuter rail lines over the Charles River between Boston and Cambridge.

The $1.9 billion multimodal project will realign the Massachusetts Turnpike to reconnect the neighborhood, while improving bus, bike, and pedestrian transit and opening up dozens of acres of Harvard-owned land for development. The $335 million in federal funding comes from the Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods program intending to mitigate highways running through neighborhoods.

Aloisi said the project’s more progressive goals do not align with the priorities of the Trump administration.

“Anything that has anything to do with transportation justice, with transit and rail as opposed to highways and bridges, that’s the stuff I worry about,” Aloisi said. “That’s just not what their priorities are.”

A spokesperson for the Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg ’04 also alluded to concerns around the future of the funding for the I-90 project at a Harvard Institute of Politics forum Nov. 13, stressing the need to take immediate action.

“Right across the river, I’m really excited — we have the funding now,” Buttigieg said. “We have parts of that grant agreement already done, but if we could work at warp speed — at warp speed — then that will happen in a few years, right?”

The Department of Transportation also did not respond to a request for comment.

According to the state’s Director of Federal Funds and Infrastructure, Quentin A. Palfrey ’96, the loss of federal funds is not a fight Massachusetts will take laying down.

“Since the beginning of the Healey-Driscoll administration, Massachusetts has brought in nearly $9 billion in federal funding for critical transportation, climate, and economic development projects from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and CHIPS and Science Act,” Palfrey wrote in a statement.

“We are working hard to ensure we receive every dollar and will continue to pull out all stops to bring home more federal funding to the state,” he added.

Aloisi also cautioned that there is still not “legitimate cause for panic.”

It’s unclear how serious Trump is about making substantial cuts to the federal budget, and if he would end target transportation grants to do so. Potential cuts to transportation grants would also likely require approval from Trump’s newly nominee for transportation secretary — former Rep Sean Duffy — who has not taken a public stance on the Massachusetts projects.

In a statement, city spokesperson Jeremy C. Warnick said that the city “is prepared to navigate any shifts in policies that may come with the new administration.”

“We are working hard to ensure that existing grant applications are fully contracted as soon as possible,” Warnick added.

—Staff writer Avani B. Rai can be reached at avani.rai@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @avaniiiirai.

—Staff writer Jack R. Trapanick can be reached at jack.trapanick@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @jackrtrapanick.