Crazy Interchanges of the Week 3
This weeks theme, keeping with the last post, is of interchanges that didn’t make it. The powers that be were going to build a highway but funding problems or community opposition killed it. What remains are once mighty traffic machines that never were.
I-95, I-495 – Washington, DC. This is the physical remnants of the infamous Freeway Revolt. Several highways were to bisect and trisect central Washington, DC, many slicing up poor, black neighborhoods so the wealthy, white politicians could get to their homes far out in the suburbs. I-95 was supposed to enter DC from the north here and make its way down to the I-395 spur where it would turn west and form an inner belt highway.
Korean War Veterans Parkway – Staten Island, NY. One of the many roads that Robert Moses never got to build, the Korean War Veterans Parkway was only partially built, the southern section which ends in a swamp. The beginning and end points were constructed but due to intense community opposition against running the highway through La Tourette park, the project was stopped. There was a second proposal 10 years later which recommended connecting the parkway to I-278 further west at this interchange which had been designed to accommodate the parkway had it been rerouted. Thus there are two unfinished interchanges next to each other on I-278 on Staten Island.
US Route 44 – Providence, RI. This is all that was constructed of US 44 in Providence, RI. Originally this highway was to start at an interchange just south of there with I-195. There you can see the off ramps which lead into a park. These were to connect to US 44, which would have run along the river. At the other end you can see where land was cleared for the highway that was never built. This stretch was designed to bypass the congested central business area in East Providence, which US 44 runs through today. I am not sure of the exact reason it was never constructed but since the road was so short and doesn’t cut through many residential areas or parks, I can only assume it was stopped due to lack of funds, which is a primary reason behind many of the unbuilt highways in Rhode Island.
