Word: dpw
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Despite this, Francis Sargent, commissioner of the DPW, has said that he will inform Cambridge of his decision before sending any official route to Washington for approval. (The Inner Belt is part of the Inter-State Highway System, and the federal government picks up 90 per cent of the cost.) Sargent has said that he wants to get the best route for Cambridge and wants to cooperate with everybody...
Even if Sargent's words represent more than political tact, there are good reasons for believing that the DPW is intent on selecting the Brook-line-Elm Street route--the one that would wipe out 1000 to 1500 families and run right next to Central Square. First, it has been the route long championed by his agency. Second, plans for this route are farther along than for any other. And third, any other realistic alternative would run along the fringe of the M.I.T. campus; the political power of M.I.T., a venus flytrap for federal research contracts, is latent, but great...
...DPW originally offered--and tentatively rejected--two alternatives in this area. Now a group of private planners, known as the Cambridge Committee for the Inner Belt, has refined these plans and charged that the original DPW designs were drawn so as to make them unacceptable. Their new plans take less land, fewer jobs, and fewer homes (only 150, the committee claims). M.I.T. has remained mum on the Inner Belt; it has not made (nor has anyone else attempted to make) an objective analysis of the disruption the noise and vibrations from a large highway would have on experiments. Clearly...
...City has sent the alternative plans to a highly-respected Chicago firm of traffic consultants. If the consultants say the new designs are technically acceptable, and if the City officially adopts them as preferable to the Brookline-Elm Street route, the DPW will be forced to take a second look...
...quality of the City's opposition will also have a lot to do with the chances of the alternatives. Everyone knows Cambridge opposes the Inner Belt, and unless politicians--and, more importantly, residents--are able to demonstrate that this opposition is strong and determined, the DPW will be tempted to brush aside the alternatives. Even if the railroad alternatives prove unfeasible, public pressure may force the DPW to make the Brookline-Elm Street route as palatable as possible by altering the design and helping with relocation problems. Leaders of the public opposition to the Inner Belt ought to be prepared...