Why is 295 routed this way

[Nathan Miller]

Only tangentially PBPAC related, but this group has such a great accumulated knowledge base to draw upon... As I was pondering pedestiran and transit connections for the new proposed Roux campus I noticed something that I'd never really picked up on before: 

Can anybody tell me why 295 does the eastward jog just north of Tukey's bridge, only to come back into nearly a straight-line with Tukey's?

Was it to avoid conflicts with railroad lines? Influence of one neighborhood vs another? Previous iterations of the bridge didn't line up with today's version? 

Thanks, 

Nate

[George Rheault]

The path of 295 spawned an ongoing battle from the early 1940s thru its completion in the early 1970s but I suspect you are correct it was about not disturbing the substantial railyard that once was a powerful part of Portland's economic engine (big cattle stockyards once existed there for Canadian beef trade as well as other less than savory industry).   The West Enders made sure it wasn't too close to them (Sorry Libbytown!) and at the end there was some guff about the Deering Oaks taking (the former swamp/creek really could not complain too much as it had been filled in long before the highway).

 

Vol 2 - 1954 edition of the fire insurance maps shows what East Deering once looked like. 

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Portland, Cumberland County, Maine. | Library of Congress (loc.gov)

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[Christian MilNeil]

I think I can take a crack at that one: the East Deering section of 295 pre-dates the interstate system, and was designed as a bypass of the neighborhood as part of Route 1 to the old Martin's Point Bridge:

https://www.mainememory.net/artifact/20937

Christian MilNeil
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On Wed, Feb 9, 2022 at 10:24 AM Nathan Miller <nmil...@msn.com> wrote:

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[George Rheault]

The East Deering/Tukey's Bridge work in the mid-1950s was simply the first phase of what became 295 and was fully intended as part of the overall interstate network (paid for with state/federal money of course).

Attached are some pages from the late 1950s explaining it.  Sorry I don't have time to fix the original side scan. 

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[Zack Barowitz]

I would love some day to do a panel lecture on 295. A few tidbits:

- the Wikipedia entry is helpful. The first phase was the Falmouth spur that demolished no homes. It was a commuter convenience that corresponded

To the depopulation of Portland. 

- Abraham at the Portland Room at the library said the original plan was to have 295 further out but they put it when it is to assure the unions of maximum demolition of underserved neighborhoods. Standard practice of the time. 

Zack 

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