Interstate 495 (I-495) is an
auxiliary route
In road transportation in the United States, a special route is a road in a numbered highway system that diverts a specific segment of related traffic away from another road. They are featured in many highway systems; most are found in the In ...
of
I-95
Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...
in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
, maintained by the
Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). Spanning , it is the second-longest auxiliary route in the
Interstate Highway System
The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. T ...
, being roughly shorter than
I-476
Interstate 476 (I-476) is a auxiliary Interstate Highway of I-76 in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The highway runs from I-95 near Chester north to I-81 near Scranton, serving as the primary north–south Interstate corridor throu ...
in Pennsylvania.
Serving as one of two
beltways (the other being
Route 128
The following highways are numbered 128:
Canada
* New Brunswick Route 128
* Ontario Highway 128 (former)
* Prince Edward Island Route 128
Costa Rica
* National Route 128
India
* National Highway 128 (India)
Japan
* Japan National Route 128 ...
) that forms a semicircle around
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, and being the "outer" beltway, I-495 has its northern terminus in
Salisbury
Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath.
Salisbury is in the southeast of ...
, where it splits from I-95. Its route forms an arc with an approximately radius around the city, and intersects seven additional radial
expressways:
I-93
Interstate 93 (I-93) is an Interstate Highway in the New England states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the United States. Spanning approximately along a north–south axis, it is one of three primary Interstate Highways ...
,
U.S. Route 3
U.S. Route 3 (US 3) is a United States highway running from Cambridge, Massachusetts, through New Hampshire, to the Canada–US border near Third Connecticut Lake, where it connects to Quebec Route 257.
Massachusetts Route 3 connects to ...
(US-3),
Route 2,
I-290 Interstate 290 may refer to the following Interstate Highways in the United States:
*Interstate 290 (Illinois), a highway from Chicago, Illinois, to Rolling Meadows, Illinois
* Interstate 290 (Massachusetts), a highway in Massachusetts that connects ...
, I-90 (the
Massachusetts Turnpike
The Massachusetts Turnpike (colloquially "Mass Pike" or "the Pike") is a toll highway in the US state of Massachusetts that is maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). The turnpike begins at the New York state li ...
),
Route 24, and I-95 once more. I-495 has its southern terminus in
Wareham, at the meeting of
I-195 and
Route 25. Originally, the stretch from Route 24 to I-195 was signed as Route 25, that status now only begins east of I-195.
I-495 and areas to its immediate east are often regarded as the inner ring of
Greater Boston
Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston (the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England) and its surrounding areas. The region forms the northern a ...
. The freeway's northern segment parallels the
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...
border, at one point coming as close as to the boundary, and its southern end is roughly 10 miles (16 km) north of
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
. West of I-495 is the
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
area and
Central Massachusetts Central Massachusetts is the geographically central region of Massachusetts. Though definitions vary, most include all of Worcester County and the northwest corner of Middlesex County. Worcester, the largest city in the area and the seat of Worces ...
. I-495 is a heavily travelled route serving communities in Plymouth, Bristol, Norfolk, Worcester, Essex, and Middlesex counties.
Route description
Interstate 495 begins as the direct continuation of
Route 25 at the intersection with
Interstate 195 in
West Wareham. It starts as a two-lane highway in both directions. It gets the third lane during the interchange with Route 24. The junction includes the unusual transition of shrinking from the six-lane Route 25 to the four-lane interstate, due to the third lane of Route 25 joining to and from I-195. The road heads roughly northwest, passing through the towns of
Rochester
Rochester may refer to:
Places Australia
* Rochester, Victoria
Canada
* Rochester, Alberta
United Kingdom
*Rochester, Kent
** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area
** History of Rochester, Kent
** HM Prison ...
and
Middleborough
Middleborough (frequently written as Middleboro) is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 24,245 at the 2020 census.
History
The town was first settled by Europeans in 1661 as Nemasket, later changed to M ...
(where the road meets
U.S. Route 44) as a four-lane highway before entering
Bristol County, crossing the
Taunton River at
Raynham. I-495 becomes a six-lane highway just southeast of the
Route 24 interchange (which is actually in neighboring
Bridgewater).
The road continues northwest through
Taunton
Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...
and
Norton Norton may refer to:
Places
Norton, meaning 'north settlement' in Old English, is a common place name. Places named Norton include: Canada
* Rural Municipality of Norton No. 69, Saskatchewan
*Norton Parish, New Brunswick
**Norton, New Brunswick, a ...
before entering
Mansfield, where there is a short collector-distributor road concurrency with
Route 140. I-495 makes its southern junction with its parent route,
I-95
Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...
, on the border between Mansfield in Bristol County and
Foxborough in
Norfolk County. The road continues through
Plainville (where there is a junction with
U.S. Route 1
U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making ...
. The highway comes within 2 miles (3.2 km) of the
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...
state line before turning in a more northerly direction through
Franklin
Franklin may refer to:
People
* Franklin (given name)
* Franklin (surname)
* Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class
Places Australia
* Franklin, Tasmania, a township
* Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...
and
Bellingham.
Interstate 495 passes through
Milford,
Medway and
Hopkinton (where the junction with the
Massachusetts Turnpike
The Massachusetts Turnpike (colloquially "Mass Pike" or "the Pike") is a toll highway in the US state of Massachusetts that is maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). The turnpike begins at the New York state li ...
, or Interstate 90, is located),
Westborough
Westborough is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 21,567 at the 2020 Census, in over 7,000 households. Incorporated in 1717, the town is governed under the New England open town meeting system, headed ...
(where the road meets
Route 9).
Southborough,
Marlborough
Marlborough may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Marlborough, Wiltshire, England
** Marlborough College, public school
* Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England
* The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England
Austral ...
(where the road meets
U.S. Route 20
U.S. Route 20 or U.S. Highway 20 (US 20) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway that stretches from the Pacific Northwest east to New England. The "0" in its route number indicates that US 20 is a major coast-to-coast route. S ...
and
Interstate 290),
Hudson,
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
,
Bolton
Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ...
(where the road finally begins to turn northeasterly) and
Harvard.
Continuing to turn to a more easterly direction, the road passes through
Boxborough,
Littleton (where there is an intersection with
Route 2),
Westford and
Chelmsford
Chelmsford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It ...
. At the Chelmsford-
Lowell line lies the intersection with
U.S. Route 3
U.S. Route 3 (US 3) is a United States highway running from Cambridge, Massachusetts, through New Hampshire, to the Canada–US border near Third Connecticut Lake, where it connects to Quebec Route 257.
Massachusetts Route 3 connects to ...
and the
Lowell Connector (formerly Business Spur 495). The road continues through Lowell and
Tewksbury before entering
Essex County at
Andover
Andover may refer to:
Places Australia
*Andover, Tasmania
Canada
* Andover Parish, New Brunswick
* Perth-Andover, New Brunswick
United Kingdom
* Andover, Hampshire, England
** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station
United States
* Andove ...
, directly at exit 94 (formerly 39).
In Andover, the road has a junction with
Interstate 93. It then enters the city of
Lawrence
Lawrence may refer to:
Education Colleges and universities
* Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States
* Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States
Preparator ...
, where the road turns due north, crossing the
Shawsheen River
The Shawsheen River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 tributary of the Merrimack River in northeast Massachusetts. The name has had various spellings. ...
into
North Andover
North Andover is an affluent town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the 2020 census the population was 30,915.
History
Native Americans inhabited what is now northeastern Massachusetts for thousands of years prior to European c ...
before crossing the
Merrimack River
The Merrimack River (or Merrimac River, an occasional earlier spelling) is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into M ...
at the O'Reilly Bridge back into Lawrence. It then heads into
Methuen, where the road turns back to a northeasterly route after the junction with the
Loop Connector (Rte. 213). The road heads into
Haverhill, crossing the Merrimack twice more at a bend in the
Bradford section of town. It passes north of downtown Haverhill, coming within 150 yards of the
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...
state line, the closest the road comes to leaving the state. Interstate 495 then passes through the towns of
Merrimac and
Amesbury before entering
Salisbury
Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath.
Salisbury is in the southeast of ...
where it immediately meets Interstate 95 and ends approximately south of where that interstate enters New Hampshire.
Throughout its path, the road passes closely to several existing state highways. From Wareham through to the Middleborough Rotary, it parallels
Route 28. For much of the stretch between Norton and Milford, the road is within a few miles of Route 140, with two junctions of that highway in Mansfield and Franklin. From Milford to Bolton, the road passes just west of
Route 85. Much of the northern third of the route also roughly parallels
Massachusetts Route 110
Route 110 is a southwest–northeast state route in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Route 110’s western terminus is at a concurrency of Route 12 and Route 140 in West Boylston, and its eastern terminus is at the junction of U.S. 1 and Rou ...
.
History
As early as the late 1940s, a plan was developing for an "outer circumferential highway" around Boston, a limited-access freeway meant to have an approximate 30 mile (49 km) radius from the Boston city center. A portion of this new "outer circumferential highway" southeast of the US Route 1 junction in
Foxborough was meant to be a "relocation" of the existing
MA Route 28
Route 28 is a nominally south–north state highway in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, running from the town of Eastham via Boston to the New Hampshire state line in Methuen. Following the route from its nominally southern end, Route 28 i ...
, which was quickly changed in 1947 to a new designation of
Route 25 as a full-length freeway from MA 24 expwy in Raynham to
Wareham. The section of I-495 between MA 24 in Raynham and I-95 at the Foxborough/Mansfield line began construction at I-95 in 1976 and finished at the MA 25/MA 24 interchange in 1982. (Prior to 1982, I-495 ended at I-95; the section from Raynham to Wareham was just signed as MA 25). MA 25 was constructed in stages from the late 1950s to the late 1960s.
Future
In 2014, a new
ITS system was installed to help commuters and the state better understand the traffic congestion on I-495. Some improvements expected to come to I-495 in the next few years include a project that will install fiber optic cable, traffic cameras and
variable-message sign
A variable- (also changeable-, electronic-, or dynamic-) message sign, often abbreviated VMS, CMS, or DMS, and in the UK known as a matrix sign,
is an electronic traffic sign often used on roadways to give travelers information about special ...
s on I-495 from I-90 (Hopkinton) to I-93 (Andover).
In 2015, the state pledged $165–285 million for improvements to the Interstate 495-
Massachusetts Turnpike
The Massachusetts Turnpike (colloquially "Mass Pike" or "the Pike") is a toll highway in the US state of Massachusetts that is maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). The turnpike begins at the New York state li ...
intersection, and is considering three different plans. The work is expected to begin in 2021 and be completed in 2025. Improvements to the 495-
Route 9 intersection will commence at the same duration, with a different budget.
Exit list
Interchanges were to be renumbered to mileage-based numbers under a project scheduled to start in 2016, however this project was indefinitely postponed by MassDOT until November 18, 2019, when MassDOT confirmed that, beginning in late summer 2020, the exit renumbering project would start.
On May 7, 2021, MassDOT announced that I-495 exit numbers would get renumbered starting on or after May 16, 2021, and it would last for approximately five weeks. The project was broken down into four sections:
* Segment 1: between MA Route 28 and I-95 (old exits 3-13)
* Segment 2: between I-95 and I-90 (old exits 14-22)
* Segment 3: between I-90 and US Route 3 (old exits 23-35)
* Segment 4: between US Route 3 and junction MA Route 110/I-95 (old exits 37-55)
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Interstate 95-4 (Massachusetts)
95-4 Massachusetts
495 Massachusetts
4 Massachusetts
95-4
Transportation in Bristol County, Massachusetts
Transportation in Essex County, Massachusetts
Transportation in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Transportation in Norfolk County, Massachusetts
Transportation in Plymouth County, Massachusetts
Transportation in Worcester County, Massachusetts