Aiming to make it even easier for Massachusetts residents to get to Boston's Logan airport, MassPort has begun a major expansion of the Logan Express parking garage in Framingham.
A project to double the facility's capacity broke ground Monday — part of a larger effort to reduce traffic congestion around Logan, CEO Rich Davey said.
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"Massport's made a concerted effort in the last few years to invest in our HOV strategy, getting folks on buses, getting them on the MBTA — getting them on private buses, for that matter — to get to the airport. You know, there's only two tunnels that get you to the airport and I'm not sure anyone's building a third tunnel anytime soon, so we gotta make sure we're reducing as much we can traffic which means we're getting folks on buses like this," Davey said.
The expansion project will add three levels to the existing garage near Shoppers World, adding about 1,000 new parking spaces.
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Construction is expected to begin in January and finish by the winter of 2025. Starting Jan. 6, passengers will need to use the temporary Logan Express parking location at Garage F of the Natick Mall.
Massport leaders say the project will allow the agency to further grow the bus service, increasing service frequency from every 30 minutes to every 20 minutes in the future. According to Massport, the Framingham LEX service carried more than 630,000 riders in 2023, and saw ridership exceed 2019 numbers.
Massport will also add sustainable features to the Framingham Logan Express site, such as solar panels and EV charging stations.
"I love it. It's always on time, the drivers are really nice and it's nice not renting a car or driving on the turnpike when I don't know where I am going," said Laura Logie, who was waiting to board the Logan Express in Framingham Monday morning to catch a flight home to Virginia. "This is just very convenient for me, and I take it once every six weeks because I come up to visit my son, my daughter-in law and my grandchildren."
Ruth Melville said she drives from Connecticut for the Logan Express service in Framingham: "I'd rather come here than go to New York ... I would consider going to New York instead but this makes it very easy to get to Boston."
She says she is glad to hear about the expansion.
"I've had to park on the roof a lot of times and I get a little worried that I have no back-up plan so, that there are going to be more spaces, I think it's great," said Melville.
