Map scans of never-built freeways

[kurumi]

Here's a scan of proposed I-84 from 1983 (shortly before it was killed); thumbnail links to full size.

[english si]

There's lots of UK ones here

[KEVIN_224]

It's definitely 1983 on that Connecticut scan! You see "TOLL" on the Connecticut Turnpike (far right side). Tolls were taken off that road after 1983. Also, I-395 was still CT Route 52 a year or less earlier. I'm sure that if it wasn't for the Hop River, the highway between the end of I-384 in Bolton and the short US Route 6 expressway (north of Willimantic) would've been constructed. Lastly, two tiny fragments on that map have since been filled in (both in the top left of that scan):

I-384 between I-84 (Exit 59) in East Hartford and Exit 1 (Spencer Street) in Manchester
I-291 just north of that (I-291 is today's Exit 61 from I-84)

[sr641]

hot spring bypass northern extension and the nashua bypass

[Scott5114]

hot spring bypass northern extension and the nashua bypass

This is not only not a complete sentence, it is not a map scan of a never-built freeway!

[cpzilliacus]

Here's a scan of proposed I-84 from 1983 (shortly before it was killed); thumbnail links to full size.

Was this killed for NIMBYistic reasons? 

[hbelkins]

hot spring bypass northern extension and the nashua bypass

This is not only not a complete sentence, it is not a map scan of a never-built freeway!

My 2003 Rand McNally shows the Nashua bypass as "under construction" (as opposed to "proposed.") I'm too lazy to get it and scan it. Whatever happened to it, anyway?

[sr641]

new hampshire didnt have enough money for the nashua bypass so they canceled it.

[wytout]

Here's a scan of proposed I-84 from 1983 (shortly before it was killed); thumbnail links to full size.

Was this killed for NIMBYistic reasons? 

Actually it was killed because of what you can't see in this map.... RI just to the right.  The inability for RI to reconcile the path around the Scituate Reservoir caused RI to cancel their portion first (which would have connected to I-95/195 in Providence).  Shortly after, CT abandoned it's plans.

[NE2]

Damn those Not In My Drinking Waters.

[ftballfan]

Damn those Not In My Drinking Waters.

They would rather have unbearable traffic on the road they live on than a freeway which would reduce the traffic on said road.

[mgk920]

Damn those Not In My Drinking Waters.

They would rather have unbearable traffic on the road they live on than a freeway which would reduce the traffic on said road.

And with today's knowledge and construction techniques, that reservoir should not be a problem anymore.

Also, what's the status on the part west of Willimantic?  I recall some pretty heavy discussions about completeing that part a few years back.

Mike

[cpzilliacus]

Damn those Not In My Drinking Waters.

Curiously, similar issues were used in Maryland in an (ultimately failed) effort by NIMBYists and their friends in the federal environmental regulatory agencies to divert a major highway out of a watershed which is home to a self-reproducing (but non-native) trout population and into a watershed used to supply drinking water to hundreds of thousands of households.

The highway in question is Md. 200, the InterCounty Connector, or ICC.

The watershed with the alien trout population is the Paint Branch of the Anacostia River.

The watershed used to supply drinking water is the Patuxent River. 

The federal agencies in question were EPA Region III and the Baltimore District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

[cpzilliacus]

Damn those Not In My Drinking Waters.

They would rather have unbearable traffic on the road they live on than a freeway which would reduce the traffic on said road.

And with today's knowledge and construction techniques, that reservoir should not be a problem anymore.

Agreed.  I think Maryland has shown how to build a six-lane freeway across multiple urban and suburban watersheds, and do so in a way that literally "minimizes harm" to the lands crossed.

[Alps]

Damn those Not In My Drinking Waters.

They would rather have unbearable traffic on the road they live on than a freeway which would reduce the traffic on said road.

And with today's knowledge and construction techniques, that reservoir should not be a problem anymore.

Also, what's the status on the part west of Willimantic?  I recall some pretty heavy discussions about completeing that part a few years back.

Mike

OK, so see where US 6 threads the needle between Scituate Reservoir and Moswansicut Lake? (Well, it crosses the northern edge of the reservoir.) Use that space.

[sr641]

thats why we have water filters. lol.

[Alps]

thats why we have water filters. lol.

Your use of violent smileys is upsetting.

[sr641]

thats why we have water filters. lol.

Your use of violent smileys is upsetting.

Why?

[PurdueBill]

On topic, I have a few old Esso New England maps and I'll have to see what goodies are on those as far as unbuilt stuff.  I have a pretty old AAA Boston and Vicinity map (the old-fashioned one they no longer issue) and it's missing part.....otherwise planned I-95 between Revere and Peabody would definitely be shown on it.  One of the others may show that at least.  Will have to scan/take a pic when I get a chance.

[jjakucyk]

Check out the maps of Cincinnati's never-built (thankfully) Taft Expressway.  It's a mess of lousy 1950s geometry.  Combined with the highly urban neighborhood and steep terrain, had this been built it would be an unmitigated disaster of tight loop ramps, left exits, partial interchanges, steep grades, tight curves, and horribly short ramps and merges. 

http://www.cincinnati-transit.net/never-built.html

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

The proposed Dixie Freeway (I-410 deux) around New Orleans from 1972

[PHLBOS]

On topic, I have a few old Esso New England maps and I'll have to see what goodies are on those as far as unbuilt stuff.  I have a pretty old AAA Boston and Vicinity map (the old-fashioned one they no longer issue) and it's missing part.....otherwise planned I-95 between Revere and Peabody would definitely be shown on it.  One of the others may show that at least.  Will have to scan/take a pic when I get a chance.

Some of those maps will also show the Southwest Expressway section of I-95 from Canton to Boston as a proposed dash as well as the cancelled Inner Belt (I-695).

Until the mid to late 1980s, the Saugus, MA page of the Universal Street Atlas of Eastern Massachusetts showed the fore-mentioned cancelled I-95 alignment (between Revere & Peabody) as a completed highway (solid red line), though no interchanges were shown.

Moving over to the Delaware Valley, there were some atlases that still showed (as a proposed highway) the long-since-cancelled Somerset County, NJ alignment of I-95 between Ewing and Metuchen as recently as 5 years ago.  There are some old Philadelphia area maps that showed proposed alignments of the cancelled Cobbs Creek & Crosstown Expressway (both were planned to be I-695).

Some Franklin maps for the Greater Philadelphia area as late as the 1990s still showed the proposed but cancelled Tacony Expressway (I-95/Betsy Ross Bridge to US 1) as well as the proposed but dead I-895 from Bristol, PA to Burlington, NJ.

[HighwayMaster]

I have a late 70's Exxon map of NJ that has I-95, NJ-92, and some others; I'll scan it when I can.

[bugo]

I might have an Oklahoma map somewhere that shows the Riverside Freeway as proposed.  The road was built as Riverside Drive, as a 4 lane surface street.  It's really narrow north of I-44 and has some nasty curves in it but it widens out and straightens out south of Skelly Drive.  I don't have a map scanned though.

[flowmotion]

Check out the maps of Cincinnati's never-built (thankfully) Taft Expressway.  It's a mess of lousy 1950s geometry.  Combined with the highly urban neighborhood and steep terrain, had this been built it would be an unmitigated disaster of tight loop ramps, left exits, partial interchanges, steep grades, tight curves, and horribly short ramps and merges. 

http://www.cincinnati-transit.net/never-built.html

Much like San Francisco's proposed "Western Freeway" (I-80), which not only was planned to go through Golden Gate park, but would have had such a terrible design that it would have been a disaster:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/3892154598/in/set-72157622139053795/
^ Eric Fischer's Flickr has tons of maps of cancelled freeway projects