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Flooding shuts Spring Street, VFW Parkway in West Roxbury

BPD is turning people aroun' so they don't drown on Spring Street in front of the Star Market, while State Police are turning people back on VFW Parkway near the West Roxbury Education Complex, because of the deep downpours this evening.

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Comments

At least there wasn’t any flash flooding...

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Whose idea was it to give a school this name, which abbreviates as WREC ?

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Back in ancient times (LOL!) when there used to be a train bridge at that intersection (**) you would not always see the water pooled there and it would result in multiple cars and even buses getting stuck and stalled at that location.

While the drainage system was improved, there are limitations to things.

** Up through the late 1950s and early 1960s there was a railroad bridge there that crossed from the large granite wall (which held up one side of the bridge) over to the current Star Market parking lot at a slight angle. The tracks, long since removed, had connected behind the Star Market to the current Needham branch line. This bridge was part of the ill-fated route of the steam train traveling from Dedham Center to Forest Hills that resulted in the Bussey Street Bridge disaster.

If you ever get the chance, there is a historical art-wall map of the area from days gone by in the community meeting room at the West Roxbury Library that shows what the area once looked like. The Star Market lot was at one time a freight rail yard where boxcars were switched and moved about the area. It was a large "wye" where trains could be switched on and off the Needham Branch onto the Dedham Branch.

There is nothing left of the former Dedham branch which paralleled Belle Ave for some distance, eventually crossing through what is now the Dedham Mall, under Washington St (behind Lowes) and eventually coming out to the Dedham Center "wye" which is now the soccer field. You can somewhat follow the route on Google Satellite View or Google Earth since there are some very straight-lines of trees along the former route now. That space between McDonalds (VFW Pky) and the private homes behind there is part of where the track once ran. There is also a remnant of the rail bed behind the building where the Laser tag place is as well.

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Is it now used as a walking path? How feasible would it be to convert into a formal rail trail, paved or unpaved?

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It's a sore topic in the town.

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I could be wrong, but I think the T just finally sold the land, at least in the West Roxbury stretch, to the abutters (about ten years ago, I did walk it, from Spring Street down to, hmm, Baker maybe, and you could tell people were already claiming parts of it, anyway).

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I know about the bridge abutments (there's one in Dedham just before Milton St.) but I didn't really realize that the connection was made to the Readville yards from the Needham line. (At the soccer field I think)
There's a section of rail still under the parking lot pavement near where the old Lappens Auto was (near the Tahiti). I don't know if that's the Laser Tag place you're talking about.
I guess that answers the question,"Why New Haven St.?"

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