Many Massachusetts Highway Exit Numbers Could Soon Change

Photo by Doug Kerr on Flickr/Creative Commons

What’s your exit? Are you sure?

MassDOT is preparing for a sweeping change of exit numbers on the Bay State’s highways as a result of a federally mandated conversion. Exit numbers on Interstates 93, 495, 295, and 195 would be affected by the proposed change.

The Federal Highway Administration now requires all highway exit signs to be based on mileage, as was already the case in 45 other states, including Maine. Massachusetts is currently one of the few that still sequentially numbers its exits on the Interstate, as its done since 1964.

As the Sun-Chronicle reports, the FHA has been awfully tight-lipped about the whole thing. As of now, nothing has been finalized and there’s no timeline for the rollout. However, Hingham archivist and Mass. highway expert Robert Malme told the Sun-Chronicle that the exit numbers on I-95 would be assigned according to their distance from the Rhode Island state line.

According to a list of proposed exit numbers Malme claimed is from a MassDOT project bid page, the exit numbers would change little in some areas and drastically elsewhere. Instead of new exit signs, the state would attach “tabs” to existing exit signs the new numbers, as well as its former exit number for two years.