[BC] Interstate System

[Sid Schweiger]

>>I wonder if the "Big Dig" in Boston was in the original plans???<<

Not as it was built.  Originally I-95 was to cut a swath through some
of Boston's southwesterly neighborhoods (Roxbury, Dorchester, Jamica
Plain), go through downtown Boston and head north through Winthrop,
Revere, Saugus and into Peabody, but Governor Frank Sargent killed that
project about 30 years ago, so I-95 now avoids Boston altogether and
rings around its suburbs joined with America's first beltway, Route 128.
 I-93, of which the Big Dig is now a part, was originally supposed to
end in Boston's Charlestown neighborhood at a junction with the proposed
I-95 portion which was never built.  Now, it ends at a junction with
I-95/Route 128 in Dedham, south of Boston.  Gov. Sargent also killed
altogether the proposed I-695, the so-called "inner belt" which would
have devastated large portions of Boston, Cambridge and Somerville.

Barnes & Noble publishes a coffee-table-sized book called "The Roads
That Built America: The Incredible Story of the US Interstate System,"
which delves into its history and is lavishly illustrated.  It's now
available in paperback too.



Sid Schweiger
IT Manager, Entercom New England
WAAF - WEEI AM/FM - WKAF - WMKK - WRKO - WVEI AM/FM
20 Guest St / 3d Floor
Boston MA  02135-2040
Phone: 617-779-5369
Fax: 617-779-5379
E-Mail: sid at wrko.com