Cape Cod History

1982: Cape Cod farmer wins a twenty-five year battle for her road

On this day in 1982 Hope Ingersoll got her road. ''I think it's true that you can fight City Hall,'' Mrs. Ingersoll said after hearing the news.

October 10, 1982

FARMER WINS 25-YEAR FIGHT OVER CAPE ROAD

In 1957, Hope Ingersoll began a fight to prevent state officials from running a highway through her family's farmland to help vacationers get to Cape Cod.

Mrs. Ingersoll, who is now 77-years-old, finally prevailed Thursday when state transportation officials announced that they had adopted her plan to run the final 2.5-mile section of Route 25 around most of Grazing Fields Farm, her property. State officials said the decision, forced by environmental consideration, would eventually save many Cape Cod travelers up to two hours of delay on peak summer weekends.

''I think it's true that you can fight City Hall,'' Mrs. Ingersoll said after hearing the news. ''But you've got to have a lot of persistence, and help-and luck. We started this long before anyone was worried about the environment. We don't use pesticides. We have always been concerned with protecting the land.''

U.S. Has the Last Word

The 25-year highway battle has run into millions of dollars in inflated road construction costs for the state, thousands of dollars in legal costs for the Ingersoll family and summer after summer of traffic tie-ups and overheated cars.

Federal approval is still needed for the revised plan before the Government can supply 75 percent of the money to complete Route 25, said William J. Rizzo Jr., the State Assistant Secretary of Transportation.

He said he expected that by 1986 many motorists heading for the cape will be saving 20 minutes in off-season months to two hours on peak summer weekends.

When state officials proposed the highway in 1957, Mrs. Ingersoll raised questions about its effect on the 900-acre farm where her family has milked cows, cut hay and raised ponies, sheep, cattle and chickens since 1907.

The state wanted motorists to skirt a 7.5-mile strip of combined Routes 6-28 in Wareham, a town with 102 tourist stops that suffers from some of the Cape area's worst traffic jams.

Motorists would swing north of Routes 6-28, then go directly down through the Ingersoll farm to the Bourne Bridge and the start of Cape Cod.

''They wanted to build the road 17 feet in the air, right through the pasture and alfalfa field, right near the barn,'' Mrs. Ingersoll said. ''It would spoil the peace, the beauty, the whole atmosphere of the place. I don't want to impede progress. But I don't want to ruin the farm.'

Came Up With Her Own Plan

But Mrs. Ingersoll agreed that a new road was needed, and she hired architects to design a new alternative route that would wind 1,100 feet farther east. That route, she said, would minimize the road's impact on her alfalfa fields, ponds, salt marshes and cranberry bogs.

The state insisted that its route was shorter, cheaper and safer since the alternative route had a sharper curve. Officials decided to build 26 miles of the highway, from Bridgewater to the northern edge of the Ingersoll farm, then wait for a court order allowing them to complete the road.

Those 26 miles were completed, and for years vacationers have had to detour back to Routes 6 and 28. In 1978 state officials reaffirmed the decision to route the road close to the middle of the farm, but tougher Federal environmental laws had been enacted, and Mrs. Ingersoll appealed.

In 1980 a judge ordered a new environmental impact statement, which the state was working on when it decided to give in and use the route suggested by Mrs. Ingersoll.