Boston Alt History

[Teban54]

It's October 30, 2023. A trip from Davis to Quincy Adams on the Red Line takes 40 minutes.

 

[Tallguy]

1966:

Prolly would've all-blowed-up the west side of Downtown Falmouth to extend the MA 28 expressway to Woods Hole for this thing, too. And widened the everloving shit out of Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Rd. across the island to make it a turnpike-grade extension of the mainline. Then built a wide-ass bridge onto Chappaquiddick and done the same add-a-lane destructing to Chappaquiddick Rd. to make it a state highway all the way to East Beach.

So, Teddie would have been president?

 

[Equilibria]

Not endorsing that this should have happened (and definitely not that it should happen now), but what if the Commonwealth had pushed for a new airport at the South Weymouth NAS...

Based on AUS - both runways are a bit over 10,000'. The biggest difference from AUS, of course, is that Bergstrom AFB had enough land to accommodate the whole planned airport, while the additional land acquisition required at South Weymouth would have been... extensive.

 

[JeffDowntown]

Not endorsing that this should have happened (and definitely not that it should happen now), but what if the Commonwealth had pushed for a new airport at the South Weymouth NAS...

Based on AUS - both runways are a bit over 10,000'. The biggest difference from AUS, of course, is that Bergstrom AFB had enough land to accommodate the whole planned airport, while the additional land acquisition required at South Weymouth would have been... extensive.

View attachment 49444

You would likely never have gotten this built as indicated (and not because of NIMBYs, because of the FAA and aircraft safety).

Runway alignments are not selected to fit the land area available. They are selected to align with prevailing wind directions to minimize cross-wind takeoff and landing (dangerous, particularly at the high average wind speeds around Boston). Your runways are moderately close to the secondary wind alignment at Logan (33/15), but you are missing the dominant alignment 22/04.

 

[Equilibria]

You would likely never have gotten this built as indicated (and not because of NIMBYs, because of the FAA and aircraft safety).

Runway alignments are not selected to fit the land area available. They are selected to align with prevailing wind directions to minimize cross-wind takeoff and landing (dangerous, particularly at the high average wind speeds around Boston). Your runways are moderately close to the secondary wind alignment at Logan (33/15), but you are missing the dominant alignment 22/04.

I know that and I thought about looking that up, but it's worth noting that primary wind alignments at Logan might not be the same as inland.

The runway alignment I used perfectly aligns with one of the primary runways at the old NAS. Presumably they chose the prevailing direction at the time. Norwood also has a runway at 10-28.

 

[TheRatmeister]

Not endorsing that this should have happened (and definitely not that it should happen now), but what if the Commonwealth had pushed for a new airport at the South Weymouth NAS...

Based on AUS - both runways are a bit over 10,000'. The biggest difference from AUS, of course, is that Bergstrom AFB had enough land to accommodate the whole planned airport, while the additional land acquisition required at South Weymouth would have been... extensive.

View attachment 49444

Wouldn't it make more sense to build the RL in the median of Rt 3? Any airport like this would presumably have been built before RL to Quincy, so it's not like Braintree station needs to be the starting point of the extension.

 

[Equilibria]

Wouldn't it make more sense to build the RL in the median of Rt 3? Any airport like this would presumably have been built before RL to Quincy, so it's not like Braintree station needs to be the starting point of the extension.

I'd think you'd want the stop in South Weymouth more than a stop along the highway. Generally I think you want to follow rail lines that hit town centers.

 

[JeffDowntown]

I know that and I thought about looking that up, but it's worth noting that primary wind alignments at Logan might not be the same as inland.

The runway alignment I used perfectly aligns with one of the primary runways at the old NAS. Presumably they chose the prevailing direction at the time. Norwood also has a runway at 10-28.

Good point, dominant direction could be a bit different inland (although Weymouth is not very far inland!).