Rose Kennedy Greenway

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The Rose Kennedy Greenway is a series of parks and public spaces planned for downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It is the final part of the massive Central Artery/Tunnel Project (CA/T) (or Big Dig) that put Interstate 93 underground and removed the obsolete elevated freeway that served as the main highway through downtown for more than 40 years.

The Rose Kennedy Greenway was named in honor of Kennedy family matriarch Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, and officially dedicated on July 26, 2004, with members of the Kennedy family looking on, including U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the youngest of Rose Kennedy's children.

As recently as 2001, officials predicted a 2005 completion date for the park components of the Greenway. Due to numerous delays, cost overruns, and the Big Dig ceiling collapse, completion of the park parcels is now expected in 2007.^[1] Cultural institutions have been selected to build facilities between the parks, but these projects may not be complete for several years.

As the Greenway runs above an interstate highway, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority will retain ownership of most of the land. The non-profit Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy[1] was created jointly by the Turnpike Authority, the City of Boston, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to oversee maintenance, fundraising, and programming of the Greenway parks beginning in 2012 according to the original agreement signed in 2003 (subject to change).

[edit] Background

For more details on this topic, see Big Dig.

In the 1950s, the Central Artery was constructed through Boston's business district and some of its oldest neighborhoods. As a result, the waterfront and North End section of town (where Rose Kennedy was born) was cut off from the rest of the city. Traffic on the elevated roadway was congested because of its poor design with six total travel lanes, numerous on- and off-ramps, and no breakdown lanes. This prompted city and state civil engineers, led by Fred Salvucci, to investigate the idea of building a larger Artery underground during the 1970s.

Plans called for the tunnel to be built as the elevated Artery continued to be in service, then the Artery would be torn down and surface streets would be restored. It was decided that substantial portions of the Artery footprint become green space, as the historic waterfront, the North End, and the rest of the city become reconnected. The greenway was called an "urban jewel," a capstone on the CA/T project that would reward Bostonians and commuters for 15 years of disruption.

In 1991, construction began on the Big Dig. By 2004, the new I-93 tunnels were completed enough to close the old elevated artery. Demolition of the hulking superstructure began in earnest shortly thereafter.