Word: callahans
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...late January, Volpe proposed an alternate route (a freeway west of the B & A) and almost threw a bomb into Callahan's works. If the expressway were to follow the Volpe route, it would not pass under the Center. Since any change at all in the expressway plans would have drawn a considerable amount of Prudential blood, the company's executives laid down an ultimatum. They did not care what kind of road (viz. free or toll) went through, so long as it went underneath the Center. Without a clarifying decision from the Supreme Judicial Court before its summer recess...
...first power plays as governor, Volpe demanded a freeway because "our motorists and our economy demand immediate action." But, in a sudden "compromise" with Callahan on February 4, Volpe agreed to a toll road down the B & A. Said he: "At this time it was a choice between a freeway and the Prudential Center. In view of the importance of the Center, I cannot in good conscience stand...
After the Callahan-Volpe pact, attention shifted to Mayor Gibbs of Newton, who had been an opponent of the toll road since its inception. Although reconciled to the need for a link between the Massachusetts Pike and Boston, Gibbs championed a freeway that would edge Waltham and Watertown, that would go down along the banks of the Charles River and thereby reduce large tax losses that might result from the demolition of industrial and residential property in Newton...
When Gibbs saw that the fate of the Prudential depended on a road down the B & A, and that the Callahan-Volpe deal ensured a toll road, he agreed to compromise. In return for certain changes in the route from Weston to a point in Watertown near the Perkins School for the Blind, he would withdraw his objections and certain litigation proceedings that he had initiated with the Interstate Commerce Commission. He maintained that there was no reason why a new route from Perkins to 128 could not be considered, a route that would not interfere with the Prudential...
Statesmen for the Authority have emphasized that it is impossible to institute the changes that Gibbs demands. The route, product of "years of study and thousands of hours quizzing motorists," has been created for demonstrated needs. Any change at all, said the Callahan forces, will threaten the Prudential project, which represents about 50,000 jobs...