Next big highway project?

Combining all those agencies might be good for efficiency but it would be politically impracticable in Massachusetts unless there was some sort of scandal that allowed a very powerful governor to rearrange power. Even then all we might get is a Dept. of Homeland Security type situation where the agencies don't really work together (though that could be fixed with better leadership).
 
Harvard is planning to bury most of Soldiers Field Road...that should be on the list.
 
czsz said:
Harvard is planning to bury most of Soldiers Field Road...that should be on the list.
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That will deprive motorists of some good views, especially of Harvard; hope it brings enhanced riverfront use.
 
That will also be costly as the land in Allston was once salt marsh and probably has a very high water table. Any tunnel will need to be heavily water proofed.
 
DarkFenX wrote:
I think the Tobin is alright though making this bridge into a suspension bridge will be amazing since I believe it spans longer than the Golden Gate Bridge.


Um.. what? This isn't right by a long shot.
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DarkFenX was right. The Tobin is a couple hundred feet longer than the GG Bridge. The GG is almost entirely built over water, whereas more than half of the Tobin span (from 4th Street in Chelsea to Prospect in Charlestown) is over land.
 
Looks like the actual suspended part of the GGB is much longer than the suspended part of the Tobin but the Tobin is longer over all.

The Golden Gate Bridge's 4,200 foot long main suspension span was a world record that stood for 27 years.
Linking San Francisco with Marin County the Golden Gate Bridge is a 1.7 mile-long suspension bridge
Click to expand...
Link

The main structure over the Mystic River is a three-span, cantilevered truss 1,525' in length.
Including north and south approaches, the bridge is approximately 2 1/4 miles long.
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Link
 
I don't think building any new or expanded expressways in or around Boston is desirable. Even depressing certain roads such as Soldiers Field Road in Allston seems like a waste of money. Why not just close the damn thing, turn it into parkland and use the money instead for transit improvements? The future for the Boston area is rail transit expansion, not highways. I though we all learned that 40 years ago.

The only road expansion I would see is expansion of freight capacity on the major highway corridors well outside of Route 128/I-95. Major freight routes connecting New England with Canada and points west and south need expansion. These projects would include:
- Extension of I-84 north from the Mass Pike into New Hampshire and Maine.
- Construction of a bypass expressway inland from central Connecticut through eastern Pennsylvania, bypassing Hartford, New York City and Washington DC, to alleviate I-95 traffic and provide freight access from the South and West to Northern New England.
 
The largest highway interchange in Massachusetts as judged by volume is the 93-95 interchange in Woburn, Wakefield, Reading, ans Stonham. This interchange handles over 375,000 vehicles per day. The plans have just been finalized for this interchange to be overhauled.

The projects ENF: http://www.mass.gov/envir/mepa/pdffiles/enfs/091007em/14098.pdf

The expanded ENF from the Massachusetts Executive office of Transportation:
https://www.commentmgr.com/projects...ange Transportation Improvements 08-31-07.pdf

The transportation study:

http://www.9395info.com/documents.asp
 
Another project that could someday be revived is extending I-290 from its current terminus at 495 in Marlboro along the proposed northern alignment through Hudson, Stow, Maynard, Sudbury, and Concord. This extension, first proposed in 1970 would extend 290 to a terminus with route 2 close to 128. Have you ever wondered why route 2 goes from a four lane highway built at interstate standards through Arlington and Lexington and then suddenly drops two lanes very rapidly just west of 128? This is the area where 290 was to merge with route 2.

NORTHERN ALIGNMENT: Introduced for the first time in the 1970 location report, this alignment would have extended through Marlborough, Hudson, Stow, Maynard, Sudbury and Concord, terminating at a proposed extension of the MA 2 (Western) Expressway in Concord. Planned improvements along the MA 2 corridor would have provided for the additional traffic generated by the I-290 extension. The 14.0-mile-long extension was expected to cost $29 million, and would have required the displacement of 83 homes and one business.

http://www.bostonroads.com/roads/I-290_MA/

I read somewhere about a year ago that the plans for this extension have been "dusted off" as a result of the increased traffic burden on western roadways.
 
I posted a while ago in the ?Dream Project? that Rt. 1 should be tunneled from Chelsea or even Revere through Charlestown. As stated above, more than half of the bridge is over land, and removing it would do wonders for Charlestown and be an absolute god send to Chelsea.

Incorporating a rapid transit system would be a must. The line would run from the north shore through Chelsea, under the Mystic to Charlestown (w/a stop on Chelsea St. near the constitution) on to North Station. From there you could send it through downtown (with a stop in Post Office Sq.) and on to service the areas that were better serviced by the El. You could also send it down along Storrow Drive from North Station when that road is submerged. An Esplanade stop on the T would be great.

The submerged Rt. 1, would also connect directly w/93 north as it used to. A bike path could be incorporated in the tunnel, on the center span of the bridge which would be kept and rehabbed, or both. It would be a great tourist attraction (especially on the 4th) and you would run elevators similar to the Eiffel Tower or a gondola like lift so that people could use the deck as a place to take pictures/view the city, and cross between Chelsea and Charlestown.

Imagine riding your bike from Chelsea and coming up in Charlestown under the Zakim. If we could submerge the commuter rail lines into North Station, even eliminate one of the lines by creating the north shore RTL, you could get rid of the tracks that go by the Spaulding and the bridge those tracks currently use could be used by pedestrians and bike riders from Cambridge, Somerville, Chelsea, and Charlestown taking you directly into or by North Station.
These are the thoughts that go through your head when you live in Chelsea.
 
Thanks pharmerdave,

I always though Route 2 stopped being a highway just because Concord fought it. Never realized it was planned to be connected to 290.
 
Rt. 2 stops being a highway at Rt. 128 because that's where the widening project ended. Some ideas might have been floated to connect that end to something (the most recent involving a new Boston airport at Fort Devens), but it wasn't stopped there because an extension project was canceled, like Rt. 1 north of the city.

BTW: the same website quoted above also states that the primary concept for 290 would have connected to 128 at Exit 26 (Rt. 20) in Waltham.
 
Outermost Loop

I-290 needs to be extended at least a few miles further east from I-495 to service the high tech corridor in Hudson /Marlboro in general and the Intel Hudson local area specifically

However, the next phase of growth is in the vicinity of Devens

That means that I-190 needs to connect to something better than a glorified 2 Lane Rt-2

I suggest the best route is in cooperation with the State of New Hampshire to build up and east from I-90 to I-93 in New Hampshire -- providing a virtual 3rd ring around Boston

I-495 should be extended to meet the real terminus of I-93 at the entrance to the Cape to better connect the developable area near Plymouth and potential casino territory

Of course any and all future highways must be designed with rail infrastructure potential embedded in the right-of-way

Westy
 
Extensions

Any extensions should keep in mind that a million extra people are going to be on those roads going to the casinos!

Yay gambling!
 
The casinos will build their own highways. See the limited access "Mohegan Sun Boulevard" - better engineered than a state road.
 
The last thing Massachusetts needs is a third ring road encouraging more sprawl. We already host some of the lowest-density development in the nation (even compared to Sunbelt sprawl, which tends to consist of tightly packed subdivisions). In fact, I think the state ought to focus on repairing our existing, severely strained infrastructure before building new "dream" projects.

That said, my own dream project would be to bury Storrow Drive while simultaneously extending the Blue Line from Charles/MGH along the Charles to BU, the new Harvard campus in Allston, and out to Waltham.
 
Yeah, we should do what New Jersey did and declare a moratorium on any new highways.
 
what does that mean

aws129: What do you mean by Massachusetts has some of the "lowest-density development" in the country.

And is this a good thing or bad thing in your estimation.

I'm not clear what you mean.
 
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