Massachusetts
Route Expressway Exit Lists
New
and Former Exit Numbers*
Work on
all State Route exits to be renumbered was completed on April 13, 2021
On November 18,
2019 MassDOT announced it would convert the state's limited access
highway exit numbers to the Geographic Reference or Milepost Exit
Numbering system between late summer 2020
and late spring 2021. This follows
a four year delay for the project originally announced in fall of 2015 (Project No.
608024) that would have converted the state's limited access highway's
exit numbers in 2016 and 2017.
The new project appears to be similar to the
earlier one in that it will start converting exits west to east (and
each highway north to south or east to west) over probably a 2 year
period. Differences include that it will be proceeded by a public
information campaign and the creation of a new website that will
provide information on the new exit numbers. Also, this project will
not include the Lowell Connector or MA 213, due to the small number
and/or close proximity of the exits, nor MA 28 or MA 57 where there
are currently no exit numbers. On September 10, 2020 MassDOT announced
the project would start on October 18 and be completed by the summer
of 2021. MA 140, instead of I-91 as originally announced in 2019, was
the first route to receive new exit numbers. The last state route to
get new numbers was Route 2, work was completed the morning of April
13, 2021.
The following lists have the current exit
number, new or not, depending on whether the route's exits were
changed, and the former sequential number, for those that were changed
in 2020 or 2021. I include a key to the exit renumbering contract for
each route listed, ERC=Exit Renumbering Contract (1-Winning
bidder-Liddell Bros., work started Feb. 28, 2021), (2-Winning
bidder-Roadsafe Traffic Systems-Work started Oct. 18, 2020), (NA-No
changes to exits):
Route
140 (ERC2)
All Exits Renumbered since October 22, 2020^
*Under
the 2020 Exit Renumbering project, MassDOT did not add milepost exit
numbers to highways without existing exit numbers, some of the
highways listed above were to have numbers under the postponed 2015
exit renumbering project.
** Numbers listed
were to be added under the postponed 2016 exit renumbering project.
Lists include suggestions as to how
some of the proposed exit numbers could have been changed to more
accurately reflect the mile posts.
(1) Post by
Roadman in AARoads Forum, Northeast Group, I-90 / Mass Pike Signing Work
thread, 5/10/2016, downloaded from:
http://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=16222.125
(2) Taken from p.
A00803-5 from Project 608024, Project Drawings and Detail Sheets, Part
1, MassDOT, Highway Division, downloaded from:
https://www.commbuys.com/bso/external/bidDetail.sdo?docId=BD-16-1030-0H100-0H002-00000005477&external=true&parentUrl=bid,
Link under 'File Attachments.'
About the 2020-2021 Exit Renumbering Project:
The project did not change exit signs, but had
up to 3 work crews at a time replace the numbers on the exit tabs, as
shown in the left diagrams from MassDOT from 2015, and on the exit
gore signs while placing yellow Old Exit # tabs under the gore signs
with the new exit numbers:2
On November 19, 2019 MassDOT unveiled a website
(newmassexits.com) with
its own logo:
which contained lists of the future 'proposed'
exit numbers. The proposed numbers are mostly, unlike those from the
postponed 2016 project which was determined on a 'round down'
philosophy, based on simple rounding (below .5 down, for .5 and above,
up). They also eliminated the proposed use of Exit 0 which reduced the
need for many lettered exits for many routes. Public hearings were
held to get citizen comments between November 2019 and March 2020. I
attend the February 11, 2020 meeting in Boston, I was the only
non-MassDOT related person there. For more on the meeting, see the Interstate
Exits page.
On February 2020, MassDOT split the renumbering
project into 3 contracts: Divisions 1-3 (Contract 610646 covering the
western and central parts of the state), Divisions 4-6 (Contract
610799, for the northeastern and southeastern sections and Boston) and
a separate one for the Mass Pike (Contract 610800). The first contract
had its final plans sent to MassDOT management on March 19, 2020, the
second on April 4, and the third on April 6. The contracts were all
advertised in May, with winning bid announcements to take place over a
4 week period. The first contract (Districts 1-3) was advertised on
May 9 with a July 7 winning bidder announcement date. The second was
advertised on May 16 for a June 23 announcement where Roadsafe Traffic
Systems Inc. was announced as the winner. The third was advertised on
May 30 with a July 21 announcement date. All the contracts were let by
the end of July or early August. The COMMBUYS site has a page for each
advertised contract with additional project documents that the public
can access: Districts
1-3, Districts
4-6, and for the MassPike.
New sign
replacement contracts put out to bid the last few years have included
exit tab designs that will accept larger milepost based numbers. For
example, this new sign for the West US 44 exit on Route 3 South put up
in May 2020 with a new overhead variable message sign, has a space that
will fit the new number (16) for the exit when it is changed in November
2020:
History about the
postponement of the 2015 contract:
UPDATE
10/5/16: It appears MassDOT has indefinitely postponed
work to change exit numbers to those based on highway mileposts. Work
was to start in January 2016 to convert highway exit numbers, first in
the western part of the state then working eastward (except for
numbers on the Mass. Turnpike/I-90 which will be changed under another
contract) with a completion date for the entire project of early 2018.
However, it appears the start of work is now on hold, with no specific
start date announced. This appears to be the results of feedback from
politicians and the public after news of the project got out.
Officials on Cape Cod were publicly critical of MassDOT's plan (see
this article
in the Cape Cod Times) and the State Highway Administrator, Tom
Tinlin is quoted in a Worcester
Telegram & Gazette article saying he had not yet signed off
on the project. In a public meeting in June, officials indicated the
existing exit numbers would be used on the new signs, but that the
exit tabs and gore signs would be designed to hold the larger milepost
numbers if converted sometime in the future. Back in April, MassDOT
announced the winning bidder for a project to replace exit signs on
I-495. The contract was modified to include a clause whereby the state
would inform the contractor whether to use milepost based numbers or
keep the sequential numbers for the new signs at a later time.
On October 1, MassDOT re-advertised a project
first advertised last year that would have replaced exit signs in the
Big Dig and Mass Pike tunnels in Boston with those with new numbers.
Based on a website forum comment from a MassDOT sign engineer, the new
contract will now install signs with the existing numbers, but like
with US 6, the signs will be designed to display milepost based
numbers, if and when a switch is made. He also indicated that for the
time being, this will be standard operating procedure for new signage
replacement contracts. Signs on the Mass Pike designed for the use of
milepost numbers will use the current sequential numbers as well. (1)
A MassDOT official quoted in this July
29 Article in the Cape Cod Times says “We continue to evaluate
what would be in the best interest of Massachusetts taxpayers and
drivers with the federal government’s milepost-based exit numbering
initiative,” “Logistically, there are many questions which still need
to be answered concerning how Massachusetts would transition to
distance-based numbering and what the potential impacts could be on
the communities we serve." For more details about the reluctance by
MassDOT to start the conversion, see This
Blog Post.
Check Out Other Exit Lists:
Site Created: February 10, 2014
Last Updated: November 8, 2024
(c) 2013-2024 Robert H. Malme
Route
2, Greenfield to Cambridge (ERC1)
All Exits Renumbered since April 13, 2021^
Route
3 / Pilgrims Highway, Bourne to Braintree (ERC2)
All Exits Renumbered since Dec. 14, 2020^
Route
24 / AmVets Highway, RI Border to I-93 in Randolph (ERC2)
All Exits Renumbered
since Jan. 19, 2021^
Route
25, I-195 to Bourne Bridge (ERC2) All
Exits Renumbered since November 24, 2020 / Sign Replacement
contract underway as of 3/24/23^
Route
28, Bourne Bridge to Falmouth (No Exit Numbers will be posted)**(NA)
Route
57, Henry E. Bodurtha Highway, MA 187 to US 5 (No Exit Numbers will be
posted)**(NA)
Route
128 / Yankee Division Highway, Peabody to Gloucester
(ERC2) All Exits Renumbered since Feb. 24,
2021^ / Sign
Replacement contract underway as of 5/21/24.
Route
146, I-290 in Worcester to RI Border (ERC1)
All
Exits Renumbered since March 22, 2021
Route
213 / Loop Connector, to Andover (NA)