Massachusetts Route 228

Route 228 is a rather short (9.4 miles)^[1] south–north highway in southeastern Massachusetts.

Route description

Route 228 runs from Route 3 in Rockland, goes through Hingham, and ends at the intersection of George Washington Boulevard in Hull.

The exact streets Route 228 follows are: Hingham Street in Rockland; Pond Street in Norwell; Main Street, Short Street, Leavitt Street, East Street, and Hull Street in Hingham (also signed on Whiting Street and Derby Street, due to former strange concurrency with Route 53, see below); Nantasket Avenue in Hull. The center line of Hull Street from north of Glastonbury Abbey to the Hull town line is the town line between Hingham and Cohasset, which is not signed.

History

The route was designated in 1965, taking over the Hingham and Hull portions of the circumferential Route 128 when that route was truncated back to its intersection with Route 3 in Braintree. The Route 128 designation was established in the late 1920s. There were attempts in the late 1960s and 1970s to reroute Route 228 along a multi-lane alignment east of its current route through much of what today is Wompatuck State Park. Cost and opposition to the routing killed this proposal for a "Route 228 Spur".^[2] Increased traffic along Main Street in Hingham though since then led, after many years of deliberation by Hingham's citizens, to the installation of the first traffic light along the street at the Free Street/Union Street intersection in February 2007.^[3]

Routing with Route 53

One of the more distinctive aspects of this short state route was its signed concurrency with Route 53. Traffic heading southbound on Route 228 when approaching Route 53 at Queen Anne's Corner on the Hingham/Norwell town line would sees signs directing traffic on Route 228 South to turn right onto Route 53 North in a wrong-way concurrency for about one mile (1.6 km), not to travel back along its northbound path in Norwell and Rockland. Instead this route never left Hingham, traveling further along the original path of Route 128 along Whiting and Derby Streets. At the point the two routes split, the intersection with Derby Street, Route 228 suddenly becomes a Northbound route. The reassurance shield lists Route 228 North at the beginning of Derby Street, the last reassurance shield in this direction. When traveling south on Route 53 past the Derby Street intersection, the road is signed as Route 53 South and Route 228 South. The concurrency ends at Queen Anne's Corner when Route 228's signage assumes its correct Northbound direction. This however implied there were two distinct Route 228 routings. Maps and Massachusetts Highway Department documents over the years disagree as to whether the Derby and Whiting Street section is officially Route 228. The southbound wrong-way concurrency has existed since Route 228 was established, the signs on north Route 53 only appeared during the 1980s. The main purpose of the southbound routing was to help traffic move through the congested Queen Anne's Corner intersection and take a more efficient path to northbound Route 3. After a widening project to improve this intersection was completed in the summer of 2007, the signs indicating this routing disappeared. Signs on South 228 and the rest of the intersection now indicate Route 228 South proceeds straight through the intersection from Main Street onto Pond Street and on to Route 3 at Exit 14 (signs though have not been changed on Route 53 at Derby Street so there are still two different routes signed as South 228).^[4]

Junction list

This list does not include any part in the Routing with Route 53 section.

References