Opening of Route 3

Route 3, the Northwest Expressway, was cut through the west and south of Billerica in the early 1950s as a limited access, four-lane divided highway, and opened in 1955; its widening to six lanes from 2001 to 2005 is told under Widening of Route 3. Before it, U.S. Route 3 between Boston and Lowell ran over the old roads through the town centers, in Billerica over Boston Road and Chelmsford Road, which became Route 3A. The new road, about six and a half miles long in Billerica, crossed farms and woodland from the Bedford and Burlington line to the Chelmsford line, bridged the Concord River in South Billerica, and made the land along it the town's main industrial district.

The town saw it coming. In 1949 the superintendent of schools, Edwin Martinson, expected that "when a new Lowell Turnpike is constructed through West and South Billerica as now planned, further population growth will undoubtedly occur." The Massachusetts Department of Public Works laid out the Billerica section as a limited access state highway in two layouts, No. 3937 of February 5, 1952 from the Bedford line, and No. 4072 of September 15, 1953 from the end of that layout to the Chelmsford line, whose plan fills twenty-seven sheets. The order of taking for the second layout, recorded on October 2, 1953 (Book 1236, Page 297), described the work as the limited access relocation of the Middlesex Turnpike "to become Route 3"; for much of its length the new road follows the general line of the Middlesex Turnpike of 1806, which had crossed the Concord River about a mile above the center bridge. The state took the land of the farms and woodlots in its path and laid out, for the town, new pieces of Concord Road, Rangeway Road, Winning Road and Treble Cove Road where they met the highway, and in May 1953 it changed the access at Manning Road and Eliot Street. Some owners were left with land on both sides: west of the river the state built a small bridge so that a farm road, now Farm Road, could pass under the highway.

Construction ran from 1952 to 1955. The bridges in Billerica were built in 1953: a pair of reinforced concrete deck arches over the Concord River, each of two 79-foot spans, designed by the engineer Hugh P. Duffill (Route 3 Bridge over the Concord River); steel overpasses carrying Concord Road, Rangeway Road, Treble Cove Road and Manning Road over the highway; the Route 3 Bridge over Farm Road; and a culvert at Mill Brook (Route 3 Mill Brook Culvert). In their report for 1953 the selectmen wrote that "it would be wise to install water mains at junctions of our town roads and the new Route 3," and the annual meeting of 1954 voted $21,750 "for the purpose of reimbursing the State for the Town's share of expense in construction of roadways and watermains at the overpasses on Concord Road, Rangeway Road and Treble Cove Road," the selectmen judging that "the Town could not hope to do this work for this figure." The extension from Chelmsford south to Route 128 in Burlington opened to traffic in 1955. The town discontinued the old piece of Concord Road cut off by the highway, between the "easterly location line of state highway Route 3" and the Old Middlesex Turnpike, by a unanimous vote in 1965.

The highway changed what the town did with its land. In 1955 the warrant carried articles to rezone for industry the land "located on the new Route 3" between Treble Cove Road and Rangeway Road, to a line 2,000 feet west of the highway, and asked the selectmen to petition the state for "a half cloverleaf, to be constructed at the Rangeway Road overpass, to allow development of the land already zoned for business and industry located in this vicinity of the new Lowell Turnpike"; no interchange was built there. The new zoning by-law of November 1955 used "new limited access State Highway Route 3" as a district boundary. The Industrial Commission, organized on November 21, 1957, set out "to rezone parcels of land along Route 3," and in 1960 seven of its eight rezoning articles were voted. That year it put up "Elbow Room" signs on Route 3 to advertise the town to industry, and Representative Stanley J. Bocko carried through the House a bill to transfer state land on Route 3 to the town for industrial use, which failed in the Senate. The annual meeting of March 1961 voted additional industrial land for the Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company, which built a large plant on the west side of the highway near Concord Road in the 1960s. Industrial subdivisions followed along the road, among them the Treble Cove Industrial Park of 1969, between Treble Cove Road and Route 3, and the Billerica Industrial Park of 1970 on Chelmsford Road. The road also brought the commuters of the Postwar Housing Boom, and in 1964 the commission was urging that Route 3 be carried on into Boston to the Inner Belt, which was never built.

People

• Edwin A. Martinson: Superintendent of Schools who in 1949 forecast the growth the planned Lowell Turnpike would bring.
• Stanley J. Bocko: State representative who in 1960 carried through the House a bill to transfer state land on Route 3 to the town for industry.
• Arthur A. Curry: Chairman of the Industrial Commission from November 1960, which rezoned land along Route 3 and put up the Elbow Room signs.

References

1. 1949 school report (Edwin Martinson): growth expected 'when a new Lowell Turnpike is constructed through West and South Billerica as now planned.'
2. Massachusetts state highway layouts in Billerica: Route 3 layouts 3937 (Feb. 5, 1952) and 4072 (Sept. 15, 1953), the 1953 town road relocations, and later alterations to 2002.
3. 1953 report, Selectmen: water mains at the junctions of town roads with the new Route 3; the town could not do the work for $21,750.
4. Warrant in the 1953 report: Art. 38, $21,750 to reimburse the State for the town's share at the overpasses on Concord, Rangeway and Treble Cove Roads.
5. 1954 report: appropriations voted, Art. 38, 'Water Main New Highway' $21,750.
6. 1955 warrant, Art. 29: rezoning for industry the land 'located on the new Route 3' between Treble Cove and Rangeway Roads.
7. 1955 warrant, Art. 50: petition for a half cloverleaf at the Rangeway Road overpass of the new Lowell Turnpike.
8. 1960 report, Industrial Commission (Arthur A. Curry, chairman): rezoning along Route 3, seven of eight articles voted; Bocko bill for state land on Route 3; Elbow Room signs.
9. 1961 report, Industrial Commission: rezoning articles voted in March 1961, including more land for Minneapolis-Honeywell; Honeywell to build in 1962.
10. 1964 report, Industrial Commission: Minneapolis-Honeywell; extension of Route 3 to the Inner Belt urged.
11. 1965 report: Art. 73 voted unanimously, discontinuing old Concord Road between the Route 3 location line and the Old Middlesex Turnpike.
12. Steve Anderson, Northwest Expressway (US 3): 1941 Chelmsford bypass, 1955 opening south to Route 128, 2001-2005 widening.
13. Wikipedia, 'U.S. Route 3 in Massachusetts': Northwest Expressway history and exit list (Concord Road exit 76, Treble Cove Road exit 78).