The Inner Belt in Boston was a planned six-lane, limited-access
highway
A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...
that would have run through parts of
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Brookline
Brookline may refer to:
Places in the United States
* Brookline, Massachusetts, a town near Boston
* Brookline, Missouri
* Brookline, New Hampshire
* Brookline (Pittsburgh), a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
* Brookline, Vermont
See ...
,
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, and
Somerville
Somerville may refer to:
*Somerville College, Oxford, a constituent college of the University of Oxford
Places
*Somerville, Victoria, Australia
* Somerville, Western Australia, a suburb of Kalgoorlie, Australia
* Somerville, New Zealand, a subur ...
.
Original plan
![ElmandBroadwayCambridgeMA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/ElmandBroadwayCambridgeMA.JPG)
The highway would have been called Interstate 695 and would have provided a circumferential route inside the
Route 128
The following highways are numbered 128:
Canada
* New Brunswick Route 128
* Ontario Highway 128 (former)
* Prince Edward Island Route 128
Costa Rica
* National Route 128
India
* National Highway 128 (India)
Japan
* Japan National Route 128 ...
corridor. A 1955 plan suggested this routing:
![Boston, Massachusetts 1955 Yellow Book](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Boston%2C_Massachusetts_1955_Yellow_Book.jpg)
* Connection with
Interstate 93
Interstate 93 (I-93) is an Interstate Highway in the New England states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the United States. Spanning approximately along a north–south axis, it is one of three primary Interstate Highways ...
in Charlestown at Yard 8, what is now Inner Belt Road, Somerville
* Paralleling Washington Street, Somerville
* Connection with
Northwest Expressway/U.S. 3/MA 2 (unbuilt) in
Union Square, Somerville
Union Square is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of Somerville, Massachusetts, Somerville, Massachusetts. It is centered on Union Square proper, which is located at the intersection of Washington Street, Webster Avenue, and Somerville Ave ...
* Along Elm Street past
Inman Square
Inman Square is a neighborhood and historic district in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It lies north of Central Square, at the junction of Cambridge, Hampshire, and Inman Streets near the Cambridge– Somerville border.
Location
Like many squar ...
* Past
Central Square, Cambridge through
Cambridgeport
Cambridgeport is one of the neighborhoods of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is bounded by Massachusetts Avenue, the Charles River, the Grand Junction Railroad, and River Street. The neighborhood contains predominantly residential homes, many of the ...
paralleling Brookline Street
* Crossing the
Charles River
The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles b ...
at the
Boston University Bridge
The Boston University Bridge, originally the Cottage Farm Bridge and commonly referred to as the BU Bridge, is a steel truss through arch bridge with a suspended deck carrying Route 2 over the Charles River, connecting the Boston University ca ...
, replacing the local street bridge with a two-level local and elevated highway bridge, or bypassing the bridge with a tunnel
* Connection with the Western Expressway (
Massachusetts Turnpike
The Massachusetts Turnpike (colloquially "Mass Pike" or "the Pike") is a toll highway in the US state of Massachusetts that is maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). The turnpike begins at the New York state li ...
) near the
Charles River
The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles b ...
* Running under the
Back Bay Fens
The Back Bay Fens, often called The Fens, is a parkland and urban wild in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. It was established in 1879. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted to serve as a link in the Emerald Necklace park system, the Fens ...
along the Fenway or Park Drive
* Connection with the
Southwest Expressway (unbuilt)
* Running via what became
Melnea Cass Boulevard
* Connection with the
Southeast Expressway via what is now the Mass Ave connector
(A 1948 plan called for the Southeast and Southwest Expressway to meet the Inner Belt at the same point.)
Cancellation
![I-695 stub ramps aerial, November 2015](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/I-695_stub_ramps_aerial%2C_November_2015.JPG)
Organized community opposition to the project began in 1965, when three city planners at the Boston Redevelopment Authority (now the
Boston Planning & Development Agency
The Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA), formerly the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), is a Massachusetts public agency that serves as the municipal planning and development agency for Boston, working on both housing and commercial de ...
)— Tunney Lee, Fred Salvucci, and Dennis Blackett— founded the Cambridge Committee on the Inner Belt. The group, which later became incorporated as the Urban Planning Aid (UPA), published articles in the
Cambridge Chronicle criticizing the highway plan and disseminated maps of the route to residents, highlighting the Inner Belt's potentially disastrous effects on Cambridge's urban landscape. With the help of Father McManus, a local priest, the UPA mobilized Cambridge residents against the state's highway plan, and the anti-highway activists won over the Cambridge City Council, which became committed to stopping the project. The following year, in 1966, Cambridge residents protested the Inner Belt outside the Massachusetts State House, leading then-Governor
John Volpe
John Anthony Volpe (; December 8, 1908November 11, 1994) was an American businessman, diplomat, and politician from Massachusetts. A son of Italian immigrants, he founded and owned a large construction firm. Politically, he was a Republican in i ...
to order a restudy of the highway's route through Cambridge.
The Black United Front (established in 1968) also mobilized residents in Roxbury against the Inner Belt and broader racial justice issues, working with the UPA to mobilize residents across the Boston metro area. A new group, the Greater Boston Committee on the Transportation Crisis, was founded in 1968 to coordinate the anti-highway movement. The GBC's work culminated in the People Before Highways protest on January 25, 1969, when hundreds of residents flooded the State House, demanding that Governor
Francis Sargent
Francis Williams Sargent (July 29, 1915 – October 22, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 64th governor of Massachusetts from 1969 to 1975. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 63rd Lieutenant Govern ...
(who assumed office just three days prior when Volpe was confirmed as President Nixon's Secretary of Transportation) cancel the Inner Belt and Southwest Expressway.
The project was canceled in 1971 after intense protests organized by
community activist
Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...
s, and following Gov. Francis Sargent's 1970 moratorium on highway construction inside Route 128. It would have displaced some 7,000 people from their homes and created what opponents at the time called a "Chinese wall" dividing long established neighborhoods, and would have gutted large parts of the city of
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
and the Boston neighborhood of
Roxbury. There was also speculation that the construction of the Inner Belt would essentially bypass downtown Boston completely, resulting in economic stagnation in a city that was already having considerable financial problems. Unresolved traffic problems resulting from the cancellation were among the factors eventually leading to Boston's
Big Dig
The Central Artery/Tunnel Project (CA/T Project), commonly known as the Big Dig, was a megaproject in Boston that rerouted the Central Artery of Interstate 93 (I-93), the chief highway through the heart of the city, into the 1.5-mile (2.4& ...
highway project, decades later.
The
Northwest Expressway was to carry Routes 2 and 3 along a four-lane highway from the north-west (the current outer intersection of U.S. 3 and Route 128 in Burlington) via Cambridge to connect with the Inner Belt in
Union Square, Somerville
Union Square is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of Somerville, Massachusetts, Somerville, Massachusetts. It is centered on Union Square proper, which is located at the intersection of Washington Street, Webster Avenue, and Somerville Ave ...
. Instead, the Route 2 highway was never re-routed to the
Fitchburg Line
The Fitchburg Line is a branch of the MBTA Commuter Rail system which runs from Boston's North Station to Wachusett station in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The line is along the tracks of the former Fitchburg Railroad, which was built across norther ...
right of way, and alternately now terminates along the right of way of the old
Concord Turnpike
The Cambridge and Concord Turnpike was an early turnpike between Cambridge and Concord, Massachusetts. Portions have been incorporated into today's Massachusetts Route 2; the remainder forms other major local roads.
Route description
The turnpik ...
(Route 2). That intersection left the highway terminating at a
traffic circle
A roundabout is a type of circular intersection (road), intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The N ...
in northwest
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, where it intersected
Route 16. In the 1980s, the rotary was replaced by a traffic light and the highway was connected to the
park-and-ride
A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system (rapi ...
garage at the
Alewife station
Alewife station is a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) intermodal transit station in the North Cambridge neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is the northwest terminal of the rapid transit Red Line (part of the MBTA subw ...
on the newly extended
Red Line.
An outer belt,
Interstate 495, was
completed by 1982 around
Greater Boston
Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston (the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England) and its surrounding areas. The region forms the northern ar ...
.
Re-use of rights-of-way
![Melnea Cass Boulevard at Washington St, Roxbury MA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Melnea_Cass_Boulevard_at_Washington_St%2C_Roxbury_MA.jpg)
With the cancellation of the
"Southwest Corridor" route for I-95, and the resultant alternate usage of much of that right-of-way for a significant length of the relocated southwest section of the
MBTA Orange Line
The Orange Line is a rapid transit line operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) as part of the MBTA subway system. The line runs south on the surface from Oak Grove station in Malden, Massachusetts through Malden and Me ...
subway's above-ground run, Route 128 between I-95 South and I-95 North was made part of the Interstate system as I-95. The right-of-way for the I-695 portion of the beltway in
Roxbury had already been cleared and now contains an
arterial road
An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road that sits below freeways/motorways on the road hierarchy in terms of traffic flow and speed. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector ro ...
,
Melnea Cass Boulevard.
The former Southwest Corridor portion of the right of way was converted into
Southwest Corridor Park
Southwest Corridor Park is a linear urban park in Boston, Massachusetts, part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston and managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). It extends from the South End and ...
and the new route for the new depressed southern section of Boston's
Orange Line subway, from the
Tufts Medical Center
Tufts Medical Center (until 2008 Tufts-New England Medical Center) in Boston, Massachusetts is a downtown Boston hospital midway between Chinatown and the Boston Theater District.
The hospital is a community based medical center for biomedical ...
subway station south-westwards. The older
elevated Orange line right of way along Washington Street was subsequently torn down by 1987, and eventually replaced by the
Silver Line rapid bus service.
Remnants of the Inner Belt were visible for many years on
Interstate 93
Interstate 93 (I-93) is an Interstate Highway in the New England states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the United States. Spanning approximately along a north–south axis, it is one of three primary Interstate Highways ...
at what is now the
Storrow Drive Connector interchange (Exit 18 (old exit 26) southbound) in Somerville (which would have been the northern terminus of I-695) and at the Massachusetts Avenue interchange in Boston (which would have been the
Route 3/I-95 junction at the southern terminus of the beltway). Some, but not all, of these remnants have been demolished as part of the Big Dig; in particular, the
Leverett Connector uses the northern pair of ramps in Somerville and had to be built around the southern pair of ramps. A still-extant, but barricaded spur just north of the new
Zakim Bridge on both levels of I-93 North was intended to connect to the Inner Belt.
Starts and Stops; May 27, 2007; Boston Globe.
Visible at .
An industrial park
An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park, ...
in Somerville, built on the remnants of the B&M's Yard 8, near the intended northern terminus of the highway is built around a street known as "Inner Belt Road".
See also
*California State Route 480
State Route 480 (SR 480) was a state highway in San Francisco, California, United States, consisting of the elevated double-decker Embarcadero Freeway (also known as the Embarcadero Skyway), the partly elevated Doyle Drive approach to the Golden ...
— similar project in San Francisco, also cancelled
*Freeway and expressway revolts
Highway revolts (also freeway revolts, expressway revolts, or road protests) are organized protests against the planning or construction of highways, freeways, expressways, and other civil engineering projects that favor vehicles.
Many freeway r ...
*Inner Belt District
The Inner Belt District is a industrial district located in the southeastern portion of Somerville, Massachusetts. Along with nearby Brickbottom, the Inner Belt is a historically industrial zone of Somerville, with factories, warehouses, distri ...
*NIMBY
NIMBY (or nimby), an acronym for the phrase "not in my back yard", is a characterization of opposition by residents to proposed developments in their local area, as well as support for strict land use regulations. It carries the connotation that ...
*Urban Ring Project (MBTA)
The Urban Ring was a proposed project of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, to develop new public transportation routes that would provide improved circumferential connections among ...
— proposed mass transit route along approximate Inner Belt path
* :Cancelled highway projects in the United States
References
Further reading
*
External links
Historical overview
The Inner Belt - History Cambridge
Description of proposed road's route
1965 plan map
The canceled I-695 route
(superimposed on Google Maps)
{{3di, 95
95-6
95-6 Massachusetts
95-6
6 Massachusetts
Transportation in Boston
95-6 (Massachusetts)
Proposed roads in Massachusetts