BTPR

Boston Transportation Planning Review (BTPR), published in 1972, was a transportation planning program for metropolitan Boston, Massachusetts, which was responsible for analyzing and redesigning the entire area-wide transit and highway system in the 1970s. The major contractors involved were Alan Voorhees, Alan M. Voorhees Company (Virginia), project manager; Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (New York City), architect; ESL Incorporated (California), air quality and noise pollution, acoustics. The program had close guidance from the national Transportation Research Board (TRB), a division of the US United States National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences. The first director of the program reporting to the Governor was Alan A. Altshuler, Alan Altshuler; the project manager was Walter Hansen.

Comprehensive re-evaluation of areawide transportation plans was a major theme in the last quarter of the twentieth century for large US cities. The US Department of Transportation has said "the prototype for these reevaluations was the Boston Transportation Planning Revie

Scope of the BTPR studies included evaluation and upgrading of all four MBTA mass transit Rail transport, rail lines and examination of every major highway and arterial project in the region.

Major elements

The following exemplify some of the principal study elements of the Boston Transportation Planning Review:
* Conceptual design of the rerouted Orange Line (MBTA), Orange Line mass transit rail service to the southwest of Boston.
* Expansion plans for the Red Line (MBTA), Red Line mass transit Braintree, Massachusetts, Braintree and Northwest Corridor extensions.
* Moratorium (law), Moratorium on Controlled-access highway, expressway construction inside of Massachusetts Route 128, Route 128 for the decade.
* First concept of depressing the Central Artery, leading to the Big Dig (Boston, Massachusetts), Big Dig.
* Upgrading of Massachusetts Route 1A, Route 1A from Boston to Salem, Massachusetts, Salem.

Technologies applied

The following major technologies were utilized in the BTPR:
*critical path method, Critical path work element diagrams to assist project management (Voorhees)
*Citywide traffic flow analysis including intersection Level of service (transportation), level of service (Voorhees)
*Urban design of all physical structures and highway geometrics including neighborhood visual impacts (Skidmore, Owings and Merrill)
*Hydrology Impact Analysis to surface waters and groundwater affected by transit and roadway construction.
*Roadway air dispersion model, Air quality and line source, noise contour maps for all transportation alternatives (ESL)
*Wildlife and vegetation impact analysis for all alternatives.
*Public consultation Massachusetts Governor Francis W. Sargent involved concerned citizens in the development of transportation alternativesAllan K. Sloan, ''Citizen Participation in Transportation Planning: The Boston Experience'', Cambridge: Ballinger Publishing Company (1974)

See also

*Megaproject
*Public transport

References

Further reading

{{cite book, last=Commonwealth of Massachusetts Mass Transportation Commission, title=The Boston Region, year=1963, publisher=Commonwealth of Massachusetts, location=Boston, MA, editor=Melvin R. Levin — 214-page predecessor report on mass transportation planning

External links

BTPR Mission Statement

Government of Boston
Public transportation in Massachusetts
Transportation in Boston