June 13, 2003

Harvard's Purchase of Turnpike Land Draws Fire

By AUDREY WILLIAMS JUNE

Harvard University has completed a real-estate deal that seems to give the institution an unusual amount of control over the future of a public highway.

In the deal, which closed last month, Harvard paid $75-million to the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority for 91 acres of land in the Allston neighborhood of Boston, across the Charles River from the university's main campus in Cambridge. It was Harvard's second such purchase from the turnpike authority in three years.

According to