BOSTON – Harvard University announced plans for a multi-billion-dollar expansion Jan. 11 that officials expect will take 50 years to complete. They also estimate the project will create as many as 15,000 permanent jobs.

The plan would add more than 250 acres of land in the Allston district, which is across the Charles River from the Cambridge campus. The proposal, which still must be reviewed by the public and approved by the city, includes a science complex, museum, student housing, retail stores, a performance center, bike paths, tree-lined streets, a public square and 30 acres of open space in areas that are currently parking lots and rail yards. It also calls for placing Soldiers Field Road underground so students and pedestrians have easier access to the Cambridge campus.

Harvard submitted the plan to Boston officials Jan. 11 but did not say how much the expansion would cost or who would pay for it. The school does have an endowment of $30 million.

Plan advocates say during the first 20 years of the expansion, 4 million to 5 million square feet of buildings would be developed. They estimate 5,000 jobs would be created. Construction could begin this summer on the schools science complex, which officials say, would be the cornerstone of the city’s biotechnology industry, thus improving Boston’s economy.

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