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History of the ‘Blue Route’

Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors, July 2022
                              PennDOT map showing three proposed routes

Photos courtesy of Newtown Square Historical Society 

Newtown was a sleepy country crossroads for much of its history. Today, it is two miles from I-476. And if different choices had been made, the interstate highway would have crossed right through the eastern portion of the Township. The highway known by some as the “Blue Route” had its roots in regional planning starting in the 1920s. Planning accelerated in the 1950s with the explosive growth of the suburbs and the need for quicker routes through Delaware County, to take pressure off local two-lane north-south roads, Rte. 252 and Rte. 320, that had served the area since the 1700s. 

1983 view looking east down Bergdoll Hill, prior to construction of interchange

Planners came up with three possible routes through the county, color coded red, blue and green. As with many public improvement projects, everyone wanted the benefits, but no one wanted the highway in their backyard. The Green Route would have entered Newtown near the Community College campus, crossed the Dunwoody property and then run east of Bryn Mawr Avenue into Radnor. In 1960, the Blue Route was chosen, over opposition. Governor Scranton approved the choice in 1963, over opposition. The final plan received federal approval in 1965, over opposition. Ground was broken in 1966, and sections were built through Marple and Haverford. Those sections sat unused for 25 years, other than by area teenagers. Delays increased the price tag from $30 million in 1956 to an estimated $173 million. 

The enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 gave opponents a new tool to fight the highway — Environmental Impact Statements and related court challenges. In 1980, a task force recommended a scaled down version reducing the roadway from six to four lanes south of the West Chester Pike interchange. That proposal was approved by the Federal Highway Administration; and legal appeals followed. While the appeals wound their way through courts, in 1979 the first section opened between the Schuylkill Expressway at Conshohocken and Chemical Road in Plymouth Meeting. 

In 1986 the US Supreme Court upheld a decision to allow construction to proceed. On December 19, 1991, the Blue Route fully opened to traffic, connecting I-95 in Chester with the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Plymouth Meeting. The final cost of the planned $30 million highway? $750 million. For Newtown residents, the benefits were instantaneous—the airport, I-95, the Walt Whitman Bridge and South Jersey and the Turnpike were all now a 20-minute drive at 65 miles per hour. 

For more history on Newtown Square, Delaware County, and Newtown Square Historical Society (NSHS) membership information and events, please visit the NSHS website: www.NSHistory.org. And see this magazine’s Calendar of Events for upcoming NSHS-sponsored events.


About The Author

Newtown Square Historical Society