HOT lane talk for Mass-Three

There’s interest in investigating HOT lanes on MA-3 southeast of Boston. Formally Pilgrim’s Hwy, MA-3 is an extension of the Southeastern Expressway (I-93) which runs from downtown Boston (the Big Dig no less) by Quincy to Braintree where there is a split. Going west is MA-128, the C-plan half belt around the Boston metro area, formally the Yankee Division Hwy that also carries the I-95 designation. From the split going east, and southeast toward Cape Cod is MA-3 going by Weymouth, Rockland, Duxbury and Plymouth. Just a few miles from the Atlantic Ocean coast and Cape Cod Bay it is the site for much fringe area development, the stuff Al Gore’s friends characterize as ‘sprawl.’

In any case there are widening plans, probably HOV lanes for quite a distance down the highway. MA-3 is currently 2x3 lanes from its beginning at the Braintree split to Weymouth and drops a lane between IC-16 and IC-15. Highest priority is apparently for adding lanes for the 25km (16mi) stretch Weymouth to Duxbury (IC-10). They might also widen to 2x4 lanes the present 10km (6.5mi) 2x3-stretch back up to the Braintree split.

There’s an MIS/EIS study of MA-3 widening alternatives under way and all we can report is that some people are gathering info on toll buy-in with a view to feeding it into that process.