The South Bay Interchange is a massive
interchange in downtown
Boston, Massachusetts, in the US. The interchange consists of
Interstate 90
Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...
, the
Mass Pike Extension, and the
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 ...
concurrency with
US 1
U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...
and
MA 3 south of the
Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. Tunnel
The Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill Jr. Tunnel (colloquially O'Neill Tunnel) is a highway tunnel built as part of the Big Dig in Boston, Massachusetts. It carries the Central Artery underneath downtown Boston, and is numbered as Interstate 93 (I-93), U ...
.
The interchange dominates the South Bay parcel, a 10-acre (40,000 m²) site between
Chinatown
A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...
and the
Leather District
The Leather District is a neighborhood of Boston near South Street, between the Financial District and Chinatown. The Leather District (occasionally referred to as the "LD") is a tightly defined area bounded by Kneeland Street to the south, Ess ...
. It is roughly bounded by Kneeland Street, Hudson Street, the
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 ...
mainline, and the
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 ...
mainline. Currently owned by the
Massachusetts Turnpike Authority
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
(MTA), the area is taken up by a major highway interchange between
90,
93, and local streets. There were original plans to re-develop the area with a 600-foot tall office tower, but no such project has taken place.
History of the site
The South Bay parcel, as well as the adjacent
Chinatown
A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...
and
Leather District
The Leather District is a neighborhood of Boston near South Street, between the Financial District and Chinatown. The Leather District (occasionally referred to as the "LD") is a tightly defined area bounded by Kneeland Street to the south, Ess ...
neighborhoods, sit on filled land. Once part of
South Cove, a portion of Boston's South Bay, it was filled in 1833 by the South Cove Corporation, who built an intermodal train/sea station as part of the
Boston and Worcester Railroad
The Boston and Albany Railroad was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts to Albany, New York, later becoming part of the New York Central Railroad system, Conrail, and CSX Transportation. The line is currently used by CSX for freight. P ...
. This development included residential and commercial area, and what was considered at the time to be the largest hotel in the United States. Throughout most of the 19th century and the early half of the 20th century, the district was made up of
rail yard
A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or u ...
s serving
railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
s entering Boston from the south and west.
The rail yards and terminus attracted leather and garment businesses, which constructed the commercial buildings in the adjacent Leather District. Similarly, the railroad served as an immigrant gateway, a role which it played beginning in the late 19th century for many Asian newcomers, particularly Chinese.
In the 1950s, the Massachusetts Highway Department displaced much of the rail yards to build the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway (the Central Artery). Later the ''South Bay interchange'' connected the Central Artery to the Massachusetts Turnpike. The intersection has since been reconstructed by the Big Dig, with
tunnels
A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A Pipeline transport, pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used ...
to South Boston and
Logan Airport
General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport , also known as Boston Logan International Airport and commonly as Boston Logan, Logan Airport or simply Logan, is an international airport that is located mostly in East Boston and partiall ...
.
Interchange construction
The interchange was constructed beginning in the late 1990s as a major feature of the
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& ...
project. By using a variety of methods including soil freezing and
tunnel jacking to maintain adjacent
subway, freight and commuter rail operations, engineers were able to avoid major interruption of existing traffic flows. The name South Bay originates from the state of the area prior to nineteenth century
land reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...
efforts which filled an area of marshes and brackish water that was an estuary of
Boston Harbor
Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeastern United States.
History
Since ...
with dirt from nearby high ground.
Gallery
References
External links
Design and Construction of Driven Pile Foundations: Lessons Learned on the Central Artery/Tunnel ProjectFederal Highway Administration
Transportation in Boston
Interstate 90
Interstate 93
U.S. Route 1
Road interchanges in Massachusetts
Neighborhoods in Boston
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