Massachusetts Route 128

map
Basic data
Overall length:	57.58  mi (92.7  km )
Opening:	1927
Starting point:	I-93 / I-95 / US 1 in Canton
End point:	MA 127A in Gloucester
Counties:	Norfolk County Middlesex County Essex County
Important cities:	Boston , Cambridge

The Massachusetts Route 128 (also known as Yankee Division Highway , originally Circumferential Highway is) a 57.58  mi (92.7  km ) long state highway in the state of Massachusetts of the United States with gradient from south to north. It is designed as a ring road around Boston and about 60% part of the national interstate highway system. With the increasing growth of cutting-edge technology in the suburbs along the route from the 1960s to the 1980s, Route 128 itself became a symbol of high-tech society. Today, however, companies in this branch of industry have increasingly settled along the neighboring Interstate 495 ring road .

Local residents view Route 128 as a dividing line between the inner communities of the Greater Boston metropolitan area and the suburbs further out. The approximately 10  mi (16.1  km ) radius of the ring road also roughly covers the area that can be reached within the framework of public transport with the MBTA . Much of the area within Route 128 was developed before the Second World War , while the properties further outside were only developed more recently.

Via route 128

Routing

Today's route begins south in Canton at the junction with Interstate 95 , which continues south towards Providence , Rhode Island . Until 1997, however, Route 128 was identical to Interstate 93 further southeast to Braintree , from where I-93 together with Massachusetts Route 3 leads north towards downtown Boston. This former section of Route 128 also represents the northern end of Massachusetts Route 24. Until 1965, Route 128 led beyond this point to be identical to Route 3 and Route 228 to Hull .

From Canton, Route 128 runs identical to I-95 in a clockwise arc around Boston to Peabody , where I-95 separates north to Portsmouth , New Hampshire . Along this section, Route 128 has interchanges with Interstate 90 , Massachusetts Route 2 , US Highway 3, and Interstate 93 . However, the access roads usually only point to the I-95 . Since 1989 runs on a short section of the south at Dedham also the US Highway 1 identical to Route 128 .

After Route 128 has separated from I-95 in Peabody , it continues eastward to Cape Ann , where it ends at a junction with connection to Massachusetts Route 127 and Massachusetts Route 127A in Gloucester .

Although the route is largely identical to either I-93 or I-95 , most residents refer to the entire route as Route 128 , including the formally no longer existing continuation south of Canton and other parts of I-95 that are not recognizable as Route 128 . This dates back to before the introduction of the interstate highways and became part of the local culture.

Background information

Since 1997, Route 128 has ended in Canton where Interstate 95 South leaves the ring road and Interstate 93 North begins. The US Highway 1 North leads straight on.

The designation of the route as Route 128 goes back to the origins of the US highway system in the 1920s. In the 1950s the route ran from Nantasket Beach in Hull to Gloucester . The first, 27  mi (43.5  km ) long section from Braintree to Gloucester was opened in 1951, making it the first ring road - taking into account its property as a motorway with the associated restrictions on vehicles that must reach a certain minimum speed - in the United States.

Until 1965, when Massachusetts Route 3 to Cape Cod was completed, the section of today's Route 3 between exits 15 and 20 was also designated as Route 128 . The southern end of the route was shortened this year to the connection to Route 3 in Braintree and the section through Hingham to Nantasket Beach was re-designated as Massachusetts Route 228 . The Massachusetts Highway Department tried several times to shorten Route 128 to the intersection with I-95 in Peabody , but always failed due to resistance from local residents. Traces of these attempts can be seen at every intersection of Route 128 , where the large main signs indicate the route as I-95 and only small signs on the side of the road indicate Route 128 .

The northern end of Route 128 is at the junction with Route 127A in Gloucester .

Many companies in the high-tech sector have settled along the western part of Route 128 , which is why this part of the route is also known as the “America's Technology Highway”.

The routing of Route 128 describes an arc of more than 180 degrees around Boston , and driving clockwise on the road is referred to as "northbound" even if you are actually going slightly south when arriving at the Atlantic . Local residents describe this as "driving in the direction of the logical north" and driving counterclockwise consequently as "driving in the direction of the logical south".

The simultaneous designation of part of the route as US Highway 3 is due to the fact that it ends in Burlington at an intersection with Route 128 and not - as planned in the planning - further south on Massachusetts Route 2 in Lexington . This abrupt end required the parallel designation of a small part of Route 128 as US Highway 3 until it rejoins its old route. Before Route 128 was shortened to Canton, the course of Route 128 and the identical I-93 were shown reversed, ie you could drive on the same road as Route 128 to the south and as I-93 to the north.

Exit 10 heading north at the level intersection with Massachusetts Route 127 .

The northernmost exits of Route 128 after exit 12 are designed as level crossings , which are implemented with both traffic lights and roundabouts . In the 1990s, the sequentially numbered exits of Route 128 were re-numbered with reference to the I-95 system, replacing the original numbering from Gloucester to Braintree with a new one that ran from the Rhode Island state line to the New state line Hampshire is enough. Only exit 37 kept its number, as it leads to exit and access No. 37 of the I-93 . As a result, some of the exits are numbered inconsistently and logically difficult to understand.

The high-tech region along the way

Many high-tech companies have set up shop along Route 128 , including Digital Equipment Corporation , Data General , Thermo Fisher Scientific , Analog Devices , Computervision , Polaroid , Sun Microsystems , BEA Systems and Raytheon . At the turn of the millennium in particular, however, the region had to contend with high vacancies of up to 27% of office space and up to 44% of space for research and development activities.

history

Southern Circumferential Highway

The Route 128 was first defined in 1927 and led from the junction of Massachusetts Route 138 in Milton to the west around Boston until after the Massachusetts Route 107 in Salem and ran it along the following route:

place	Streets
Milton	Milton Street
Boston ( Hyde Park )	Neponset Valley Parkway , Milton Street
Dedham	Milton Street, High Street, Common Street, West Street
Needham	Dedham Avenue, Highland Avenue
Newton	Needham Street, Winchester Street, Center Street, Walnut Street, Crafts Street, Waltham Street
Waltham	High Street, Newton Street, Main Street ( US Highway 20 ), Lexington Street
Lexington	Waltham Street, Massachusetts Avenue ( Route 2A , now Route 4 / Route 225 ), Woburn Street
Woburn	Lexington Street, Pleasant Street, Montvale Avenue
Stoneham	Montvale Avenue, Main Street ( Route 28 ), Elm Street
Wakefield	Albion Street, North Avenue, Water Street, Vernon Street, New Salem Street, Salem Street
Lynnfield	Salem Street
Peabody	Lynnfield Street, Washington Street, Main Street
Salem	Boston Street

In 1928, Route 128 was extended eastward from its southern end to Quincy , where it ended at the junction with Route 3 or Route 3A (now Route 3A and Route 53 ). The new section ran along the following route:

place	Streets
Quincy	Washington Street, Hancock Street, Adams Street
Milton	Adams Street, Center Street, Canton Avenue, Dollar Lane

Central Circumferential Highway

The first section of the Circumferential Highway , which in no way corresponded to today's highway, consisted of the section from Route 9 in Wellesley along the Boston south side to what was then Route 3 (now Route 53 ) in Hingham . Part of this route had to be rebuilt, but most of it was led along existing streets that were expanded to cope with the greater traffic load.

In 1931, the Massachusetts Department of Public Works acquired the rights to part of Route 138 from Canton via Westwood , Dedham and Needham to Route 9 in Wellesley. As early as 1927, Norfolk County had acquired the rights to a stretch from Route 138 in Canton east through the Blue Hills Reservation via Milton and Quincy to Braintree to build the Blue Hill River Road following West Street in northwestern Braintree which in turn led to Route 37 in the center of Braintree. The remaining part of the new highway from Route 37 eastwards to today's Route 53 through Braintree, Weymouth and Hingham had been in the state since 1929.

In 1933, the Circumferential Highway was completed and, with the exception of a section from Route 9 in Wellesley to Highland Avenue in Needham, designated Massachusetts Route 128 . The entire stretch of the highway thus included the following roads:

place	Streets
Hingham	Derby Street, Old Derby Street
Weymouth	Ralph Talbot Street, Park Avenue, Columbian Street
Braintree	Columbian Street, Grove Street, Washington Street ( Route 37 ), Franklin Street (Route 37), West Street, a street in the Blue Hills Reservations
Quincy	a street in the Blue Hills Reservations, Blue Hill River Road
Milton	Blue Hill River Road, Hillside Street
Canton	Blue Hill River Road, Royall Street, Green Lodge Street to the intersection with Interstate 95
Westwood	Blue Hill Drive to Route 128 Station on the MBTA
Needham	Greendale Avenue, Hunting Road, Route 128 under Highland Avenue, Reservoir Street
Wellesley	Today's junction with Route 9

Simultaneously with the designation of Route 128 on the new Circumferential Highway , it was also extended to Hull . This additional section led in a south-easterly direction on today's Route 53 to the border to Hingham and Norwell , where the route turned north on today's Route 228 in the direction of Hull . The designated route ended at the southern end of Nantasket Beach .

Signage

Current state

• Change in signage over time
• 

  Before the course of the I-95 was placed on Route 128 in the 1970s , this was clearly signposted.

• 

  After the relocation of I-95 on the route of Route 128 , the new street signs referred only to the I-95 down, while Route 128 was awarded only on small signs on the roadside.

• 

  Only the signs on the Massachusetts Turnpike also point to Route 128 today .

Signage improvement projects

The successive replacement of the street signs, some of which were up to 25 years old, began in 1998. As a first step, all signs between Reading and Lynnfield were replaced by 2002 as part of a US $ 1.1 million project . In 2005 and 2006 the signs from Peabody to Gloucester followed , which cost a total of 2.2 million US dollars, and in 2008 and 2009, respectively, another 1.4 million dollar signs were exchanged in Peabody and the remaining signs in Lynnfield . In 2010 and 2011, federal funding of $ 2.9 million was used to replace all signs on Route 128 from the junction with US Highway 3 in Lexington to the intersection with I-93 in Reading .

For the end of 2012 another project with a budget of 4.5 million dollars is planned that all signs on Route 128 , beginning at the connection to the Massachusetts Route 9 in Wellesley before exiting onto the Route 4 / Route 225 in Lexington to renew . This was mostly described as a waste of money by the local press; after all, as long as you are stuck in a traffic jam, you can stare at beautiful new street signs.

However, the completion of the work is only planned for a project scheduled for 2014, in which street signs from Highland Avenue in Needham to Massachusetts Route 109 in Dedham will be replaced. The signs between I-95 and US 1 were replaced in 2010 and most of the signs between I-95 and Massachusetts Route 24 were replaced in December 2011.

List of exits

Due to the eventful history of the route, the numbering of the exits is inconsistent and sometimes difficult to understand. The following information corresponds to the route in 2012.

county	place	exit	Connection connections	Remarks
South end of Route 128
Norfolk	Canton	1	I-93 / I-95 / US 1 - Norwood , Canton	I-95 continues south to Providence ( Rhode Island ), I-93 and US 1 continue east on the same route to Braintree .
	Dedham	13	University Avenue
	Westwood	14th	East Street , Canton Street
	Dedham	15th	US 1 South, MA 1A - Dedham , Norwood	Designated as exits 15A and 15B
		16	MA 109 South - Westwood	Designated as exits 16A and 16B
		17th	MA 135 - Needham , Natick
	Needham	18th	Great Plain Avenue - Dedham , West Roxbury
		19th	Highland Avenue - Newton Highlands	Designated as exits 19A and 19B
	Wellesley	20th	MA 9 - Brookline , Boston , Framingham , Worcester	Designated as exits 20A and 20B
Middlesex	Newton	21st	MA 16 - Waban , Wellesley	Designated as exits 21 (north direction) and 21A (south direction)
		22nd	Grove Street - Auburndale
	Weston	23	Recreation Road	Only exit in a northerly direction
		25th	I-90 ( Massachusetts Turnpike ) - Worcester	In the northerly direction of travel, exit 25 is before exit 24
		24	MA 30 - Newton , Wayland
	Waltham	26th	US 20 - Weston
		27	Totten Pond Road / Wyman Street / Winter Street - Waltham	Designated as exits 27A and 27B
		28	Trapelo Road - Belmont , Lincoln	Signed as exits 28A and 28B to the north
	Lexington	29	MA 2 - Arlington , Cambridge , Acton , Fitchburg	Designated as exits 29A and 29B
		30th	MA 2A - East Lexington , Concord , Hanscom Field	Designated as exits 30A and 30B
		31	MA 4 / MA 225 - Bedford	Designated as exits 31A and 31B
	Burlington	32A	US 3 North - Lowell , Nashua	The US 3 joins Route 128 in the north and leaves it in the south
		32B	Middlesex Turnpike - Arlington
		33	US 3 South / MA 3A North - Winchester , Billerica	Designated as exits 33A and 33B; US 3 joins Route 128 in a southerly direction and leaves it in a northerly direction
		34	Winn Street - Woburn , Billerica
	Woburn	35	MA 38 - Wilmington
		36	Washington Street - Winchester
	Reading	37	I-93 - Boston , Concord	Designated as exits 37A and 37B
		38	MA 28 - Stoneham	Designated as exits 38A and 38B
	Wakefield	39	North Avenue - Reading
		40	MA 129 - Wilmington , Wakefield
Essex	Lynnfield	41	Main Street - Lynnfield , Wakefield
Middlesex	Wakefield	42	Salem Street
Essex	Lynnfield	43	Walnut Street - Saugus , Lynn
	Peabody	44	US 1 / MA 129 - Boston , Danvers	Signed as exits 44A and 44B to the north
		45/ 29	I-95 North - Portsmouth	Exit 29 only exists in the southern direction of travel; in the northern direction it is designated as no. 45; End of the identical course of Route 128 with I-95
		28	Forest Street / Centennial Drive
		26th	Lowell Street - Salem	The former exit 27 no longer exists
		25th	MA 114 - Salem , Marblehead , Middleton	Designated as exits 25A and 25B
	Danvers	24	Endicott Street
		23	MA 35 - Salem
		22nd	MA 62 - Beverly , Middleton
		21st	Conant Street / Trask Lane / Wayside Drive
	Beverly	20th	MA 1A - Hamilton	Designated as exits 20A and 20B
		19th	Sohier Road / Brimbal Avenue
		18th	MA 22 - Essex , Wenham
	Wenham	17th	Grapevine Road - Beverly Farms , Prides Crossing
	Manchester	16	Pine Street - Magnolia
		15th	School Street - Magnolia
	Gloucester	14th	MA 133 - West Gloucester , Essex , Ipswich
		13	Concord Street - Wingaersheek Beach
		12	Rust Island Road / Biskie Head Point / Causeway Street
			MA 127 / Washington Street - Annisquam , Pidgeon Cove	Grant Circle Roundabout ; in the logically northerly direction of travel, the exits are no longer numbered from here.
			School House Road / Dory Road	Blackburn Circle roundabout
			MA 127 - Manchester , Rockport	street intersection at the same level
			MA 127A - Rockport	T-junction at the same level
	North end of Route 128

In pop culture

In both alternative rock rhythm songs Roadrunner by The Modern Lovers and Blue Thunder of Galaxie 500 that comes Route 128 before.

See also

• List of state, US, and interstate highways in Massachusetts

Individual evidence

1. ^ Road Inventory. (No longer available online.) Massachusetts Department of Transportation, archived from the original on June 20, 2012 ; accessed on November 2, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ Jeff Miller: Job seekers look for answers in WIND. (No longer available online.) In: Mass High Tech =. August 19, 2002, archived from the original on August 6, 2012 ; accessed on November 2, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Susan Rose Grant, David Lampe: Route 128 . Lessons from Boston's high-tech community. Basic Books, New York 1992, ISBN 978-0-465-04639-3 .
4. ↑ Susan habenhouse: COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE; Layoffs Create Glut of Space in Boston Area. In: The New York Times . February 5, 2003, accessed November 3, 2012 . 
5. ↑ Joe Battenfeld: State's all signed up. DOT splurges $ 4.5M on Route 128. (No longer available online.) In: Boston Herald . May 30, 2012, formerly in the original ; accessed on November 4, 2012 (English, paid article).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
6. ↑ Taken from Google Maps .

Web links

Commons : Massachusetts Route 128  - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

• 128 Business Council
• historical overview
• Technology history of the region