Roads and Highways of the Pioneer Valley - Old Springfield Highways

A Master Plan for Springfield Highways

Check out this map, courtesy of US 5: A Highway to History. Click the image to see a full-size version in a seperate window.

And, for reference, here's modern-day Springfield, courtesy of Google Maps.

Some of this map is fictional, some of it isn't - the proposals are in bold or dashed thick lines.

As you can see, they're not too different. Both the "US 5 Relocation Project" and "Springfield By-Pass Project" pretty much copy their current routings for I-91 and Mass Pike, but there's a major difference with relocated US 5. My guess is that since this plan was drafted up shortly after the US 5 bypasses in West Springfield and the South End Bridge was built, they wanted to use that as part of their project. If you recall from the I-91 page, I-91 was originally meant to be on the west bank of the Connecticut, but the bypasses that were built already were not built to Interstate standards, and I-91 was therefore shifted to the other side of the Connecticut, where it later crossed on its own crossing instead of the South End Bridge. From then on, "Relocated US 5" continues on I-91's present right of way through Northampton.

There isn't much to say about the Springfield Bypass, except that the MassPike used this proposal verbatim.

The "Springfield Expressway" is current 291. This isn't much different either, with a slight modification in right of way. The only major deviation is in the area of Roosevelt avenue - apparently 291 was supposed to use some of the modern Roosevelt Ave. as its right of way or run on top of it - my guess is that roosevelt ave, for a short time, would be 291, with interchanges at its current ends. This plan was probably scrapped due to industrial development that started happening between when this plan was drafted and when actual plans for 291 were drafted and the highway was built - Smith and Wesson, along with several other manufacturers, live near this said section of Roosevelt ave (which is a divided road for a short amount of time). After that, I-291 ends at the MassPike and Burnett Road, which it does today.

You can see the roots of other current roads in this plan as well - the first Route 57 expressway planning in Agawam (where it ends at Route 159, at that time MA 5A). Up in Chicopee and Holyoke, the roots for I-391 are there as well, although the dashed road is on the "old" MA 116 (Technically, MA 116 extends down to Main Street in Springfield, but today it officially ends much farther north). It's not a stretch to think that I-391 is a relocated 116, as 116 was a main Springfield to Holyoke through road. Instead of building 391 on top of 116, they built the road next to it. The expanded US 202 in Holyoke is also reccomended, which exists today.

The last interesting piece about this map is the "Outer Belt Highway," or MA 21. I don't know much about this road, but by the labeling of "Major streets with improvements" signifies that the road would probably be a surface road with at-grade intersections (and possibly driveways), but be divided and made to higher speed design standards. Today, MA 21 ends (along with 141) at Boston Road in Springfield, right before Wilbraham, but before it used to extend all the way down to MA 83 and I-91. If you look at the map, it would use Sumner ave. for a short while, until it left to bypass Allen, Cooley, and Parker streets. For a time, it would take over Parker Street for a few miles and then leave Parker Street again to bypass substandard roads in Indian Orchard to connect driectly with the Ludlow Center Street bridge. The little... bold looking loop thing near the Turnpike, I don't know. It looks like Sewell and Center streets bolded, before they connect to the Mass Pike on today's exit 7. I'm guessing this means that those roads were supposed to be upgraded too, which they were, but not to divided roads.

Why wasn't this road built? My guess is that while the whole road as it appears on the map wansn't built, remnants of it exist in today's Sumner Ave, Bicentennial Highway, and Parker/Cooley streets. Looking on modern maps (granted, that are 50 years ahead of time, but I'm gathering that some of the stuff was still there) the new MA 21 would have to cut through a golf course and a cemetary, as well as residential areas that would probably resist a heavily trafficked road. The spirit of the outer belt lives on in surface streets, even though the highway was aborted.

Done? Return home.