Massachusetts Route 2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Route 2 |
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| Length: | 142.29[1] mi (228.99 km) | ||||||||||||
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| West end: |  NY 2 in Petersburgh, NY |
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| Major junctions: |
 I-91 in Greenfield US 202 in Athol I-190 in Leominster I-495 in Littleton  I-95/Route 128 in Lexington US 3 in Cambridge |
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| East end: |  Route 28 in Boston |
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Route 2 is a major east-west state highway in Massachusetts. Along with Route 9 and Route 20 to the South, these highways are the main alternatives to the Massachusetts Turnpike/I-90 toll highway. Route 2 runs the entire length of Massachusetts, beginning at the New York border, where it connects with New York State Route 2.
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[edit] Route description
Route 2 proceeds east from the New York state line on a winding, scenic path in Williamstown. It serves the Williams College area and North Adams. West of North Adams, Route 2 ascends via a hairpin turn into the Berkshire Mountains along the old Mohawk Trail.
It then goes from Berkshire County into Franklin County, Massachusetts, running into Interstate 91 at an interchange in Greenfield and briefly runs concurrent with the interstate highway. At this point the old Route 2 becomes Route 2A and goes through downtown Greenfield. Route 2, however, exits off I-91, becoming a freeway briefly before becoming a two-lane freeway. Outside of Greenfield, Route 2A temporarily ends and merges with Route 2. Route 2 then becomes a regular two-lane surface road in Gill and through Erving though it has some grade-separated interchanges in Millers Falls at its intersection with Route 63. There is another gap in the two-lane freeway in the Erving area).
Once the road enters the Town of Orange, Route 2A resumes and breaks off Route 2. At this point Route 2 again becomes a two-lane freeway. In Orange, Route 2 runs concurrent with US 202. The road at this point enters Worcester County, Massachusetts. After its eastern interchange in Phillipston when US 202 breaks off to the north, Route 2 becomes a full four lane freeway, though not to Interstate standards in most points. It continues through Gardner and Leominster, where Interstate 190 begins, heading south to Worcester.
Route 2 continues east to Middlesex County, Massachusetts. At this point it enters Boston's outer loop as it interchanges with Interstate 495. It continues as a freeway until it goes into Acton, where it runs into Piper Road and Taylor Road at a traffic light (Exit 44). At this point the freeway ends and Route 2 becomes a regular divided highway at most points and just a four lane highway at other points. At the Concord Rotary, a major traffic choke point, Route 2 intersects with Route 2A and the beginning of Route 119 (which is overlapped with 2A at that point). After the rotary the road loses its dividing wall as it passes past the State Police (who have an emergency-only traffic light) and over the Assabet River. Route 2A used to then break away from Route 2 at the next traffic light to go left into Concord but is now overlaid with Route 2. At Crosby's Corner, the sixth intersection after the rotary, Route 2A goes straight while Route 2 veers right (but still heads east). The highway loses its dividing wall until the Bedford St intersection in Lincoln where it becomes divided again. MassHighway currently expects to rebuild the Crosby Corner intersection and create a dividing wall from there to Bedford St in 2009-2011.
At this point Route 2 enters Lexington and still is a divided 4-lane road with surface intersections. It then heads to Boston's inner belt, crossing Interstate 95/Route 128. From there, Route 2 is a six-lane and then eight-lane limited access highway until Exit 60, where it narrows with little warning to six lanes and then to four lanes. This section of freeway actually meets the standards of an interstate highway. The final off-ramp leads directly to the large parking garage at the MBTA Alewife Station. At this point the road heads into Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The limited access freeway portion ends at a signalized intersection, where it merges with U.S. Route 3 south and Route 16 west in Cambridge and continues as a four-lane surface road to the Boston Public Garden. Route 2 officially ends at Route 28 at the intersection of Charles Street and Beacon Street at the Boston Common.
[edit] Planned Improvements
At least two major improvements to Route 2 are planned for Concord MA over the next 5 of so years through the Boston regional Metropolitan Planning Organization.
- Crosby's Corner: Current planning would eliminate the light, provide service roads and on and off ramps for the intersection.
- Concord Rotary: Current planning would eliminate the rotary with traffic lights.
[edit] Towns along the route
[edit] History
In the early 1920s, Route 2 was known as New England Interstate Route 7 (NE-7), a major road connecting Boston with Troy, New York. NE-7 ran roughly where Route 2A (the original surface alignment of Route 2) does now except near the New York state line. NE-7 used current Route 43 (Massachusetts), New York State Route 43 and New York State Route 66 to reach Troy. Current Route 2 from Williamstown to Petersburgh was previosuly numbered as Route 96.
Route 2 was originally planned to continue as Boston's northwest expressway (freeway) to a junction with Interstate 695, the Inner Beltway, but this, along with the Inner Beltway itself, was cancelled in 1970, accounting for the abrupt narrowing at Alewife.
