Breaking up Atlantic Ave

[BostonUrbEx]

Does anyone know how and why the decision was made to break up the historic route of Atlantic Ave along the waterfront? Atlantic Ave survived the building of the elevated Central Artery, and was later truncated to Milk St around 1969-1971 with the development of the Harbor Towers and Harbor Garage. My guess is more specifically 1970-1971 with the end of Union Freight Railroad's operations, which would otherwise need to have been rerouted. I'm curious if the Harbor Towers/Garage actually were the final nail for the Union Freight or if they just went up really fast once the opportunity to dice up Atlantic Ave presented itself. Atlantic Ave was further disrupted with the construction of Columbus Park between 1971 and 1978. And finally, the Marriott was eventually built immediately adjacent.

 

[stick n move]

Bouncing off of that why the hell does D st in the seaport randomly make you have to loop around random sections of road just to get back on. Im sure theres a good reason but in practice it looks like the dumbest shit of all time.

 

[Charlie_mta]

Does anyone know how and why the decision was made to break up the historic route of Atlantic Ave along the waterfront?

In the early 1960s, the BRA planned several massive redevelopment projects, the Waterfront being one of them, along with Charles River Park and GC.

In all of these, the practice was to basically wipe the slate clean and totally reconfigure an area. The old Central Artery was an existing barrier, so the logic was to shift Atlantic Avenue over to that barrier in the urban fabric, thus creating a contiguous area to the east of it for redevelopment along the waterfront.

 

[Digital_Islandboy]

Bouncing off of that why the hell does D st in the seaport randomly make you have to loop arove und random sections of road just to get back on. Im sure theres a good reason but in practice it looks like the dumbest shit of all time.

I can't find the plans any longer. But the Logan2000 Airport Expansion project had originally planned for a monorail to be built around the airport which would sit atop of the passenger bridges between the terminals. Part of the plan was to have this monorail goto South Station. If my memory serves me correctly, the plan was scaled back as too expensive so it was settled for a glorified articulated bus that would switch to electricity once it got to the other side of the Third Harbor tunnel. The original plans also had an futuristic aerial design that would built 'sky lights' of sorts where the tunnel from I-90 ends and where the Third Harbor tunnel begins. That design with a lattice-work of skylights was deemed too expensive as well and cost cutting measures were implemented giving a simpler plain tunnel entrance like what you see after you cross the Zakim Bridge.

The former design was supposed to look somewhat similar to the Cross-Harbour Tunnel entrance to Hong Kong. Where the cement roof has openings. After all the budget cutting, and switch from monorail to a bus it needed room to switch the bus from diesel to overhead catenary.