History
The original plans called for I-95 to run through downtown Boston. The highway would have progressed from Route 128 and Readville, followed the Southwest Corridor, joined the Inner Belt in Roxbury, heading east, and joining the Southeast Expressway at South Bay, then north to the Central Artery at the South Station interchange with the Massachusetts Turnpike/Interstate 90, and connecting with the Northeast Expressway at the Charlestown banks of the Charles River.
However, due to pressure from local residents, all proposed Interstate Highways within Route 128 were canceled in 1972 by Governor Francis Sargent with the exception of Interstate 93 to Boston. The only sections of I-95 completed within the Route 128 beltway by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation were the segment known as the Northeast Expressway north from Charlestown to Saugus, which is now part of U.S. Route 1, and the Central Artery, which cut the North End neighborhood from downtown Boston proper. The Southwest Expressway and the Inner Belt highways were among the Sargent-canceled highways.
Between 1972 and 1974, plans were to extend I-95 along a northerly extension of the Northeast Expressway to Route 128 in northwestern Danvers. During this time, I-95 was officially routed along Route 128 from Canton to Braintree and north along the Southeast Expressway (also designated Route 3), from Braintree to Boston, then following the Central Artery, and continuing along the Northeast Expressway in Boston, Chelsea and Revere.
When the Northeast Expressway extension (between Saugus and Danvers) was canceled in 1974, I-95's route shifted to its current routing along the perimeter highway, Route 128, and I-93 was extended to meet I-95 in Canton. Plans for the abandoned roadways can still be seen going from the end of the Northeast Expressway to the Saugus River in Saugus. Along the unbuilt alignment from Saugus to Route 128, one can see unused bridges, ghost ramps, and graded—but unpaved—roadbed that was originally intended to carry I-95.
Read more about this topic: Interstate 95 In Massachusetts
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