Cape Cod Rail, Bridges and Highways

[Jahvon09]

Re: Boston to Cape rail

There's Ptown buses out of Hyannis that connect to the Flyer, as well as rental car places around Hyannis Airport down the street from the train station. But that's more catered to folks who are taking in the whole Cape and Islands for the weekend. One-seat on the ferry out of Boston or Plymouth is going to easily be the better/faster deal if you're just doing Ptown.

Plymouth ferry I think runs more frequently than the Boston one does, but is less accessible to commuter rail because 1) Cordage Park has such pathetic weekend service you'd have to take a bus out of Kingston to get to the ferry terminal, and 2) the fact that they stopped at Cordage Park instead of downtown due to NIMBY kvetching means they passed up a chance at a train station directly across the street from the ferry terminal.


I do think there is a cross-promo angle the respective Chambers of Commerce could be playing up via the Plymouth Line if they set up and advertised a ferry shuttle bus fed by beefed up ferry and weekend commuter rail schedules. CCRTA buses have their hands full covering the outer Cape for the weekenders and strain like hell to hit Hyannis on the return trip in time for Flyer departures (train gets held till the last bus connecting bus arrives). It's enough of a limiter that they'll probably be looking at bolstering the ferries as part of their Outer Cape traffic management strategy once they've put a couple more years of elbow grease into building up Hyannis as the region's multi-modal transpo center. The ferries do ultimately go hand-in-hand with the car-free transit strategy.


BTW...Hyannis rail yard got a major reconfiguration this winter so the Flyer trainsets don't awkwardly block the dinner train in the yard while they're laying over. This spring's track work involved some I.O.U.'s of that sort to Cape Rail, as well as (I think) a passing siding at Buzzards Bay. Will allow the dinner train to coexist around Flyer slots better and let Cape Rail expand its excursion schedule.

Yeah, I also went there by car many, many times as well.

I heard on the news yesterday, that a 3rd bridge may be planned & that it would be built next to the Sagamore Bridge.

 

[Digital_Islandboy]

Re: Boston to Cape rail

Yeah, I also went there by car many, many times as well.

I heard on the news yesterday, that a 3rd bridge may be planned & that it would be built next to the Sagamore Bridge.

I saw that too. IMO I feel the state should instead build a tunnel as opposed to another bridge to the Cape. For one. Whenever there is a badd storm, the Cape is completely isolated from the mainland. The bridges are both usually closed in high-winds. At least with a tunnel it would still allow some Emergency access /exiting from the Cape.

 

[Jahvon09]

Re: Boston to Cape rail

I saw that too. IMO I feel the state should instead build a tunnel as opposed to another bridge to the Cape. For one. Whenever there is a badd storm, the Cape is completely isolated from the mainland. The bridges are both usually closed in high-winds. At least with a tunnel it would still allow some Emergency access /exiting from the Cape.

I think that building a tunnel would be more expensive & time-consuming than building a bridge.

 

[Digital_Islandboy]

Re: Boston to Cape rail

I think that building a tunnel would be more expensive & time-consuming than building a bridge.

According to the news segment on WBZ, the bridge will be tolled and will be as a public-private sector road. In terms of a tunnel, it could be done offsite like the third harbor tunnel and in terms of cost a quick google search says the widest spot of the Cape Cod Canal is 150 meters in width (from shore to shore) and the deepest 32 meters in depth. If they excavated a space, floated in the tunnel segment by barge and sunk it like the third Harbor Tunnel the lenth of the Cape Cod canal tunnel wouldn't even be 1/10th the length of the third harbor tunnel. Which afterall passes beneath the Fort Point Channel, South Boston, the Harbor, and a part of East Boston.

 

[Arlington]

Re: Boston to Cape rail

A tunnel is just not a cost-effective way of going for the tiny benefit of "not subject to wind" (which might be mitigated on the new bridge in some way, like tight-mesh chain link, for, say $20m)

The beauty of parallel bridges to the Cape is all the money you save on the approach roads (just a bit of widening of what you have on exactly the grades you have), compared to the huge expense of getting from existing grade down to below the water line (where the float-in tunnel has to be connected to its long, gentle, expensive, shore approaches).

Then take just $100m of the $1b to $2b you save by building a bridge and spend that $100m to upgrade on-Cape emergency-response facilities (pre-position FEMA/MEMA stuff at Otis, or whatever). That $100m would improve Cape emergency response 24/7, 365 (not just when there was high wind). We'd get a good payback on that.

And then spend $300m upgrading Cape rail ROWs.

And then return all the other billions to build similarly high-payback projects elsewhere.

Spending it on a Cape-access tunnel is just pouring money into a hole in the ground.

 

[CSTH]

Re: Boston to Cape rail

According to the news segment on WBZ, the bridge will be tolled and will be as a public-private sector road.

Interesting - if this is done as variable pricing (i.e. 'automatically' adjusting the price in real time to ensure free-flowing traffic) I would expect that the price could get very high indeed at the peaks, although the 'time saved' potential would probably be capped by how far 'upstream' new access road capacity extends.

Either way - fixed or variable pricing - the toll effectively acts as a targeted 'tax' on 'summer people / weekend people' ... which is probably the only realistic way this could ever have gotten on the ground.

 

[JohnAKeith]

Re: Boston to Cape rail

How does it help to have three lanes in each direction if you still have to merge into two on either end?

 

[George_Apley]

Re: Boston to Cape rail

I'm skeptical of a parallel span's utility unless, as CSTH points out, the accompanying roadway remains separate enough from the existing roadways to actually diffuse traffic. Will it just be kicking traffic a mile forward or back, or will it actually mitigate the traffic problems?

 

[Arlington]

Re: Boston to Cape rail

How does it help to have three lanes in each direction if you still have to merge into two on either end?

On the Mainland, they have 2 lanes on US6 and 2-going-to-3 on MA3. That's 4 or 5 lanes each way necking down to 2 today, but 3 with a new bridge: plenty of capacity to take/handle 3 lanes each way across the Canal.

On the Cape, it probably means more traffic on Sandwich Rd (MA 6A), and a push to widen US 6 to/from its Exit 2 (MA130)

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Re: Boston to Cape rail

According to the news segment on WBZ, the bridge will be tolled and will be as a public-private sector road. In terms of a tunnel, it could be done offsite like the third harbor tunnel and in terms of cost a quick google search says the widest spot of the Cape Cod Canal is 150 meters in width (from shore to shore) and the deepest 32 meters in depth. If they excavated a space, floated in the tunnel segment by barge and sunk it like the third Harbor Tunnel the lenth of the Cape Cod canal tunnel wouldn't even be 1/10th the length of the third harbor tunnel. Which afterall passes beneath the Fort Point Channel, South Boston, the Harbor, and a part of East Boston.

That is exactly what they said LAST YEAR when this same exact story was floated. It didn't hold up to scrutiny on costs back then, it won't hold up to scrutiny on costs now. The "public-private" part didn't hold up to scrutiny either, because private tolling has an awful ripoff of public money the places it has been tried in the U.S.

And it's a moot point anyway because the Cape's residents are so violently against a new bridge dumping traffic onto 4 deficient lanes of Route 6 that this story won't survive the summer. Like it didn't last year. Until it's inevitably trotted out again and again and again as a rehashed press release. This is being pushed by weekenders and Boston-area moneyed interests who want to get on the Cape, not the townies who have to commute off of it. The advocacy is inverse to what you usually see in this situation.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Re: Boston to Cape rail

I'm skeptical of a parallel span's utility unless, as CSTH points out, the accompanying roadway remains separate enough from the existing roadways to actually diffuse traffic. Will it just be kicking traffic a mile forward or back, or will it actually mitigate the traffic problems?

It's parallel to the Sagamore, so no...it would do zero except overstuff 6. This is where every...single...#3 span proposal has failed in the past.


What they need to do first is the obvious: fix the 1950's design deficiencies on 6 west of Exit 5. It has no shoulders, so even on 9-5 commutes in February you get 5-mile backups with every spinout. What's been the great lesson from the decades of Route 128 improvements? That resiliency has a more positive effect on traffic flow than raw capacity. We see that every day up here when the shoulder-less SE Expressway FUBARs at the drop of a hat for hours on end while 128, with its max-width and fully up-to-interstate spec right and left shoulders can clear out even a bad accident disruption in half hour or less. It's not lane capacity, it's road geometry and what drivers do at what speed when they have to swerve around a disruption.

6 might be the worst expressway in the entire state for that. Its right shoulder is gravel...it's not even paved. The paved shoulders are a foot wide on each side. It took yet another fatal accident last year to get MassHighway off its ass to brush-cut the left crabgrass median and all the overgrowth tree branches that were compromising sightlines. Like, seriously...people are driving on this on the last-mile approach to the Sagamore. They're getting on at zero-margin ramps like this. And MassDOT is dumbfounded why it backs up on the A.M. commute? And the first thought that pops into their tiny little brains is that we need another frickin' bridge to dump more traffic on all that?


Come on. This isn't even expensive. The gravel on the right is already landscaped to the full width. The crabgrass median is jersey-barrierble to get the full width on the left, and landscapable when it widens out. There are no bridges whatsoever between exits. Exits 2, 3, and 4 can all be converted from completely deficient hairpin half-cloverleafs to more compact diamonds with traffic lights and much longer merge room, with elimination of the pre-bridge cloverleaf merges providing the extra width on the existing bridges for the shoulder widening. It's a near-zero EIS affair, and a zero abutter impact affair at the exits (hell, it would compact the lateral footprint of the exits), and takes not one ounce of steel because the bridges are untouched.

Will they ever consider this? Of course not! It doesn't add lane capacity, and that's no fun! Would it solve the backups? Yes, it would. Because it removes the cause of 80% of the accidents that bork the highway for the commuters who actually live there and use it year-round every weekday, and all the flow kinks for getting around a disablement, and eliminates the flow kinks at every single exit merge by getting rid of those godawful parkway-style zero-sightline ramps.

I honestly think it'll take a state rep getting killed in a horrific accident or something for the obvious to get front-burnered. They just don't give a fuck, because this is all about a giveaway to the rich folks who don't live there giving them a extra capacity for a weekend getaway, and nothing about the actual residents or the actual traffic flow on the Cape. And for those of you citing storm evacuation as a reason? Which do you think matters more: a third bridge, or getting to the frickin' canal in one piece? Because that is not happening at all when this stretch of 6 is the primary evac route. People are better off taking their chances staying at home than sitting in a their cars on 6 in the middle of a hurricane and needing to get rescued by the thousands by the National Guard, 128 in Blizzard of '78-style.

The bridge is completely, totally the wrong set of questions to be asking about why the traffic doesn't move and what can be done about it. It's maybe 5th or 6th on the list. And all of the Top 5 would do more, cost less combined, and do less harm in the process.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Re: Boston to Cape rail

The only 'pricey' things worth consideration beyond simply doing the eat-your-peas upgrades of 4-lane, existing-capacity 6 to interstate geometry are:

Load-balancing the Bourne and Sagamore. The Bourne is always the less-congested of the two bridges, and usually doesn't back up at all on 9-5 commutes. We know that in any given month there are some nights/weekends where bridge upkeep is going to periodically result in a lane closure on at least one direction of one of the bridges for anywhere from a single day to up to a week or two. These bridges are in the same category of the Tobin and Braga in being saltwater, open-ocean crossings that by-design (planned, i.e. has nothing to do with age or structural integrity) they require neverending year-long amounts of small maintenance.

So you have to find a better way of load-balancing the traffic that skews overwhelmingly N-S on 3 and less so E-W / NW-SE on 25/195/495. Overloading Sandwich Rd. and Scenic Hwy. are not an option, because they're already fucked on a daily basis when 6 is backed up.

-- Complete the 3 add-a-lane to Duxbury and end that road's godawful breakdown lane travel. And none of this "managed lane" garbage that's in the same category of a private toll bridge in being a for-profit scam that costs the state more money than they think they're saving and imposes a class-biased "privileged commute" on areas of the South Shore that aren't loaded with money. I can't believe after some of the debacles in the Midwest and South with private managed lane scams that MassDOT--and Gov. Patrick--were so tone-deaf as to seriously think that was a good idea.

Eat your peas and get 6 lanes there. It's non-optional. They already did the capacity expansion by giving everyone their god-blessed permanent right to wreak havoc in the breakdown lane, so fix it. For the same reason they fixed it on 128 and upped that road's resiliency to failure tenfold.


-- Complete the Bourne rotary flyover that's been so long-delayed. It'll loosen up that bridge on the Cape side quite a bit and enable the extra flow and capacity to be a heavier load-bearing alt route to the Sagamore.


-- Complete the Route 44 expressway in Middleboro and fix the fucked 495/18/28/44 rotary from hell with a genuine flyover to 495. Do the rotary fix first since that makes the most difference. The Super-2 roadway's already configured for the add-a-lane to 4 lanes on the 3.5 miles from Route 58 to the end of grade separation at Route 105, only needing another bridge carriageway over Carmel St. Do that second. Then do the 4 miles of grade separation to 495 last. They got the original highway upgrade from Plymouth to Carver done nicely within budget back in 2001; this is the comparably easier leg to finish with exception of that complex (but high-priority) 495 interchange.

Sign the living shit out of this road as the preferred alternate route to the Cape from Boston. Do it on 3 so people know when the 44-to-495-to-Bourne routing is better, And do it on 24 for 495-Raynham or 195-Westport so they know which one of those is less-congested...or when the Bourne is the one that's having a lane closure this week and they should cut down 495-to-44-to-3 instead. I'm talking like signs popping up in Brockton and Weymouth promoting the options, with those newfangled "minutes to X" MassDOT billboards (the new permanent ones are really, really useful) drilling it into people's heads a half-hour in advance that they need to keep their options open and adjust their car/smart phone GPS's accordingly.


-- Have the difficult conversation and planning study about the Southside Connector between the Bourne and 6 just south of the Sagamore. It's always fallen apart because of hand-wringing over the aquifer and contamination at the abandoned north half of Otis. It's time. And if the stupid thing they keep floating is the bridge that always gets shot down, then the residents are going to be much more willing to negotiate down to the Connector at long last. Go through the pain of the EIS and just get it the hell over with. 4-lane connector somewhere after Exit 2 on 6 to the Bourne rotary flyover, whichever trajectory is least environmentally invasive.

This is the genuine load-balancer that puts it all together. Then sign the shit out of that one way way back to Yarmouth so everyone knows which bridge is less-congested today. The combo of having a more resilient 6 feeding the bridges and good either/or options for getting north to Boston is what'll lick this traffic flow problem more or less permanently. Everything after that is just managing the induced demand (something another bridge most definitely works against).


-- Complete the 4-mile gap in the 28 expressway from the Bourne rotary to Connery Ave. rotary. 28's normally not that bad, but remember...Falmouth has no shot at commuter rail to manage its long-term induced demand. And the expressway is up to modern spec south of there.

Take the northbound carriageway that doesn't have the curb cuts and widen it into a 4-lane + jersey barrier expressway. Downgrade the SB carriageway to a 2-lane frontage road for the local businesses and extend the Route 28A designation up to the bridge. The local biz always opposes this one, which has a lot to do with why the highway only has the grade separation where the area gets residential. I think at this point there's enough traffic that the local retailers have little to worry about in loss of traffic vs. in the 1970's when the expressway's completion stalled out. Besides, it's becoming more or an "Automile" and national-chain bank and fast food wasteland with fewer 'true' mom-and-pops than there used to be.

EIS'ing wouldn't be hard because the entire east-facing area is sand-pit mining behind the tree buffer. Get it done and Falmouth's got its pick-a-bridge too.


-- Re-badging the highways.
** I-93 should take over the MA 3 designation to the Sagamore. I-x95 takes over the Braintree-Canton segment. No-brainer...people have been asking for this for years.

** I-195 should take over the MA 25 designation to the Bourne since that's the prevailing travel direction from 25 vs. 495. May mean straightening out the trumpet interchange with 495 so it's a high-speed left-exit split in the NB/WB direction.

** I-195 should get the Southside Connector designation from the Bourne and outright displace US 6 to the end of the interstate-grade highway (including the slightly more up-to-spec stretch between Exits 5 and 9. If 6 gets add-a-lane'd to Exit 11 like MassDOT keeps proposing for the Chatham traffic and the residents keep opposing, extend the designation down the Super-2. Otherwise 195 just ends and takes on a state route designation on the Super-2 the rest of the way, since it's probably not going to get widened all the way to Orleans.

** US 44 takes on an I-x93 designation, signifying it as a preferred alternate and connecting route. Extend the I-x93 designation on a concurrency with 495 up to the Route 24 interchange so that alternate route is crystal clear.

** 24 gets an I-x95 designation. Not totally related to this since South Coast has been asking for it for years, but might as well get it over with.

** US 6 displaces MA 6A and stays entirely on the streets. Promote this as the main business route--not thru route--for the Bay side of the Cape. That's one of the reasons why I favor an I-195 bleed-out for the expressway, even though it has to switch over to a state route (MA 195?) at the start of the Super-2. It's psychological and marketing promo more than anything else.

** US 3 gets extended from its stupid illegal changeover to MA 3 halfway sown Memorial Drive, and snakes by some means down to 3A at Morrissey Blvd. Then takes over 3A on the South Shore. Not hard because it (illegally) shares MA 3's milepost count, and that's just nutty. Same psychological reason...restoring the premier business route while the expressways get the interstate shield. Where 3A currently ends at Exit 2 in Plymouth, keep it going down Shore Rd. to end at Scenic Hwy. and 6. US highway and primary business route terminating at US highway and primary business route. Much better.

-------------------------------------

And then...assumption that one of the very first components is going to be commuter rail Phase II returning to Hyannis in full-blown form and the CCRTA bus district getting a shot in the arm for better connections everywhere. I think the would-be Sagamore station is going to need some road work at Exit 1C on 6 WB because that side of the interchange dumps on/off a residential street unlike the much higher-capacity connector road on the EB/Market Basket side. Maybe a flyover ramp from WB to the connector and just making Cranberry Hwy. an intersection with Sandwich Rd. instead of an interchange is the answer for fixing that really awkward pre-bridge interchange.

Right now preferred siting for Sagamore station is directly under the bridge on that ugly strip of gas stations and heating oil companies with sandy backlots by the tracks. Ample parking space on the backlot, ample space for TOD, and the Connector road (provided they fix the 6 WB access to it) keeps the turning traffic onto Sandwich Rd. at the station pretty inocous. But it is private land acquisition, and the Chamber of Commerce really hasn't breached that issue with the local landowners or approached those businesses about relocation sites yet. Which is why the T is holding back on crossing the bridge for Phase I. That's the local authorities' deal to square before the state gets the green light to swoop in for the extra +1 stops, bridge opening arrangements, and +1.5 miles of signaling.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

I upgraded the name of the thread because it makes more sense to have everything here: rail and bridges to the Cape go hand in hand.

 

[cybah]

Re: Boston to Cape rail

Excellent post.. so much to touch on and I 100% agree with your post. I agree that many routes down in that part of that state (as with many in our state) should be fixed and converted to Interstates.

However.. You say:

-- Re-badging the highways.
** I-93 should take over the MA 3 designation to the Sagamore. I-x95 takes over the Braintree-Canton segment. No-brainer...people have been asking for this for years.

** I-195 should take over the MA 25 designation to the Bourne since that's the prevailing travel direction from 25 vs. 495. May mean straightening out the trumpet interchange with 495 so it's a high-speed left-exit split in the NB/WB direction.

I actually mentioned this on Uhub a while back because this would free up federal dollars to upgrade MA3 to interstate standards (south of derby street), and shift some of the state money that was used for the Braintree <-> Sagamore stretch now can be used to fix/upgrade MA3 from Sagamore to Provincetown.

But I was basically told from another user (roadman), was that there's a numbering scheme to highways and that most highways need to start/end at other highways. Since the 93 would just 'end' at no other interstate, it can't happen.

Of course you could get a waiver, but I was told waivers are very hard to get.

And if you did extend I-195 (or 495) via MA25 and via a new connector (as suggested by the toll bridge plan), then effectively end I-195 AND I-93 at the same point which, one would think, a waiver would not be needed since it meets interstate numbering guidelines.

However, it would be *nice* if the Sagamore bridge was included as I-93.. only to get federal dollars for the bridge itself (and maybe a possible replacement), but with what I've said above, it's unlikely (but it's nice to dream)

And as far as x95 from Canton to Braintree.. I think it was determined this would get the designation of I-595. (I think!)

 

[FK4]

Re: Boston to Cape rail

But I was basically told from another user (roadman), was that there's a numbering scheme to highways and that most highways need to start/end at other highways. Since the 93 would just 'end' at no other interstate, it can't happen.

Of course you could get a waiver, but I was told waivers are very hard to get.

1. Anyone wanna make a map of F-Line's proposals? (I am no map making wizard, but would be cool to see it laid out).

2. Re: stub end interstates, is that true? And if so, is it true only for double digit interstates or for all interstates? There are plenty of stub end triple digit interstates I can think of.

 

[FK4]

Re: Boston to Cape rail

Besides, it's becoming more or an "Automile" and national-chain bank and fast food wasteland with fewer 'true' mom-and-pops than there used to be.

It's been impressive (and sad, I guess) to watch almost every local business die here over the last ~15 years. I think the go-cart place finally bit the dust this year as well.

 

[citylover94]

They don't have to end at another highway per se. For example I-91 terminates at the canadian border and turns into Autoroute 55 in Quebec. So I don't see why it would be different at a southern terminus at the ocean. I am also sure they could get some sort of waiver if they prove there is a reason to extend the designation.

 

[Commuting Boston Student]

Re: Boston to Cape rail

But I was basically told from another user (roadman), was that there's a numbering scheme to highways and that most highways need to start/end at other highways. Since the 93 would just 'end' at no other interstate, it can't happen.

No, that's only for spur interstate routes (three digit numbering.) 93 can be redesignated to start and end wherever we like, provided the entire road is up to interstate standards.

The way the numbering scheme for spur routes works is that a spur interstate is assigned a NXX number where N is some single digit 1-9 and XX is the interstate from which it is a spur route.

Nominally, even N digits are used for beltways (which terminate at an interstate on either end) and odd N digits are used for routes which only terminate at an interstate on one end.

In practice? The system's littered with exceptions and idiosyncratic weirdness created by any number of circumstances. A good example of "idiosyncratic weirdness" is 395 and 290, which are quite literally the same damn road given two different designations.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Re: Boston to Cape rail

1. Anyone wanna make a map of F-Line's proposals? (I am no map making wizard, but would be cool to see it laid out).

2. Re: stub end interstates, is that true? And if so, is it true only for double digit interstates or for all interstates? There are plenty of stub end triple digit interstates I can think of.

2-digit interstates have no rules on what they can touch at their legal ends. I-10, a transcontinental route, ends at CA 1 on the west end...an undivided parkway with left-turn lanes, right on the beach in Santa Monica. That one wasn't even the result of a canceled freeway...it literally touches the Pacific Ocean, and that was the plan from Day 1 of the Interstate system.

They can also legally end on 3-digit interstates too when the 3-digit isn't one of their own. Nearest examples would be I-87 ending at I-278 in NYC, and I-97 ending at the I-695/I-895 concurrency in Baltimore.


So there's no issue here. 93 would end at Exit 1 when US 6 boards to cross the Sagamore. Same place at the foot of the Sagamore where (very illegal) MA 3 always has given way to 6. 6, of course, being one of the most well-known transcontinental federal highways in the world. That's "official" enough. 93 wouldn't have to be grandfathered onto the undivided bridge, either...just terminate milepost 0 at the same place MA 3 does where it touches 6.

195 would have to get a grandfathering for the Bourne, but the rules for 3-digits are a lot more flexible that way. The short gap between the Southside Connector where 195 leaves the current US 6 alignment for the Bourne and where off-expressway relocated US 6 joins back up for the Sagamore at Exit 1 can just be one of those "secret" unsigned state routes, with the signage at the Southside split saying "TO 93". Basically just call it a super-long Exit 1 that forks into "Exit 1C - 6 East, Sandwich Rd.", "Exit 1B - 6 West, Scenic Highway", and "Exit 1A - 93 North"...with Exit 1A just meaning straight ahead.


3 digit numbering rules are a lot squishier in actual application. Supposed to be that even-numbered prefixes touch an interstate--any interstate, 2-digit, 3-digit of same parent, 3-digit of different parent--on 2 ends. Odd numbers touch any interstate on only one end. And even that much is very squishy in actual application (hellloooo, I-395...and that was totally the feds' decision because CT/MA asked for an I-290 extension south of the Pike and this is what they got instead).

So...

-- 195 is grandfathered as an odd number because it got to Wareham first before 495 did. It would not touch 93 directly when it goes on the Cape because 93 terminates on the mainland and the Sagamore carries 6 + the un-numbered connector. State-level duplicates like MA 195 for the unmodernized Super-2 section out to Orleans are OK if that just makes it easier. The feds frown upon it when it's a separate road in another part of the state, but it's common practice for continuing stubs of canceled highways.

-- US 44, if completed would be an even-numbered x93 because it spans 495 and 93. Maybe 493 ("93 to 495"), since they might want to save 293 for the New Hampshire 3-digit to take over the other Route 3 expressway.

-- Canton-Braintree would be an even I-x95, since it spans 93 and 95. I think it would be just desserts to assign I-695 to that one.

-- MA 24 would be an even-numbered x95 because it spans I-x95 in Randolph to 195 in Fall River. So (since we're running out of x95's), that's either 695, 895, or an odd-numbered rule-breaker.


93's the only one the feds really care about for funding, since 3-digits are largely just a re-badging of state-controlled expressways that meet interstate standards. But they've got a very strong case for approving it because it's the natural N-S terminus for 93. The only reason that was not in the cards the first time around was because 93 was supposed to terminate downtown at 95/695 before the Inner Belt and SW Expressway were canceled. The SE Expressway to Mass Ave. was the northern extent of Route 3, and the "it's still 128 to me, damnit!" Canton-Braintree part was just bare 128 until the early-70's after the highway construction moratorium got slapped down and 93 was extended south of the Tobin Bridge split to wrap around to Canton. So, really, they should've fixed this glitch like 40 years ago. And could've easily done so if they didn't choose the awkward Canton wraparound instead.

"We want to fix the glitch" is a perfectly valid pitch to the feds for taking 93 to the foot of the Sagamore and getting some help on the add-a-lane to scrape another pants-on-fire stupid segment of breakdown lane travel off the books.

 

[CantabAmager]

1. Anyone wanna make a map of F-Line's proposals? (I am no map making wizard, but would be cool to see it laid out).

Here's a go at mapping out the re-badged interstates, plus 3A extension and US6 superseding 6A. Could add in some of the specific improvements F-Line talked about later on.

EDIT: Red/Orange are interstates, just used them for the sake of differentiation, no objective difference between them. Teal(ish) designates non-interstates