Some slow spots, and a lot of construction. That’s likely what commuters have noticed when driving from the Massachusetts Turnpike to 95/128 northbound over the last two months. The interchange is in the midst of a sweeping construction project that will last five years.
By the end of the project, the area will have eight bridges that are either brand new or repaired. To accommodate the roadwork, only one lane of traffic is flowing on the Pike ramps coming and going from 128 northbound.
Now that this phase of the project is fully underway, Boston 25′s traffic anchor Catherine Parrotta met with MassDOT Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver to assess the traffic impacts, and what commuters will gain from it.
Gulliver says one of the goals of this project is to improve the safety and service of the bridges at the interchange.
“There won’t be any increase in capacity, so there’s not going to be extra lanes,” Gulliver explained. “But the improvement by not having that part curve that you currently experience means that traffic won’t have as many stops as it currently does.”
As for the traffic impacts in the meantime, Gulliver says the daily commuter will mostly notice the construction activity. Boston 25 wanted to show you exactly what to expect, so Catherine took a drive through this area with photojournalist Ken Lucas.
Their video shows where the lane reduction occurs, and the resulting traffic slowdown.
Catherine also reviewed MassDOT data from the peak of the morning commute from October of 2024 and compared that to the data from October of 2023. She didn’t find a notable uptick in drive times near the construction zone.
Gulliver says the area will see greater impacts during two weekends in May when only one lane of traffic on the Pike will be open in each direction to allow for rapid bridge replacement.
But vehicular traffic wasn’t the only impact that was considered. This project is also happening near the rails.
“Our main goal [...] is not to disrupt their main service hours. So very tightly coordinating with them to make sure that the work that we’re doing, whether it’s working over the rail, if we’re swinging beams or steel or whatever it might be doing, we’re going to be doing it during off-service hours when we can do it safely without disrupting rail traffic,” Gulliver noted.
Until the conclusion of the project in 2028, Gulliver recommends planning ahead and checking traffic conditions before your trip.
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