U.S. Route 6 in Massachusetts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the Route 6 that existed in the early 1920s, see Route 3 (Massachusetts) and U.S. Route 3 (Massachusetts).
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| U.S. Route 6 |
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| Length: | 117.46 mi (189.03 km) | ||||||||
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| Formed: | 1926 | ||||||||
| West end: |  US 6 in East Providence, RI |
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| Major junctions: |
 Route 24 in Fall River Route 140 in New Bedford  Routes 25/28 in Bourne Route 3 in Bourne |
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| East end: |  Route 6A in Provincetown |
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Route 6 is the portion of the cross-country U.S. Route 6 in the state of Massachusetts. Route 6 runs 117.46 miles (189.03 km) in the state connecting Providence, Rhode Island to Fall River, New Bedford, and Cape Cod. In the Fall River and New Bedford areas, Route 6 is a secondary highway paralleling Interstate 195. Within Cape Cod, Route 6 is the primary highway interconnecting the towns of the area.
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[edit] Route description
Route 6 is a 4-lane arterial road for approximately its first 54 miles (87 km) from the Rhode Island line (crossing into Massachusetts from East Providence to Seekonk) to the Cape Cod Canal, except for sections in New Bedford (where it runs along two one-way city streets) and Fall River (where it runs along a two-lane President Avenue).
After crossing the canal via the Sagamore Bridge, it becomes a 4-lane freeway, known as the Mid-Cape Highway, from Bourne to Dennis at the Exit 9A/B cloverleaf (Mile 78), then reduces to a two-lane freeway with plastic stanchions posted on a small asphalt median. This section of the road is locally known as "Suicide Alley" due to the large number of fatal accidents along this stretch. It remains like this until Orleans, where the freeway ends at a large rotary (Mile 90.6).
Through Eastham and North Truro, U.S. 6 is a 4-lane surface street. Through Wellfleet and southern Truro, U.S. 6 is a former 3-lane road converted to 2 lanes with shoulders. In Provincetown, U.S. 6 ends as it started in the state, as a surface expressway once again until it comes to an end at Route 6A at the Cape Cod National Seashore. For the last several miles of its existence near Provincetown Route 6 east is actually heading west-southwest.
[edit] History
Before the U.S. Highway system, the route from Rhode Island to Bourne, and from Orleans to Provincetown, was part of New England Interstate Route 3 (NE-3). Within the Upper Cape, however, NE-3 went along what is now Route 28 between Bourne and Orleans. The U.S. 6 designation was instead applied to the route on the north shore of Cape Cod, which was known as New England Interstate Route 6 before 1926 (now Route 6A).
When U.S. 6 was first routed through Provincetown in 1926, the highway was signed along the rather narrow Commercial Street. After the Provincetown U.S. 6 bypass was built, congestion and the increasing size of automobiles forced the town to post most of Commercial Street (all but the easternmost mile that hits the Truro line) as one-way westbound. Route 6A, when signed, was placed along the paralleling Bradford Street instead. There was an alternate plan at the time to make Bradford one-way westbound and Commercial one-way eastbound (which would have made both roads Route 6A), but this was rejected, as the town decided instead to let incoming traffic through the heavy Commercial Street (almost entirely pedestrian) business district.
U.S. 6 was briefly signed on current I-195 between Route 105 and Route 28; however, when I-195 was completed, and the I-195 designation took over that section of freeway, U.S. 6 reverted back to its older route.
Formerly, U.S. 6 took both sides along the Cape Cod canal (and was signed as "BYPASS 6"), but is now routed only on the north side (The south side is now signed "TO 6" from the Sagamore to the Bourne Bridge). However, a single "BYPASS 6" sign still exists just north of the Bourne Bridge rotary.
[edit] Exit list
| Town | Number | Mile | Route and destinations | Notes |
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| Bourne | 1A/1B | 54 | JCT  Route 3 — Quincy, Boston Route 3A — Sagamore Beach U.S. Route 6 (west) — Buzzards Bay, Providence U.S. Route 6 (east) — Barnstable, Provincetown |
Exit numbering shared between Routes 3 & 6 |
| Sagamore Bridge (Cape Cod Canal crossing) | ||||
| 1C | 55 | Route 6A — Sagamore |
Westbound ramps feed into old Sagamore Bridge approach (old US-6) |
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| Sandwich | 2 | 58 |  Route 130 — Sandwich, Mashpee |
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| 3 | 60 | Quaker Meetinghouse Road — East Sandwich | ||
| 4 | 64 | Chase Road — East Sandwich, West Barnstable | ||
| Barnstable | 5 | 66 |  Route 149 — Marstons Mills, West Barnstable |
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| 6 | 68 |  Route 132 — Barnstable, Hyannis |
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| Yarmouth | 7 | 72 | Willow Street — Yarmouth Port, West Yarmouth | |
| 8 | 74 | Union Street — Yarmouth, Dennis | ||
| Dennis | 9 | 78 |  Route 134 — West Harwich, Dennis Port, Dennis |
Split into 9A and 9B |
| Harwich | 10 | 80 |  Route 124 — Harwich, Brewster |
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| 11 | 84 |  Route 137 — Brewster, Chatham |
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| Orleans | 12 | 88 | Route 6A — Orleans, East Brewster |
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| Orleans/Eastham line | (13) | 90 | JCT at Orleans Rotary U.S. Route 6 (west) — Barnstable, Bourne U.S. Route 6 (east) — Provincetown Route 28 — Chatham Route 6A — Brewster |
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The Orleans Rotary was once officially Exit 13. A sign labeling the turnoff to Routes 6A/28 once marked it as "Exit 13S", however the signage was removed in 1985.
There are also two freeway-style interchanges on the surface arterial portion in Truro. The first is near Mile 106 for the Pamet Roads, and the second is near Mile 110 for Highland Road. These exits are not numbered.
[edit] Miscellanea
The two-lane freeway section has a secondary, less-formal name of "Suicide Alley," due to the high number of fatalities from head-on collisions before the median improvements were constructed. (When the two-lane freeway stretch was first built, it was marked with passing zones like any other two-lane highway. The small asphalt/stanchion median was built in stages beginning in 1989 and finishing in 1992.) The Mid-Cape Highway carries a speed limit of 55 on the standard freeway and 50 on the two-lane freeway. This speed limit is rarely enforced. Most people rarely go the posted limit because of it being considered too slow.
[edit] See also
- Route 6A - alignment in Cape Cod of Route 6 prior to the construction of the freeway segment
- Route 28 - original alignment of New England Route 3 in Cape Cod
| U.S. Route 6 |
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| Previous state: Rhode Island |
Massachusetts | Next state: Terminus |
