State DPW Rejects Inner Belt Delay

Francis W. Sargent, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Works, said yesterday that he would announce a Cambridge route for the Inner Belt before the middle of this month.

He thus rejected the City government's plea to delay his decision until a new study of the need for the eight-lane highway could be made. The City Council had contended, in a motion passed Monday, that the possible reduction of tolls on the Boston segment of the Massachusetts Turnpike might eliminate any need for the Inner Belt.

DPW's Mandate

A spokesman for Sargent said yesterday, however, that the DPW is under a "mandate" to build the road. The department had been prepared in December to recommend a route, he said, but postponed their recommendation at the City's request.

The time for delays has come to an end, the spokesman indicated. "It's not fair to the people of Cambridge... Sargent feels that if he had a home out there, he'd like to know whether it'd be affected."

Most observers believe that the DPW will now select the Brookline-Elm St. route for the Belt. This path, long favored by the state agency, passes within several blocks of Central Square and would uproot between 3000 and 5000 people.

The City Council had been urged to recommend an alternative to this route, but Monday merely asked for a delay. Without expressing preference for any route, it sent plans for different locations of the highway to the DPW for consideration. The plans were drawn by a private committee and by consultants to the City Council.

The Council also resolved to travel to Washington to lobby against the Inner Belt. Yesterday's action by the DPW appeared not to have changed resolve.

"I'd say we'd better get to Washington pretty fast," Thomas Coates, chairman of the Council's special committee on the Inner Belt, said. The trip will probably be made either Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, he added.

A Phaianx to D.C.

Representatives from Somerville, Brookline, and Boston--all affected by the Belt--are being urged to accompany the Cambridge councillors to the capital. The Somerville mayor has agreed to go. Cambridge Mayor Daniel J. Hayes Jr. was unable to contact his counterparts in Boston and Brookline yesterday and will try to do so today.

In Washington, the Council will speak to Rep. Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill (D-Cambridge), and Senators Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.) and Leverett Saltonstall '14 (R-Mass.). They will also present their case before Rex M. Whitton, administrator of the Bureau of Public Roads. The federal federal government will pay 90 per cent of the costs of the Inner Belt.

"We're in Touch"

Sargent will probably not go to Washington, unless the Council invites him, a DPW spokesman said. "The Bureau knows our side of the story--we're in touch with them all the time," he added.