Greater City ProvidenceJay Foreman takes a humorous look at the unbuilt ringroads of London.
In the 70s, an ambitious road-building project called ‘Ringways’ was cancelled and London narrowly escaped a fate much worse than traffic jams.
Jay Foreman takes a humorous look at the unbuilt ringroads of London.
In the 70s, an ambitious road-building project called ‘Ringways’ was cancelled and London narrowly escaped a fate much worse than traffic jams.
Interstate Highway cancellations in southern New England:
– I-84 between Hartford and Providence, first canceled in Rhode Island in the 70s then Connecticut by 1990
– I-295 between Attleboro and Fall River
– I-895 first attempt Coventry to Barrington; second attempt would have followed roughly RI-138 from Wyoming to Portsmouth then RI-114 to MA-136 to Swansea
– I-95 north and south through the center of downtown Boston roughly following US-1
New York:
– The Lower Manhattan Expressway in Soho and the Village
– The Mid-Manhattan Expressway over a widened 34th Street
There were other state expressway proposals that weren’t built.
– One example was a new Route 15 from Pawtucket to Centerdale
– The Route 10 connector between Downtown through tunnels under the East Side to the Henderson Bridge and beyond
Manhattan was spared with the help of Jane Jacobs. Boston was partly spared though it has the Mass Pike, the combos of I-93/Route 3 and the Tobin Bridge/US-1.
An early proposal from the late 40s and early 50s proposed locating what would become I-95 in Providence as an elevated highway deck over the Moshassuck River and Providence River.