MASSACHUSETTS ROUTE 3

(Redirected from Route 3 (Massachusetts))
:''For the U.S. Route that continues (State) Route 3 north into New Hampshire, see U.S. Route 3 (Massachusetts). For the Route 3 that existed in the early 1920s, see U.S. Route 6 (Massachusetts).''
'Route 3' is a southward continuation of U.S. Route 3, connecting Cambridge, Massachusetts with Cape Cod. All of it, except for the northernmost end in downtown Boston and Cambridge, is a freeway.
The section from Boston to Braintree is also marked as Interstate 93 and U.S. Route 1 and is known in downtown Boston as the Central Artery, and south of downtown as the Southeast Expressway. In Braintree, I-93 and US 1 split to follow the Yankee Division Highway to Interstate 95, and Route 3 continues south on its own, as the 'Pilgrims Highway'. This section extends to a junction with U.S. Route 6 in Sagamore, just before the Sagamore Bridge over the Cape Cod Canal where Route 3 originally ended at rotary. Replacement of this rotary with a grade-separated interchange was completed in November 2006.
Because Route 3 and U.S Route 3 are treated as the same route by the Massachusetts Highway Department (MassHighway), mileposts move continuously upward from Bourne to the New Hampshire border.

Contents

Route description

Pilgrims Highway

Interstate 93

Downtown Boston and Cambridge

History

Towns along the route

Miscellanea

References

External links

Route description

'Route 3' can be said to have three segments; the Pilgrims Highway, its concurrency with Interstate 93, and its route after leaving I-93 in Boston and Cambridge.

Pilgrims Highway

The Pilgrims Highway freeway is the part of 'Route 3' that stretches from the intersection with U.S. 6 in Bourne to the junction with Interstate 93 in Braintree.

Interstate 93

This segment runs from Braintree to I-93's Exit 26. See Interstate 93.

Downtown Boston and Cambridge

'Route 3' exits I-93 at Exit 26 and runs for a short way along the Charles River to the Longfellow Bridge where it crosses over to Cambridge and joins Memorial Drive. It is on Memorial Drive that the designation changes to U.S. 3 which continues northward toward New Hampshire.

History

Route 3 began as a new designation for New England Highway 6 in the 1927 when the U.S. Highway system was created and New England highway Route 3 was chosen to be U.S. 6. The former NE 6 then took the route 3 number with U.S. Route 3 designated north of its intersection with U.S. Route 1 and Massachusetts Route 3 to the south. The route was basically a connected system of two-lane roadways up until the 1950s with the exception of Route 3's original path through Boston which paired it with U.S. 1 on Park Drive, the Riverway and the Jamaicaway and then along its own path in Mattapan and Dorchester along the Arborway, Morton Street and Gallivan Boulevard.
The first section of the Pilgrims Highway was built as a bypass of Plymouth in the early 1950s. The mid-1950's saw an extension of this bypass route south to the Sagamore Bridge and north to Kingston. The northern section of the highway was built next with a connection from Derby Street in Hingham to the Southeast Expressway opening in 1959. (Portions of this road run along side the Old Colony Railroad's mainline, now used by the MBTA Old Colony Lines Commuter Rail, and the MBTA Red Line rapid transit.) Finally the last sections between Hingham and Duxbury were completed by 1963 when the Route 3 designation was moved onto the completed freeway. The former Route 3 highways became Route 3A in Quincy and from Kingston south, the remainder became Route 53. Route 3 was connected to the Southeast Expressway in Milton by using Granite Avenue as a link from Gallivan Boulevard. Until around 1965, the northern portion of the Pilgrims Highway, from current Exit 15 (Derby Street) in Hingham, was also signed as Route 128, which continued past the exit on surface streets to Hull. However, by 1966 the 128 designation was removed past its intersection with Route 3 in Braintree (and thus from the Pilgrims Highway entirely) and the surface portion became Massachusetts Route 228. 'Route 3' was then taken off its remaining pathway along surface streets in Boston and extended up the Southeast Expressway and Central Artery in 1971 to the Storrow Drive exit. The routing of Route 3 has changed little since that time.
In mid-2007, a re-signing project is taking place along the Pilgrims Highway that is expected to be completed by the Fall 2007. Exit gore signs put up at the I-93 interchange that previously listed only Exit 20 for the ramp to I-93 south now show exits 20A for the former Exit 20 ramp and 20B for the ramp to I-93 north that also carries Route 3. The signs at the on-ramp for the previous interchange (Washington Street) for Route 3 North only indicate I-93, not Route 3. Whether this means MassHighway plans to end the route at I-93 or simply not sign it along the I-93 section is unclear at this time.

Towns along the route

From the Cape Cod Canal to Cambridge, 'Route 3' passes through the following towns and cities:

★ Bourne-Exit 1

★ Plymouth-Exits 2-7

★ Kingston-Exits 8-10

★ Duxbury-Exits 10, 11

★ Marshfield-Exit 12

★ Pembroke-Exit 12, 13

★ Hanover-Exit 12, 13

★ Norwell-Exits 13, 14

★ Rockland-Exit 14

★ Hingham-Exits 14, 15

★ Weymouth-Exits 15, 16

★ Braintree-Exits 17, 18

★ Quincy-Exit 19, I-93 Exits 8, 9

★ Milton-I-93 Exits 10, 11

★ Boston-I-93 Exits 12-26

★ Cambridge

Miscellanea

Route 3 was one of the freeways whose exits were once numbered with the "25 is 128" system, in which the Braintree split was numbered "Exit 25" (due to it being the exit for Route 128), with numbers increasing away from Boston and decreasing toward Boston. Under the old system, the Sagamore Rotary was (on paper) "Exit 43". When the first 22 miles of the highway were resurfaced in 1975-76, the new numbers were instituted in that section. When the Braintree section was resurfaced in 1978, the rest of the new numbers were posted, leaving a 2-year gap when half the highway was on the new system while the other half was on the old system. During that time, the exit to Route 14 was "Exit 11" northbound and "Exit 33" southbound.
The Plimoth Plantation Highway, a Super-2 freeway that connects Route 3 with Route 3A, was once signed as Route 3 before the southernmost portion of the freeway to Cape Cod was finished.

References

★ Pilgrims Highway (MA 3) on Bostonroads.com

★ 1952 Shell Oil Sectional Map No. 1, New England States

★ 1960 AAA Map of Southern New England

★ 1966 ESSO New England Map

★ 1971 ESSO Southern New England Map

★ Responses to post by Bob Malme on newsgroup ne.transportation titled "MA Roadtrip Observations" posted 6/28/07.
1. Executive Office of Transportation, Office of Transportation Planning - 2005 Road Inventory. AASHTO however lists the end of US 3 at US 20 after it crosses the BU Bridge from Memorial Drive. If US 3 now ends at MA 2A, this has not been officially approved by that organization and MassHighway has yet to apply for this change.

External links

★ Pilgrims Highway (MA 3) on Bostonroads.com