“In two miles, take exit WHAT?”
Get ready for the GPS to sound a little different: the Massachusetts Department of Transportation will change the exit numbering system on all highways crisscrossing the commonwealth in October, drastically renaming exits from Pittsfield to Boston.
Mass Pike Exit 22 to the Prudential Center will now be Exit 133. Mass Pike Exit 17 to Newton will become Exit 127.
Heading to Gillette Stadium? Forget Exit 9 off I-95, take Exit 19. Heading down to the Cape for a last gasp of sunshine? Head to Route 6A off the Sagamore via Exit 55 — the exit formerly known as 1C.
The $2.8 million project will change signs to milepost-based exit numbering, complying with a federal requirement. Only 10% of that cost will depend on state highway funds.
According to MassDOT, the new system “allows drivers to determine distances to destinations” an “improves reporting of highway incidents, resulting in better navigation of emergency services.”
It will also put Massachusetts in step with highway systems in most other states, which also use milepost numbering.
The changeover has met some local opposition. Cape and Islands state Sen. Julian Cyr called the exit renumbering system for Route 6 — which runs from the bridges out to the end of the Cape — “an example of policy that doesn’t make common sense.”
“I thought it was a stupid idea and I haven’t heard a good reason, except for the threat of withholding federal dollars,” Cyr told the Herald.
Under the new system, Cape Cod miles would be marked from the Rhode Island state border, changing the old Exit 6 to Hyannis into Exit 68. Cyr said he appealed to MassDOT to exempt the highway, but the department said that wasn’t possible. He’d like to see the mileage posts counted from the bridges.
“It’s stupid. I know very few Cape Codders who orient our lives from the Rhode Island border, or our visitors,” he said.
Exit numbering will correspond west to east on the Mass Pike, south to north on I-93, I-95, I-495, I-91, and U.S. 3.
Don’t worry — nobody is changing the name of Route 128.
MassDOT will begin changing signs on the Pike out in Pittsfield and move toward Boston. Individual routes will see signs switch over in the north and east first, before gradually moving west and south. The department has provided a map of all changes on its website.
The state is giving drivers some help in getting used to the change: old exit numbers will temporarily be posted in yellow underneath the new signs. According to its website, MassDOT does not anticipate the project to disrupt traffic.
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September 26, 2020 at 04:35AM
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Massachusetts highway exits will be totally renumbered in October - Boston Herald
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