Storrow Drive

The segment between the interchange with Route 28 near Copley Square and Leverett Circle, the road is officially David G. Mugar Way (formerly Embankment Road), although still signed as Storrow Drive. The entirety of this segment is concurrent with Route 28. To the west, Storrow Drive ends and becomes Soldiers Field Road at its partial junction with the Boston University Bridge (Route 2). In between, westbound Storrow Drive has a junction with the Harvard Bridge (Route 2A, Massachusetts Avenue).

Both Storrow Drive and Soldiers Field Road are maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and are part of the parkway system interconnecting the Emerald Necklace in Boston and Brookline. Together with Memorial Drive and the Cambridge Parkway, Storrow Drive is also part of the Charles River Basin Historic District (listed in the National Register of Historic Places). Prior to 1989, Storrow Drive also carried the U.S. Route 1 designation; US 1 is now routed concurrently with Interstate 93 through the O'Neill Tunnel.

File:Storrowandcitgo.JPG

The road is notorious for speeding and aggressive driving because police enforcement along the road is difficult without a breakdown lane. Radio traffic reports have warned motorists about "ponding" on Storrow Drive, which occurs when snow and frozen ground prevent water from draining properly into storm drains.{{cite news |last1=Quinn |first1=Garrett |title=Right lane reopened in flooded Storrow Drive eastbound tunnel in Boston |url=https://www.masslive.com/news/boston/2013/12/right_lane_reopened_in_storrow.html |access-date=1 September 2024 |work=MassLive |date=19 December 2013 |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=Epstein |first1=David |title=Weekend nor'easter brings rain and some wind |url=https://www.boston.com/weather/weather/2014/03/28/weekend_noreaster_brings_rain/ |access-date=1 September 2024 |work=Boston.com |date=March 28, 2014}} The underpasses also commonly flood during heavy rains, sometimes stalling low-riding cars.{{Cite web|url=http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2015/08/31/has-boston-outsmarted-storrowing/mVgQ1trEmd1ss7ZVkBxe9H/story.html|title=Has Boston outsmarted Storrowing?}} Additional problems include narrow lanes and very limited visibility on short entrance ramps.

During some summer night concerts at the Hatch Shell, many drivers park their cars in the outbound lanes of Storrow Drive. The free concerts and fireworks displays attract 200,000 people, and many take advantage of the free parking.

There is an abundance of signs giving road clearance height.{{cite web|url=https://aknextphase.com/when-back-to-school-getting-storrowed/|title=When Back to School = Getting Storrowed|last=Kaplan|first=Aline|date=August 21, 2018|work=The Next Phase Blog|access-date=September 28, 2019}} Despite the signs, a truck or other large vehicle will periodically get wedged under a bridge, which causes traffic to back up for several miles. In one incident a truck full of scissors became stuck and spilled its cargo, causing more than 30 cars to get flat tires. There is a {{convert|10|foot|m}} height limit for the entire parkway.[http://www2.cambridgema.gov/cityClerk/PolicyOrder.cfm?action=search&item_id=39823&pv=Yes Cambridge, MA policy order resolution], February 11, 2013. Local media has taken to referring to these kinds of accidents as a truck being "Storrowed",[http://www.universalhub.com/topics/driving/storrowed Universal Hub] and the city of Boston has annual advisories in August to those renting box trucks for college move-ins to avoid the city's low-clearance parkway system, including Storrow Drive.{{cite news|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/08/21/drive-cannot-drive-moving-truck-storrow-drive-you-cannot-drive-moving-truck-storrow-drive-you-cannot-drive-moving-truck-storrow/CTru6tikV8Nn7oeLpFA9OL/story.html|title=You cannot drive a moving truck on Storrow Drive. You cannot drive a moving truck on Storrow Drive. You cannot drive a moving truck on Storrow Drive|last=Annear|first=Steve|date=August 21, 2019|work=The Boston Globe|access-date=September 28, 2019}} Traditionally, locals have often blamed the "Storrowing" incidents on college students,{{Cite web|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/08/25/don-get-storrowed-officials-advise-college-students-flocking-city/B8XXjnTdXr4vpYnqVP5lLK/story.html|title=Don't get 'Storrowed,' officials advise college students flocking to city|website=The Boston Globe}} but many accidents have involved professional truck drivers using phone GPS units meant for passenger cars.{{Cite web|url=https://www.boston.com/news/technology/2014/09/26/can-we-blame-the-gps-for-storrow-truck-accidents/|title=Can We Blame the GPS for Storrow Truck Accidents?|first=Adam|last=Vaccaro|website=www.boston.com}} Many companies local to Boston train their drivers on how to avoid "Storrowing",{{Cite web|url=https://saferesponsiblemovers.com/greater-boston-moving-company/safe-responsible-on-nbc-10-segment-on-storrow-drive-storrowing/|title=How to avoid "Storrowing" - How the best Boston Movers do it|first=Safe Responsible|last=Movers|date=October 28, 2022}} but truck drivers from other areas may not know about the low clearances.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/09/04/34-trucks-stuck-on-storrow-drive-last-month/|title=34 trucks stuck on Storrow Drive last month|first=Amy|last=Sokolow|date=September 4, 2021}}

Because Storrow Drive is a high-speed road way, pedestrian access is limited to only the Charles River side of the road. To connect the Charles River Esplanade and Storrow Drive (a popular park and recreational area along the south bank of the river) to adjacent Boston neighborhoods, a number of pedestrian overpasses have been constructed. Listed in order from downstream to upstream, they are:{{cite web|last1=Cherubino|first1=Penny|last2=Cherubino|first2=Ed|title=How to Get to the Esplanade from Boston|url=http://www.bostonzest.com/2010/06/how-to-get-to-the-esplanade-from-boston.html|website=Boston Zest|access-date=August 20, 2015|date=June 29, 2010}}{{cite web|title=Getting to the Park|url=http://www.esplanadeassociation.org/about-the-park/getting-there/|website=The Esplanade Association|access-date=August 20, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924002214/http://www.esplanadeassociation.org/about-the-park/getting-there/|archive-date=September 24, 2015}}

• Blossom Street bridge (near Massachusetts General Hospital)
• Frances Appleton Bridge (at Cambridge Street, next to Longfellow Bridge)
• Arthur Fiedler Bridge (connecting to the Hatch Memorial Shell near Arlington Street)
• Dartmouth Street bridge
• Fairfield Street bridge
• Harvard Bridge (at Massachusetts Avenue)
• Silber Way bridge
• Boston University Marsh Chapel bridge
• Boston University Bridge

Between 1958 and 1971, Storrow Drive was designated Massachusetts Routes C1 and C9.{{cite web|title=1938 Map of Boston|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1938_Map_of_Greater_Boston.jpg|publisher=WCVB / MassDOT|access-date=February 27, 2018}}

James Storrow had been instrumental in earlier projects along the Charles River, in particular the Charles River Dam. Additions to the Charles River Esplanade had been made during the 1930s only by omitting an important part of the project, a proposed highway from the Longfellow Bridge to the Cottage Farm (Boston University) Bridge, which had provoked tremendous protest.{{cite book |title=Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston|first=Nancy S.|last=Seasholes|year=2003|publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=0-262-19494-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/gaininggroundhis0000seas/page/206 206] |oclc=470179960 |url=https://archive.org/details/gaininggroundhis0000seas|url-access=registration}} After Helen Storrow, the wife of the now deceased James Storrow, supported a group opposed to the highway, it was dropped; part of the funding was to have come from a million-dollar gift from her."Fight begins on $4,855,000 Basin Project", Boston Evening Transcript, March 6, 1929. Soon after Helen Storrow's death in 1944, a new proposal for the construction of the highway was pushed through the Massachusetts Legislature. In spite of still strong opposition, and through some dubious parliamentary procedures, the bill approving construction of the highway and naming it after James Storrow was passed in 1949."Embankment Road approved by House in stormy session", The Boston Globe, April 29, 1949.

Construction took place in the years 1950–1951. As part of the attempt to preserve park land, any land used by the highway had to be replaced by reclaiming new land along the shoreline.Massachusetts General Court Acts of 1949, Chap. 262 Storrow Drive was officially opened in a ribbon cutting ceremony by Governor Paul A. Dever on June 15, 1951.{{cite news

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1951/06/16/archives/massachusetts-road-opened.html

|title=Massachusetts Road Opened

|work=The New York Times

|date=June 16, 1951

|at=Sports section, Page 13

|access-date=February 22, 2007}}

An on-ramp leading from southbound Massachusetts Avenue to eastbound Storrow Drive was constructed but later removed, leaving an island of greenspace between the inbound and outbound carriageways. Overpasses to Fenway via Charlesgate and in the vicinity of Massachusetts General Hospital were completed a few years later; the Arthur Fiedler Footbridge was completed in 1953. In 1960, high-pressure air from a sewage tunnel under construction caused a geyser-like eruption and damaged the roadway near the BU bridge. The pedestrian overpass near the Longfellow Bridge was constructed in 1962. A "Reverse Curve" sign near downtown was vandalized to say "Reverse the Curse", a reference to the Curse of the Bambino; the sign was removed after the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series.{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}

{{Update|section|date=April 2023}}

The Storrow Drive Tunnel, through which Storrow Drive runs along the Esplanade just north of Clarendon, Berkeley and Arlington Streets, has been deteriorating since it was built in 1951. By mid-2007, the Department of Conservation and Recreation determined that repairing the tunnel may be impossible because it was not waterproofed when it was built, and damage in the intervening years has been significant. Consequently the tunnel may have to be rebuilt at a cost upward of $200 million, a project that would require closing critical sections of Storrow Drive to traffic.{{cite news |url=http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/07/24/storrow_tunnel_may_need_replacing/ |title=Storrow Tunnel may need replacing |work=The Boston Globe

|date=July 24, 2007

|access-date=May 5, 2008}}

Despite the chaos this project would cause to drivers, it also could present an opportunity for the city to improve the area.{{Editorializing|date=April 2023}} For example, former Boston Mayor Thomas Menino proposed covering Storrow Drive near the pedestrian Arthur Fiedler Bridge, replacing the old overpass with a wide, ground-level park space that would better connect the green space of Boston's Public Garden with the Esplanade.{{cite news |url=http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2008/03/19/new_vision_over_storrow_drive/ |title=New vision over Storrow Drive |work=The Boston Globe |date=March 19, 2008 |access-date=May 5, 2008}}

Other plans for the road propose closing it to traffic on Sunday mornings in the summer, much as is done across the river on Memorial Drive in Cambridge. This would create a recreational area for walking, biking and roller blading on weekends, though this has been criticized as unnecessary due to the presence of the nearby Esplanade paths and the existing Memorial Drive road closure. Regardless, Storrow Drive east of Massachusetts Avenue is usually closed to traffic and open to pedestrians and cyclists during the Independence Day (July 4) celebration at the Esplanade.{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}

Mileposts continue east from Soldiers Field Road. The entire route is in Boston, Suffolk County. {{jcttop|state=MA|county=Suffolk|hatnote=off|length_ref={{Google maps |url=https://www.google.com/maps/dir/42.3585489,-71.1596251/42.3513966,-71.106537/@42.3569323,-71.1385875,14z/data=!4m9!4m8!1m5!3m4!1m2!1d-71.1474922!2d42.3607028!3s0x89e3782c536c46f5:0x9e90d0fadc9818a1!1m0!3e0 |title=Soldiers Field Road |access-date=November 23, 2014}}{{google maps |url=https://www.google.com/maps/dir/42.3513966,-71.106537/42.3655551,-71.0690242/@42.3620343,-71.0840089,14z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m10!3m4!1m2!1d-71.091729!2d42.3511864!3s0x89e37a03839f8439:0x52f636d3c410d52e!3m4!1m2!1d-71.0760696!2d42.3552844!3s0x89e37a0a80ae94bd:0xe2fa5124a22006c2!1m0!3e0 |title=Storrow Drive and David G. Mugar Way |access-date=November 23, 2014}}|unnum=yes}}

{{Jctint

|location_special=Fenway–Kenmore

|lspan=2

|mile=4.1

|mspan=2

|road=Soldiers Field Road west – Newton, Watertown

|notes=Continuation beyond University Road}}

{{Jctint

|mile=none

|type=incomplete

|road=University Road – Brookline

|notes=Eastbound exit and entrance; serves Boston University; to US 20}}

{{Jctint

|location_special=Back Bay

|lspan=4

|mile=4.9

|road=Kenmore Square, Fenway

|notes=Access via Charlesgate; former alignment of US 1}}

{{Jctint

|mile=5.0

|type=incomplete

|road={{jct|state=MA|MA|2A|dir1=west|city1=Cambridge|city2=Arlington}}

|notes=Westbound exit only}}

{{Jctint

|mile=5.6

|type=trans

|road={{jct|state=MA|MA|28|dir1=south|location1=Copley Square|location2=Back Bay}}

|notes=Route 28 continues south; Storrow Drive becomes David G. Mugar Way

}}

{{Jctint

|mile=5.8

|type=incomplete

|road=Downtown Boston

|notes=Eastbound exit only

}}

{{Jctint

|location_special=Beacon Hill

|mile=6.2

|type=trans

|road={{jct|state=MA|MA|3|dir1=north|location1=Government Center|location2=Kendall Square|city3=Cambridge}}

|notes=Route 3 continues north

}}

{{Jctint

|location_special=West End

|lspan=3

|mile=6.5

|type=incomplete

|road={{jct|state=MA|I|93|US|1|dir1=north|dir2=north|location1=Tobin Bridge|location2=Concord, NH}}

|notes=Eastbound exit only (via tunnel)

}}

{{Jctint

|mile=6.6

|mspan=2

|type=trans

|road={{jct|state=MA|MA|28|dir1=north|name1=O'Brien Highway|road|Martha Road|city1=Cambridge|city2=Stoneham|location3=North Station}}

|notes=Route 28 continues north via Charles River Dam Road

}}

{{Jctint

|mile=none

|type=trans

|road={{jct|state=MA|I|93|US|1|MA|3|dir3=south|location1=Tobin Bridge|location2=Concord, NH|city3=Quincy|location4=Logan Airport|extra=airport}}

|notes=Leverett Circle; Route 3 continues south; northbound exit via Leverett Connector; Exit 18 on I-93 / US 1

}}

{{jctbtm|keys=incomplete,trans}}

• Charles River Bike Path
• Charles River Reservation
• List of crossings of the Charles River
• Memorial Drive, on the opposite side of the river in Cambridge

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://www.bostonroads.com/roads/storrow/ Storrow Drive] on Steve Anderson's BostonRoads.com
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MriF1morfU Storrow Drive: Boston, MA]—YouTube video, Freewayjim, 2012-09-21

{{Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston}}

{{Streets and squares in Boston}}

Category:Parkways in Massachusetts

Category:Streets in Boston

Category:U.S. Route 1