Rt 128 Interchanges

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mass88

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Charlie_mta said:
Highway infrastructure projects never get done in the Boston metro area. They get picked to death by all the busybodies, and there is no leadership to make it happen. Many fine proposals come and go. The exceptions in the last 50 years have been the Big Dig and also a couple of bridge replacements over the Charles.
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It's a shame the 93/95 interchange in Woburn and 93/95 interchange in Canton projects have stalled. Those are two major interchanges that badly need to be rebuilt with flyover ramps, and acceleration and deceleration lanes that run for 1.5-2 miles before and after.
 
mass88 said:
It's a shame the 93/95 interchange in Woburn and 93/95 interchange in Canton projects have stalled. Those are two major interchanges that badly need to be rebuilt with flyover ramps, and acceleration and deceleration lanes that run for 1.5-2 miles before and after.
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Why has that stalled? I did a quick search but couldn’t find a definite.

(Mods feel free to move...🙂)
 
palindrome said:
Why has that stalled? I did a quick search but couldn’t find a definite.

(Mods feel free to move...🙂)
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www.patriotledger.com

$400 million headed to South Shore transit projects

Over $400 million is slated to flow to transportation projects on the South Shore, but 75 percent is for just one project.
www.patriotledger.com

Looks like money has been allocated for the Canton interchange. Glad to see the state will be investing in upgrading roadway infrastructure and rebuilding this key interchange.

www.mass.gov

I-93/I-95 Interchange Improvements Project

The I-93/I-95 Interchange Improvements Project covers the junction of these two Interstate Highways in Woburn, Reading, Stoneham, and extends along I-95 into Wakefield.
www.mass.gov www.mass.gov

Meanwhile 93/95 in Woburn is on hold.
 
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mass88 said:
It's a shame the 93/95 interchange in Woburn and 93/95 interchange in Canton projects have stalled. Those are two major interchanges that badly need to be rebuilt with flyover ramps, and acceleration and deceleration lanes that run for 1.5-2 miles before and after.
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God, after the mess they made out of the Route 9/128 interchange maybe we are better off leaving things alone. Here they took a mostly well-functioning basic cloverleaf and made it into a weird level crossing configuration with left turns and traffic lights. Who the hell thought that that would function better???
 
chmeeee said:
If you saw the map of crashes in that interchange you wouldn't use those words. The reconstruction removed all of the weaves, it's a huge improvement.
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And added confusion, collision points and potential head-on collisions that weren't even possible before. Had you tried to get out of Wellesley Office Park at rush hour? The thing is a giant Cluster F.
 
BostonTrainGuy said:
And added confusion, collision points and potential head-on collisions that weren't even possible before. Had you tried to get out of Wellesley Office Park at rush hour? The thing is a giant Cluster F.
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There was never going to be a viable solution to fixing that mess, other than relocation of the access point. It's just too close to the interchange.
 
chmeeee said:
How would the new design contribute to that?
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Drivers are now forced to take left turns from two left lanes across opposing traffic on Route 9 which is a posted 45 mph roadway through this area. There is the potential for such serious accidents that were physically impossible with a cloverleaf design.

Maybe no one will speed over 45 mph (I bet you 60 mph is common through there) and maybe no one will run the red lights (it is Massachusetts), but why even create the possibility when you had a tried-and-true solution in place?
 
BostonTrainGuy said:
Drivers are now forced to take left turns from two left lanes across opposing traffic on Route 9 which is a posted 45 mph roadway through this area. There is the potential for such serious accidents that were physically impossible with a cloverleaf design.
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If they had to modify it, they should have gone with the type shown below. At least the potential for head-on collisions from making left turns into traffic isn't as great:
intpclo.jpg
 
BostonTrainGuy said:
Drivers are now forced to take left turns from two left lanes across opposing traffic on Route 9 which is a posted 45 mph roadway through this area. There is the potential for such serious accidents that were physically impossible with a cloverleaf design.

Maybe no one will speed over 45 mph (I bet you 60 mph is common through there) and maybe no one will run the red lights (it is Massachusetts), but why even create the possibility when you had a tried-and-true solution in place?
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To get onto 95? No one is forced to make left turns across active traffic to get onto 95N/S. They have both entrances signalized, so no one has to make dangerous left turns.
 
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How about a discussion for major Route 95 (former 128) interchanges since every major one (93 Reading, US 3 Burlington, 90 Weston, 95/93 Canton, Rt 24 Randolph) are all in "failure mode" most of every day.
 
chmeeee said:
I just looked at the MassDOT crash portal. Between 2013-15 there were 194 crashes in the interchange. Between 2015-17 there were 25. The signal was turned on in 2015.
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I suppose you could make it a giant four way stop to get that number to 0 but how efficient would the traffic flow be? I used to drive through there everyday and found it very aggravating. The cloverleaf worked fine.
 
reno said:
How about a discussion for major Route 95 (former 128) interchanges since every major one (93 Reading, US 3 Burlington, 90 Weston, 95/93 Canton, Rt 24 Randolph) are all in "failure mode" most of every day.
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MassDOT eventually needs to rebuild these key interchanges to widen/add lanes before and after to allow for proper acceleration and deceleration.
 
mass88 said:
MassDOT eventually needs to rebuild these key interchanges to widen/add lanes before and after to allow for proper acceleration and deceleration.
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In some cases I have no idea how they fix the inherent problems. The 93/95 interchange in Woburn suffers from other exits being way too close such that proper acceleration and exit lanes are nearly impossible.
 
JeffDowntown said:
In some cases I have no idea how they fix the inherent problems. The 93/95 interchange in Woburn suffers from other exits being way too close such that proper acceleration and exit lanes are nearly impossible.
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The adjacent exits are part/parcel inclusive of the reconstructions. Braintree Split project area was to treat the MA 37, Washington St./Quincy Adams, and Furnace Brook Pkwy. exits bounding its three sides with extra frontage work to eliminate weaving. Canton Split was to include a dedicated I-95 offramp for University Ave. to eliminate that weave and also complete the missing Dedham St. ramps on 95. Burlington Split fix was supposed to fix the horrible geometry and partially combine ramps for US 3 and Middlesex Turnpike. Don't know if we ever got far enough into final design to see the complete picture on Woburn, but given how utterly ad hoc the Washington St. ramps are something was due to be radically reorganized there.
 
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