Airport: The Weak Link

It's been the weak link ever since I was a teenager: the creation of an east-west corridor. The original plan, which ended up being fulfilled by the Turnpike and bypassing Worcester entirely, pretty much sealed the Airport's fate. But then it got resurrected again with the planning for I-290, and finally resulted in a 90 degree bend in that road to show how it all worked out... that bend in the road is the "maybe someday" compromise.

Right there in Millbrook Valley, where the east to west Interstate takes a sharp turn and suddenly stops going west, and instead goes south to the Turnpike and I-395... I mentioned it back in February, and I even drew in a rough red line to show why it would never happen.

The city's most prized real estate would have to be sacrificed.

Nemeth even mentions it again today, "...The ultimate aim is to designate an east-west connector to establish highway access to the airport."

Of course, the ultimate aim was never a Worcester-centric plan at all. It was the State's plan for getting hefty federal appropriations to build that mid-state east to west highway that never happened.

That it stops at Worcester is the entirety of this story, from beginning to end.