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."

Some environmental activities echo his beliefs about Scheme Z's potential harm to the land, including Mark Primack, who has resolved concerns that Scheme Z is dangerous to the environment. Primack chairs Move Massachusetts 2000, a pro-Central Artery coalition group, and also serves as executive director to the Boston Greenspace Alliance, a coalition of more than 100 community and environmental groups concerned with green space in Boston.

Primack points out that Scheme Z, while aesthetically displeasing, is no more environmentally destructive than the other plans being considered. Opponents to the plan could not disagree more strongly.

Land Undervalued

"Scheme Z isn't going to take houses, but the value of the land is being vastly undervalued for the future," McManus says. "Just because it's industrial wasteland now doesn't mean it has to be in the future."

Primack's enthusiasm for Scheme Z doesn't just stop with the plan, though, it extends to its MIT-educated architect. "Within the spectrum of highway engineers, Fred Salvucci is one of the most creative and brilliant men in the United Sates," Primack says.

Questions of Ethics

But brilliance notwithstanding, Salvucci's critics have few qualms over attacking the man's methods.

Last December, Scheme Z opponents assailed Salvucci's style of leadership, accusing him of ruthlessly pressuring environmental officials to approve the plan without allowing them adequate time to consider adequate proposals.

"We feel he really did overstep his bounds," says Karen I. Pelto, environmental affairs coordinator for the Charles River Watershed Association, which supports better water quality and public access to the river. "I'm not saying [(Scheme Z] wouldn't have been approved, but there would have been stricter requirements had Salvucci not been as powerful as he was."

Others suggest that perhaps Salvucci has poured so much time into the project that proposals for alternative methods of crossing the Charles River now fall on deaf ears.

"He's worked very hard on this--maybe even become fixed on it," says Francis H. Duehay '55, a Cambridge city councillor who strongly opposes Scheme Z. "It's become a thorn he doesn't know how to deal with."

"Fred is a brilliant man, but he thinks he talks to God. He isn't openminded," summarizes Duehay.

Salvucci admits that he pushed John P. DeVillars, who served as Environmental Secretary at the same time as Salvucci was in office, to approve the plan.

"I was going crazy thinking DeVillars wasn't going to approve the it. After working on it for 20 years, I wasn't going to walk out the door with it unapproved," he says." "So I think it's fair to say that I haunted him for a while."

But he emphasizes that DeVillars is a very independent man, who made his final decisions completely on his own.

Watching and Waiting

Since his term as Transportation Secretary expired in January, Salvucci has been relegated to watching the latest progress on Scheme Z from the outside.

But from his new post as research associate and guest lecturer at the Center for Transportation Studies at MIT, he continues to survey his pet project's development with an eagle eye.

The project is awaiting federal funding and the go-ahead from a state-appointed advisory group before the state will give it a final nod of approval.

"My understanding is that the advisory committee is walking [around Scheme Z] and looking at it," Salvucci says. "I'm hoping that they will, if not come to love it, at least come to understand it."