| Route 18 | ||||
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| Route information | ||||
| Length: | 41.59 mi[1] (66.93 km) | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| South end: | US 6 in New Bedford[1] | |||
| I-195 in New Bedford I-495 in Middleborough US 44/Route 28 in Middleborough Route 3 in Weymouth |
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| North end: | Route 53 in Weymouth | |||
| Highway system | ||||
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Massachusetts State Highway Routes
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Route 18 is a south–north state highway in southeastern Massachusetts.
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Route 18 starts as a four-lane freeway, a continuation of John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway in downtown New Bedford, at U.S. Route 6. After the intersection with I-195, Route 18 runs via surface streets parallel to Route 140 for a while, up to a connector road with Route 140 northbound. (Before its highway route was construction, Route 140 followed County Road from Taunton until terminating at Route 18 in Freetown near the New Bedford line.) Route 18 then continues on a generally northerly direction. The highway goes through the East Freetown section of Freetown, Lakeville (with a three-mile (5 km) concurrency with Route 105 along Assawompset Pond), Middleborough, where the highway meets U.S. Route 44 and Route 28 at the Middleboro rotary just north of Interstate 495, beginning a six-mile (10 km) concurrency with Route 28 until the center of Bridgewater, East Bridgewater, Whitman, Abington, and Weymouth, ending at Route 53.
A major fault of Route 18 north of Bridgewater is its intersection patterns. At all lights north of Bridgewater center, the road widens to four lanes temporarily, before and after the intersection. While this helps alleviate backups at the lights and assists vehicles turning left off of the route, it creates bottlenecks after the intersection, where the two lanes re-merge into one. To help this, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation's Highway Division will be widening the section of Route 18 From Highland Place in Weymouth to Route 139 In Abington from 2 to 4 lanes. The $26 million project is expected to begin in 2013.
The exits on the Route 18 freeway are unnumbered.
| Town | Mile | Destination(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The portion of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway begins at . JFK Memorial Highway south of is an unnumbered highway. |
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| New Bedford | 0.00 | US 6 | Southern terminus of Route 18. |
| 0.3 | Hillman Street | Northbound entrance only; no exit. | |
| 0.5 | Purchase Street | Southbound exit only; no entrance. | |
| 1.1 | I-195 | Interstate 195, Exit 15. No access to Route 18 north from I-195. No access to I-195 from Route 18 south. |
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| Freeway ends at ; continues as a surface road | |||
This is a listing of Route 18's intersections with numbered highways which are not located on a freeway section.
| County | Location | Milepost | Roads Intersected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol | New Bedford | 4.6 | Route 140 | Route 140, exit 6. Southbound exit and northbound entrance via unnumbered connector road. |
| Plymouth | Lakeville | 13.4 | Route 105 | Southern terminus of Route 18/105 concurrency. |
| 16.1 | Route 105 | Northern terminus of Route 18/105 concurrency. | ||
| 18.0 | Route 79 | |||
| Middleborough | 19.6 | I-495 | Interstate 495, Exit 5. | |
| 20.0 | US 44 Route 28 |
Rotary. Southern terminus of Route 18/28 concurrency. |
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| Bridgewater | 26.1 | Route 104 | Signed as a rotary. Southern terminus of Route 18/28/104 concurrency. |
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| 26.2 | Route 28 Route 104 |
Signed as a rotary. Northern terminus of Route 18/28/104 concurrency. |
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| East Bridgewater | 28.0 | Route 106 | Southern terminus of Route 18/106 concurrency. | |
| 28.2 | Route 106 | Northern terminus of Route 18/106 concurrency. | ||
| Whitman | 32.0 | Route 14 | Site of the Toll House Inn, birthplace of the chocolate chip cookie, just northwest of intersection | |
| 32.7 | Route 27 | |||
| Abington | 34.5 | Route 123 | ||
| 36.1 | Route 139 | |||
| Norfolk | Weymouth | 37.7 | Route 58 | Northern terminus of Route 58. |
| 40.5 | Route 3 | Route 3, Exit 16. | ||
| 41.59 | Route 53 | Northern terminus of Route 18. |
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