Massachusetts Route 128

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 in the United States with gradient from south to north. It is designed to Boston around the ring road and about 60% part of the national interstate highway system. With the growth of high technology in the suburbs along the route of the 1960s to the 1980s, the Route 128 itself become a symbol of high-tech society. Today, companies in this sector, however, have also settled strengthened along the adjacent beltway Interstate 495.

Of the residents, the route is 128 to some extent regarded as a dividing line between the inner municipalities of the metropolitan region of Greater Boston and the further outlying suburbs. The approximately 10 mi ( 16.1 km ) measured radius of the ring road also comprises roughly the area that can be achieved in the context of public transport with the MBTA. Much of the area within the Route 128 was developed before the Second World War, while the land was opened up further out only recently.

• 2.1 Southern Circumferential Highway
• 2.2 Central Circumferential Highway

• 3.1 Current situation
• 3.2 projects to improve the signs

About the Route 128

Route

Today's route begins in the south in Canton at the junction with Interstate 95, which leads southwards towards Providence, Rhode Iceland. Until 1997 was the Route 128, however, identical with Interstate 93 to the southeast up to Braintree, from where the I-93 northbound 3 leads together with the Massachusetts Route in the direction of the Boston city center. This former portion of Route 128 also represents the northern end of Massachusetts Route 24 dar. Until 1965, the Route 128 even beyond this point, to run the same as the Route 3 and Route 228 to Hull.

From Canton from the Route 128 is identical to I-95 arc clockwise around Boston until after Peabody, where separating northbound I-95 to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Along this section, the Route 128 interchanges with Interstate 90, Massachusetts Route 2, U.S. Route 3, as well as Interstate 93. The access roads generally have but points only to the I-95. Since 1989, the U.S. Highway 1 runs on a short section in the south near Dedham also identical to Route 128

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

Although the track is either identical to I- 93 or I-95 to a large extent, most residents refer to the entire route as Route 128, including the exhibition formally defunct continuation south of Canton and other parts of the I-95, which are not recognizable reported as Route 128. This goes back to the time before the introduction of interstate highways and became part of the local culture.

Background information

The designation of the route as Route 128 goes back to the origins of the U.S. highway system in the 1920s. In the 1950s went the route of Nantasket Beach in Hull up to Gloucester. The first 27 mi ( 43.5 km ) long section of Braintree to Gloucester was opened in 1951 and was the first ring road - under consideration of the property as a dual carriageway with associated restrictions on vehicles that need to reach a certain minimum speed - in the United States.

Until 1965, when the Massachusetts route was completed in 3 to Cape Cod, the portion 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 up to the connection to Route 3 in Braintree and 228 restated the section through Hingham to Nantasket Beach as by Massachusetts Route. The Massachusetts Highway Department attempted several times, Route 128 continues to shorten until the junction with I-95 in Peabody, but it always failed at the resistance of the residents. Traces of these experiments can be seen at every intersection of Route 128, where the large main signs designate the route as I- 95 and leave only small signs on the roadside close to Route 128.

Along the western part of Route 128, many companies in the high technology sector have settled, so this part of the route is also referred to as "America's Technology Highway".

The route Route 128 around describes an arc of more than 180 degrees around Boston, and the ride on the road clockwise will also be referred to as " the north " when you actually travels slightly southward upon arrival at the Atlantic. Residents describe this logically as " driving in the direction of the logical south" as " driving in the direction of the logical north ' and driving counterclockwise.

The simultaneous expulsion of part of the route as U.S. Highway 3 lies in the fact that it already ends in Burlington at the intersection of Route 128 and not - as provided for in the planning - further south on Massachusetts Route 2 in Lexington. This abrupt end required the parallel expulsion of a small portion of Route 128 and U.S. Highway 3 until it rejoins his old route. Before the route was shortened 128 to Canton, the course of Route 128 and there identical running I-93 was designated vice versa, ie you could drive on the same road as Route 128 in the south and as I-93 northbound.

The northernmost exits behind the Route 128 exit 12 are configured as level of at-grade intersections, which are realized both with traffic lights as well as roundabouts. In the 1990s, the consecutively numbered exits of Route 128 with respect to the system of I-95 have been renumbered, whereby the original numbering of Gloucester was to Braintree replaced by a new one, to the state border to the border with Rhode Iceland New Hampshire last. Only the exit 37 retained its number, since it leads to the education and access No. 37 of I-93. As a result, the exits are numbered logically inconsistent and sometimes difficult to understand.

The high- tech region along the route

Along the Route 128 have settled many companies in the high technology sector over time, including Digital Equipment Corporation, Data General, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Analog Devices, Computer Vision, Polaroid, Sun Microsystems, BEA Systems and Raytheon. In particular, around the turn of the millennium the region, however, had to struggle with high vacancy rates of up to 27 % of office space and up to 44 % of the space for research and development activities.

History

Southern Circumferential Highway

The Route 128 was first defined in 1927 and led from junction to 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:

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

Central Circumferential Highway

The first portion of the Circumferential Highway, which in no way corresponded to the present highway, consisted of the section of Route 9 in Wellesley along the south side of Boston to the former Route 3 (now Route 53 ) in Hingham. Part of this route had to be rebuilt, the largest part, however, was conducted along existing streets, which were developed for the larger volume of traffic.

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

1933, the Circumferential Highway was completed and with the exception of a portion of Route 9 in Wellesley to Highland Avenue in Needham Massachusetts Route 128 as shown. The full route of the highway thus comprised the following streets:

Coinciding with the designation of Route 128 on the new Circumferential Highway She was also extended up to Hull. This additional section resulted in a southeasterly direction to today's Route 53 to the border of Hingham and Norwell, where the route north along the route today turned off to 228 towards Hull. The designated route ended at the southern end of Nantasket Beach.

Signs

Current state

• Change signs over time

After the relocation of I-95 on the route Route 128 new street signs includes only points to the I-95, while the route was only 128 awarded to smaller roadside signs.

Only the signs on the Massachusetts Turnpike today have also pointed to the route 128.

Projects to improve the signs

As early as 1998 began with the gradual replacement of the partially up to 25 -year-old street signs. In a first step, all the signs between Reading and Lynnfield were replaced as part of a comprehensive $ 1.1 million dollar project to the year 2002 into it. 2005 and 2006, then followed the signs from Peabody to Gloucester, making a total of 2.2 million U.S. dollar cost, and in 2008 and 2009 signs in Peabody and still remaining were exchanged in Lynnfield for an additional 1.4 million dollars. In the years 2010 and 2011, all signs on Route 128 could be replaced by the terminal for the U.S. Highway 3 in Lexington to the junction with I-93 in Reading with the help of federal funds in the amount of 2.9 million dollars.

For the end of 2012, another project is planned with a budget of 4.5 million U.S. dollars, which is to replace all signs on Route 128 beginning at the connection to Massachusetts Route 9 in Wellesley to the exit onto Route 225 in Lexington 4/Route. This was referred to by the local press, mainly as a waste of money; after all, one could then, as long as you stand in traffic, staring at beautiful new street signs.

The completion of the work, however, is planned only with a foreseen for the 2014 project, to be replaced in the street signs from the Highland Avenue in Needham to Massachusetts Route 109 in Dedham. The signs between I-95 and U.S. 1 were replaced in December 2011, 24 in 2010 and most of the signs of I- 95 and the Massachusetts route.

List of exits

Due to the turbulent history of the route, the numbering of exits is inconsistent and sometimes difficult to understand. The following statements reflect the route in 2012.

In pop culture

In the two alternative rock songs Roadrunner by The Modern Lovers and Blue Thunder by Galaxie 500 Route 128 occurs.