Infrastructure to Nowhere (The Vestigial Infrastructure Thread)

Well, its not exactly in the Boston Metro, but the abandoned overpass in the Georgetown -Rowley State forest over I95 would probably qualify.
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It theoretically carries Pingree Farm Road, but you wouldn't want to try it - it's really a hiking trail. There's not that much online about it, but it appears built to vehicular standards given it has guardrailed approaches, storm drains and a sidewalk, but has likely never carried road traffic. Here's a video, skip to 2:20 or so to see the bridge itself.
 
Stlin said:
Well, its not exactly in the Boston Metro, but the abandoned overpass in the Georgetown -Rowley State forest over I95 would probably qualify.
View attachment 36124
It theoretically carries Pingree Farm Road, but you wouldn't want to try it - it's really a hiking trail. There's not that much online about it, but it appears built to vehicular standards given it has guardrailed approaches, storm drains and a sidewalk, but has likely never carried road traffic. Here's a video, skip to 2:20 or so to see the bridge itself.
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Most likely for fire access / fire trail?
 
Charlie_mta said:
The approach road off the rotary in Gloucester was supposed to be for an extension of Rte 128 to Rockport, but was cancelled. So it was repurposed as a driveway into a small development. However, it has all been configured to allow the road extension to Rockport to be built someday, though I doubt if it ever will be.
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Seems like with some thoughtful design and easements you could work a connector through those light industrial properties to Route 127 that would pull traffic out of Gloucester - might be worth thinking about.
 
Would the abandon Adams Station under City Hall be considered a "Hyperart Thomasson"
 
I love this thread idea!

It's pretty harmless, but I always got a kick out of the very short streetcar line installed on a bridge as part of the Hamilton Canal redevelopment in Lowell. Unfortunately the streetcar line has not advanced but the bridge remains --


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dhawkins said:
Most likely for fire access / fire trail?
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Fire access is right. My father is a fire fighter in the area.

The state forest back there is pretty swampy and with the comeback of beavers in the area has only gotten more so. When a long drought dries it out, the peat can really light up and can’t be put out easily because it burns underground. Throw in the forest being a popular place for teens to smoke a joint or host campfire parties and it’s wildfire central there at least once a summer.
 
Charlie_mta said:
The approach road off the rotary in Gloucester was supposed to be for an extension of Rte 128 to Rockport, but was cancelled. So it was repurposed as a driveway into a small development. However, it has all been configured to allow the road extension to Rockport to be built someday, though I doubt if it ever will be.
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Random thought but clicking on that link I noticed that it says an applied materials factory location is in gloucester nearby to that rotary. You know your area is doing well when one of the random fishing towns on the north shore has an applied materials factory near its rotary.
 
This may be borderline, but ever since the Veteran's Memorial Bridge opened, replacing the old Brightman St. Bridge between Fall River/Somerset, Slade's Ferry Avenue in Somerset is a weird place. The 1/3 mile stretch is what remains of the old Route 6 alignment, but it now dead-ends at a small suburban residential neighborhood. It's still clearly built for a much higher capacity than it currently carries and has somewhat of an old Route 66 vibe with vacant and underutilized retail spaces lining the short, underutilized stretch (though if you're ever in the area Pink Bean is solid).

The old Route 79 alignment ("Rhode Island Rd.") on the Middleborough/Lakeville line is similar. Here it is presently, dead-ending at 105 (adjacent to the 495 interchange). And here it is as Rt. 79, before the realignment.

Edited to add - Galleria Mall Drive in Taunton. Streetview is from 2019. Mall was demolished in 2021 or 2022. As you can see from the overhead, this 4-lane, high capacity road (inc. overpass) connects Rt. 140 to acres of empty land.
 
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Lrfox said:
Edited to add - Galleria Mall Drive in Taunton. Streetview is from 2019. Mall was demolished in 2021 or 2022. As you can see from the overhead, this 4-lane, high capacity road (inc. overpass) connects Rt. 140 to acres of empty land.
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Hopefully that's a temporary thing.

Lots of historic rail infrastructure adjacent to Riverside. The red circles are two overpasses that carried the most recent iteration of the Lower Falls Branch of the Boston and Albany RR. They are currently proposed to be part of the "Two Bridges Trail" on the Lower Falls Greenway connecting Riverside with Wellesley.

However, the rails didn't always run that way. Before the Circuit Railroad (today's D Branch) was built keeping all of the ROW east of the Charles, the original Lower Falls Branch left the B&A mainline in Weston and crossed back into Newton on a wooden trestle bridge. Some remnants of this are still visible - the path of the railroad is blazed permanently into the Golf Course as a slight grade and substantial discoloration of the grass (presumably from pollutant runoff) in the area in the blue box, and the stone abutment on the Weston side still exists in the blue circle, picture below.

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BeyondRevenue said:
I wonder if this definition applies:
en.wikipedia.org

Hyperart Thomasson - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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Very interesting. One of my earliest memories is from being at a party hosted by one of my dad's med school professors. The house where he lived had a staircase that went to the ceiling, but did not have a trap door or any other way to access whatever might have been above it. My parents explained that the builder of the house ran out of money to build a second floor, but that the stairs had already been built and were just left as a provision for some later construction. It seems the stairs would have perfectly fit this concept.
 
Stlin said:
Well, its not exactly in the Boston Metro, but the abandoned overpass in the Georgetown -Rowley State forest over I95 would probably qualify.
View attachment 36124
It theoretically carries Pingree Farm Road, but you wouldn't want to try it - it's really a hiking trail. There's not that much online about it, but it appears built to vehicular standards given it has guardrailed approaches, storm drains and a sidewalk, but has likely never carried road traffic. Here's a video, skip to 2:20 or so to see the bridge itself.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't call that abandoned, poorly maintained, yes. It's in use today to connect the two sides of the state forest, which was bisected by I-95. It's even shown on the DCR's official map.
 
You could say that the MBTA is this way; Infrastructure to Nowhere. What, with all the blasted problems that they're having: tracks replaced on some of the lines, then those aggravating & annoying slow zones all over the place!! :eek:
 
Arenacale said:
I guess this doesn't really count by being vestigial, but this old connection between Foster St. and Summer St. in Worcester that just kind of...stops. Rather than cut it off at both ends, they cut it off just at Foster, leaving a ramp that no one should ever take: https://goo.gl/maps/YLNJrBk6G26bkATb8
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That's wild. Looks like it's been like that for over 10 years. And like the only thing they've changed on it in that time is to....put up no parking signs. Even though this seems you might as well use it for parking if you are going to leave it that way.
 
millerm277 said:
That's wild. Looks like it's been like that for over 10 years. And like the only thing they've changed on it in that time is to....put up no parking signs. Even though this seems you might as well use it for parking if you are going to leave it that way.
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They do have a tiny sign that says "dead end" on the Summer Street end, but why didn't they incorporate the stub end into the plaza (or continue the plaza on the other side of the tracks and incorporate the whole driveway)?
 
The reason I heard is that there's still alot of utilities that run under that street.
 
A bit outside of the Boston metro...but this came up in a recent discussion in the Portland / Greater Maine Forum

In 2011-2012, the Maine Department of Transportation spent a considerable amount of money on the first phase (about five miles) of a planned extensive rehabilitation of the former Maine Central Railroad "Mountain Division" line, which had been abandoned west of a few local industries in Westbrook since the mid 1980s. The planned rehabilitation would extend from Westbrook about 20 miles west to the town of Baldwin, where a proposed wood pellet plant would be built. The plant would have used the Mountain Division to send carloads of pellets to Portland for export to Europe.

But the wood pellet plant was never built, and today there is a segment of fully rehabilitated rail line that has never seen a single revenue car roll over it (and probably never will)

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393b40 said:
Bunch of good posts though none quite hitting the mark like the overpass... it's a functional overpass that just doesn't do anything useful. A lot of this other stuff is historical holdovers from things that were cancelled or actually abandoned are are blocked off to the public now or repurposed for DPW etc use (e.g. the NE expressway stuff).
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Given your definition, I consider the express track on the Orange Line from the Charles River up through the Wellington Station to be in that category. Originally built in anticipation of the OL being extended to Reading, it serves no real purpose now. It's occasionally used to test new subway cars, etc. but that's about it.
 
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