PLYMOUTH — If you’ve driven down Route 3 through Plymouth over the past 20 years, you probably know how to reach the Pinehills from the highway.
The massive planned community has spent millions of dollars on marketing since opening in 2000, emphasizing its pleasingly repetitive location: Route 3, Exit 3. But that exit number, like those on highways across Massachusetts, is going away.
The state is in the process of revamping the numbers as part of a federally mandated program to represent exits not in numerical sequence, but by their distance from the origin of the highway.
Thus, the Pinehills, which is about 7 miles north of the start of Route 3 at the Sagamore Bridge, will soon be off Exit 7.
“Route 3, Exit 3 just rolls off your tongue,” said Donna Tefft, vice president in charge of marketing and sales at the 3,243-acre development, which is home to about 5,000 people and includes 550,000 square feet of commercial space, along with three golf courses and other amenities. “It will be different to say `Route 3, Exit 7.’ It just doesn’t sound the same.”
The changes, which have already been completed in most other states, are intended to make navigation easier and to help public safety workers quickly get to emergency scenes. But for some Massachusetts businesses, the new numbers add up to a logistical headache.
Tefft has been with the Pinehills since before the first homeowners moved in, and she has long relied on the exit number as a shorthand for its location: on the South Shore, but not far from Cape Cod.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation will try to minimize motorists’ confusion by keeping signs up that note the old exit numbers along with the new ones until people are used to the change.
But one big question is what to do about all of the marketing materials that Tefft has already paid for. There are pamphlets, billboards, and magazine advertisements that went to press before she knew the precise timing of the change. She said making changes to account for the new exit numbers could cost as much as $15,000.
Other businesses statewide face similar complications, and potential expenses. Transportation officials say they’ve been working with companies and chambers of commerce to prepare them for the shift. One positive is that it’s unlikely the numbers will ever need to change again if, for instance, new exits are added between existing ones.
The project started in October and will eventually affect every highway in the state with more than a few exits, including interstates. Route 140 and Interstate 195 on the South Coast are already done. Route 25 and Route 3 are underway. And exits on the Massachusetts Turnpike will begin changing Dec. 13.
Across Massachusetts, the project will cost about $2.5 million, of which the federal government will pay 90 percent, according to MassDOT. That doesn’t include the Pike, whose $176,000 renumbering cost will be covered by the state.
State highway administrator Jonathan L. Gulliver said he understands why it’s hard for people to get used to the idea that their longtime exit numbers will change. That’s one of the reasons Massachusetts held out longer than most other states. (New Hampshire has not given in.)
“We’re in New England, and change doesn’t come easy,” Gulliver said. “We’re still a state that when you describe where to go, you’re talking about businesses that went out of business 20 years ago. We still use those as landmarks. We’re the last part of the country to really do the switchover.”
But he said waiting any longer could jeopardize crucial federal funding for the state’s road system.
The program might have been more disruptive if it had come sooner. By now, most people navigate using their phones, which means memorizing exit numbers isn’t crucial. And fewer people rely on printed maps that would have become outdated.
While some companies will have to update billboards they’ve commissioned for the sides of highways, digital ads can easily be changed.
On the radio, where advertisers often appeal directly to drivers, exit numbers used to be a standard part of many pitches. But they are less frequently mentioned these days, said Michael Rock, director of content at 1420 WBSM, a talk-radio station serving New Bedford.
Rock said he heard little from advertisers as the signs were changed on Route 140 and Interstate 195, largely because companies trust that their customers can find them without the help of on-air directions.
“Clients don’t normally advertise like that on the radio. Not in 2020,” Rock said. “That’s just a waste of time on the radio, when you can talk about something else.”
Still, for people who have for years used their exit number to give directions, it’s going to be an adjustment.
“It’s going to be a little bit confusing,” said Walter McGinn, a Pinehills resident. “We’re so used to saying Exit 3 that it’s kind of ingrained in us.”
Andy Rosen can be reached at andrew.rosen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @andyrosen.
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