Frederick P. Salvucci likes to think of himself as a voice for the people--an environmentalist who has dedicated his life to designing traffic patterns that move people as quickly as possible and with as little ecological destruction as possible.

But were days many environmentalists consider Salvucci's work anathema. They deride Salvucci's pet project, Scheme Z--a proposed highway exchange in East Cambridge to which Salvucci has devoted 20 years of his life, calling it "the ugliest structure in New England" and an "environmental nightmare.'

As Secretary of Transportation under former Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, Salvucci established himself as the staunchest advocate of the plan of build the 16-lane, 11-story interstate loop.

Reversal in Ideals

Ironically, more than 20 years ago, Salvucci was considered the driving force behind the widespread community protest which beat another highway exchange--the Inner Belt--a proposed traffic loop that would have circled around Boston and hosing in Cambridge.

The project would have left a large number of lower and middle-income families without homes during the ten years of construction.

"They were working-class people who didn't have the money or political power to fight [the Inner Belt]," Salvucci says. "These people shopped in certain places, went to church in certain places, did Boy Scouts in certain places. You couldn't just up and kick them out."

Critics lament what they call a complete reversal in Salvucci's earlier ideals.

"Absolutely there was a turnaround there," says Debra McManus, co-chair of Cambridge Citizens or Livable Neighborhoods (CCLN), a citywide group that advocates tighter control on new development. "I'd say there was a 180-degree turnaround."

But Salvucci vehemently insists that his goals have never swerved during his 20-odd years of government service.

"What I was fighting for in the '60s and have tried to fight for all my life is that transportation facilities should be compatible with their surroundings," he says.

And of all the plans that have crossed his desk since he began handling the project, he says, Scheme Z is the best from both a transportation and environmental standpoint.

The current construction plans, which would be part of Massachusetts' multi-billion dollar Central Artery project, would convert the area into a permanent industrial eyesore the size of the Boston Common, virtually finish off the already-polluted Millers River that runs through the site and silence forever many Cambridge residents' dreams of transforming the area into a lush green park.

But Salvucci argues that the area has been an industrial and railroad center since it was reclaimed from the marshes 150 years ago.

"People say I think this is a crummy area," he says. "That's not true--but I do think this is an industrial area. I think the city needs industrial areas."