Posted on 01/30/2021 4:53:29 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is getting ready to switch the exit signs along part of Route 128 to a mileage-based system.
Work on the signs along Route 3 is expected to be finished on Tuesday and installations along Route 128 from Gloucester to Peabody will begin Wednesday. The swapping of signs along that part of Route 128 is expected to last about eight days, MassDOT officials said.
The exit numbers are being changed by MassDOT to comply with federal highway mandates, which require mile-based exit signs. Massachusetts is one of three states that have not yet begun any sort of conversion to the mileage-based system. Delaware and New Hampshire are the other two states.
Work is being done overnight between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m.
The old numbers will remain on the signs for at least two years.
In October, Route 140 between Taunton and New Bedford became the first in the state to receive mileage-based exit numbers.
Construction is anticipated to end in the summer of 2021, MassDOT said.
“Work will typically be completed during the overnight hours and the contractors are required to complete the full interchange before moving along to the next exit,” MassDOT said.
Multiple public hearings on the exit number conversion were held prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the last one held in September.
(Excerpt) Read more at wcvb.com ...
Also:
$400 million headed to South Shore transit projects (1/28/21)
PING!
Is this because of roads falling off into the ocean or they need to justify the bean counters bloated budget?
The swapping of signs on Route 28 is expected to take 8 days.
I would have guessed 9, but I tend to leave a little time in there in case it rains or something.
I take Rt 3 every Monday, and the first day after they changed the signs was infuriating!
But at least from this article, I now understand why they did such a stupid thing...to comply with the Feds.
OK. Whatever.
How long before we get the kilometrage-based exits?
They’re doing this between 8pm and 5am.
Seems like it would be pretty dark.
Maybe they’re using night vision goggles or something.
I guess they could pop a flare every couple of minutes but that might bring a lot of UFO reports.
While they’re at it, they should also rename any exit numbers that once harbored any racist, hateful, or generally distasteful thoughts.
It’s Kafkaesque that in a world with such smart machinery, the ability to code to infinite hierarchies of logic, and no practical limits on the storing of human knowledge, a country as big as America can’t handle diversity in its exit numbering schemes.
This should be fun.
The old numbers are going to remain for two years.
Two years standing around....government work.
I remember when right turn on red was allowed if not marked otherwise. In MA, every light got a “no right turn on red” sign. Then after a bit of a pause they started coming down. What a racket.
Imagining Roadrunner drawing a tunnel entrance on a mountain or reversing a directional arrow.
The phrase “Abandon all hope ye who enter here” should be added to all of them.
“Willoby, last stop Willoby,.”
5.56mm
I think the mileage based system works best though I’m sure transitioning is a pain.
Grove Street in Norwell at Route 53 was signed to allow a right turn on red on to 53 northbound when I got my license. People used to say it was only one of three in the entire state.
The New Jersey Turnpike is keeping the sequential numbering system. I believe it is exempt from the Federal regulations because it was built before the Interstate Highway System was established. It’s ludicrous to see how they added exits like 7A, 8A, 15X, etc. over the years.
Alphas on exit numbers are here to stay in either system.
Two-digit exits are easier to remember. There’s no reason for the 20 or so exits on the NJT to be numbered with 3-digit numbers. Exits 8A and 8 are much easier to remember than exits 108 and 118, their mileage numbers.
A preference for one system over another is hardly a reason to force every business and resident to change their “directions”, let alone for people to have to re-learn how to get from point A to point B. People will get lost and stressed because of these changes. There is enough change in the world, we don’t need to disorient people every time we feel smarter than the guy who came before us.
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