Comments on: Unbuilt Boston: The Ghost Cloverleaf of Canton

By: Steve Anderson

Steve Anderson — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:44:56 +0000

Thank you for linking to bostonroads.com.

By: Gessel On… » Ghost Highway

Gessel On… » Ghost Highway — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:43:21 +0000

[...] This is a really cool post about some vestiges of a highway that was almost built through Boston and Cambridge. When I was in school, I heard a rumor of this 695 project and that MIT, for obvious reasons opposed to having a freeway run through the middle of campus, did a few things along the way to deter construction: [...]

By: Sasha Mandel

Sasha Mandel — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:50:21 +0000

I must thank you for writing this on many levels. I am the creator of the Little Lanes tour, and I am honored that my work has inspired you to write about this fascinating piece of lost history.
The article had particular emotional resonance with me as a Cambridge native – the map shows that the B.U. Bridge fly-over would have literally destroyed the neighborhood (in fact the very house!) in which I grew up. I cannot imagine how vastly different my own life would have been had the residents not succeeded in blocking its construction (this is now memorialized by a mural on the side of what is now Micro Center).
Thanks so much for writing this.
-SM

By: Doug Mink

Doug Mink — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:25:33 +0000

The state is planning to tear down the “Bridge to Nowhere” as part of a project to widen Route 128 and improve flow through the rest of the I-95 interchange. The bridge right now is a major link for non-motorized traffic–hikers and bicyclists–to get across Route 128 without dealing with the constant streams of motorized traffic at the adjacent interchanges on Route 138 and East St. I led a bike ride over it last week, and put the route and pictures
on my web site. We’re starting to work on getting the state to replace the bridge with a bike/ped bridge soon after it is removed.

By: Randy

Randy — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:28:49 +0000

Fascinating article, thanks much for thinking to write on this topic. I would have found it interesting regardless, but living in Milton just minutes from the Blue Hills Park as I do, I found it particularly compelling.

By: Down All The Days » Obscurorant 2.0

Down All The Days » Obscurorant 2.0 — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:02:53 +0000

[...] The Ghost Cloverleaf of Canton [...]

By: Jerry

Jerry — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:07:51 +0000

The politics that brought about this shift were very intricate, not surprisingly. Francis W. Sargent, a Republican, was governor when the brouhaha began and delivered the decision (at the state level)to step on the brakes. Washington, and especially Congress, were reluctant to make such a sharp turn, however — until Indianapolis, where the GOP was strong at the time, found itself confronting a parallel situation. The confluence brought bipartisan agreement on a bill that would let states divert Interstate highway money to mass transit projects. The result in Boston includes the present-day Orange Line, which follows part of that originally planned I-95 corridor through the South End out to Forest Hills.

By: Hitting the Links | Redfin Boston Sweet Digs

Hitting the Links | Redfin Boston Sweet Digs — Fri, 02 May 2008 23:23:17 +0000

[...] Boston Highways that never made it. [Xconomy] [...]

By: Wade Roush

Wade Roush — Fri, 02 May 2008 20:13:01 +0000

@Joe, @Ron -- Wow, I didn't know about those two abandoned sites. For other readers who may be interested here's a link to a Google Maps page showing the the MA 3 - I-95 interchange. And the Revere site that Ron mentions is especially impressive -- you can see the earthworks constructed all the way through the salt marsh before the project was called off. Thanks!

By: Ron Newman

Ron Newman — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:02:31 +0000

The interchange of Routes 1 and 60 in Revere also has artifacts of what was supposed to happen, but didn’t — an I-95 expressway through the salt marsh and the Lynn Woods up to 128.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:46:42 +0000

The interchange in Burlington between MA3 and MA128/I95 is similar. In its current state, it forms a ‘T’ junction, by using only part of the complete cloverleaf. A quick look at Google Maps/Earth shows the unused southeast loop of the cloverleaf, and the straight line where MA3 ends actually continues into the woods a good distance.