The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway is a roughly 1.5-mile-long (2.4 km) long[1] series of parks and public spaces being created in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, USA. It is the final part of the Big Dig that put Interstate 93 underground and removed the elevated freeway that served as the main highway through downtown for more than 40 years. The Greenway was named in honor of Kennedy family matriarch Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, and officially dedicated on July 26, 2004.
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, they were completed in 2007.[2] Cultural institutions have been selected to build facilities between the parks, but these projects have also stalled, and park planners have begun exploring an approach that would limit construction on the Greenway.[3]
As the Greenway runs above an interstate highway, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation retains ownership of most of the land. The non-profit Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy was created jointly by the former Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, the City of Boston, and the state to oversee maintenance, fundraising, and programming of the Greenway parks beginning in 2012 according to the original agreement signed in 2003 (subject to change).
The Greenway officially opened on October 4, 2008.
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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 central artery. Demolition of the hulking superstructure began in earnest shortly thereafter.
The most diverse landscape on The Greenway was installed by The Massachusetts Horticultural Society, who had the designation to create The Greenway Gardens, designed by The Halvorson Design. With the help of passionate volunteers and horticultural professionals, and supported by interested residents, workers and visitors, Mass Hort installed twenty-one specimen trees, hundreds of shrubs and over three thousand perennials and annuals, at no cost to the City of Boston or the RFK Greenway Conservancy. Exceeding all expectations, Mass Hort Greenway Gardens Chair Diane Valle and Project Manager Joe Kunkel continued to add four season enhancements to the six acre gardens, located from The Moakley Bridge to South Station. Ten thousand daffodils, provided by Brent and Becky, and planted by volunteers welcome Spring to The Greenway Gardens.
During the years of pre-construction planning and design many public art Projects were conceived and developed through the Artery Arts Program. The majority of these proposals were not funded. With the efforts of community stakeholders working with MTA Architecture and Urban Design, an artwork by May Sun and a water feature were completed for the Chinatown Park; the interactive Harbor Fog Fountain by Ross Miller, and the Rings Fountain created for the central Wharf District Parks. In the North End Parks the natural grade change of the site is emphasized by a linear water feature by Kathryn Gustafson that references an 18th Century industrial canal that once connected this part of Boston to Boston Harbor.
Landscape design in the North End Parks, Wharf District Parks, and area near Dewey Square includes extensive use of native meadow plants that provide insect and bird habitat and require less water use than traditional urban landscape plantings. The majority of the planted area of the Greenway can be thought of as an intensive type green roof, with a soil depth from 18" to over 48" built up on top of a waterproof roof membrane and drainage system that protect the concrete tunnel structures below.
October 4, 2008 marked the official opening of the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy with a park-wide celebration. Along the Greenway, from the North End to Chinatown, there were interactive educational exhibits, local musicians, art, food, cultural performances, guided tours, games, a Ferris wheel, traditional as well as cell-phone enabled treasure hunts, and children's activities.