28 May 1962, Mon The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts)
NEPONSET VALLEY ROADS—Map prepared by professional planners, representing Canton citizens group, outlined D.P.W.’s proposed routing of Interstate 95, and alternate route suggested by planning consultants.
The proposed route of Interstate 95 in the Norwood-Canton-Westwood area has been challenged by a Canton citizens group, who claim a $75 million development potential will be lost if current highway plans are followed.
An alternate route between Neponset st., Norwood, and Rte. 128 was outlined by a professional planner at a Norwood meeting last week, attended by representatives of the selectmen, planning boards and industrial development groups from the three towns.
Reaction to the alternate proposal was mixed.
Sidney N. Shurcliff, Boston planning consultant, told those at the meeting that the present State Public Works Dept route was laid out “entirely on the basis of easy engineering.”
He charged the DPW “has not sufficiently considered the effect this multi-million dollar expressway will have on the surrounding communities.”
Shurcliff said land values of over $15 million could be created “at no additional construction cost”.
He added that “assuming the industrial buildings to be constructed on the land are valued at the not unreasonable figure of four times the land value, this makes a $75 million opportunity which will be lost unless the D.P.W. will reconsider”.
Shurcliff said he represented a group of Canton residents, and others in nearby Milton.
Committed To Route
A spokesman for the D P W. said engineering planning for this segment of Interstate 95 is “25 percent complete.” He said a proposed D.P.W, interchange at Rte. 128 already has been approved by the U.S.
Bureau of Roads.
“We are committed to this, line, which was selected because the agencies involved agree it is the best possible routing at this point, the D.P.W. official said.
No date has been set for advertising of construction bids, he added.
Norwood officials indicated interest in the Shurcliff alternate, although town manager Walter A. Blasenak questioned the source of funds for construction of a feeder road from a proposed interchange to Rte. 1, at Pleasant st., Norwood.
Canton officials reserved judgment, but Westwood representatives pointed out that the Shurcliff alternate route would bisect an Industrial development tract in their town.
The DPW routing locate the road east of the Neponset River and New Haven Railroad tracks, with the intersection on ’ Rte, 128 in Canton, near the Blueview Nurseries, Shurcliff claimed.
The alternate route would run west of the river and railroad, closer to the Norwood Airport, “thus opening for industrial use, a vast area . . . which otherwise would be almost inaccessible, he declared.
The Shurcliff plan proposes an interchange north of the airport, to provide both access to the potential development and to the centers of Norwood and Canton. The state route, he claimed, “does not provide a comparable interchange and consequently will be very difficult to reach from Norwood and Canton centers.”
Mon, May 28, 1962 – 24 · The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) · Newspapers.com