Editing Massachusetts Route 128 (section)

=== Concurrency with I-95 (Canton–Peabody) ===
[[File:128 south end.jpg|thumb|Since 1997, Route&nbsp;128's southern end has been in Canton, where I-95 exits southwestward on its own roadbed, and I-93 north begins; US&nbsp;1 north continues straight]]

Route&nbsp;128 begins in the south in [[Norfolk County, Massachusetts|Norfolk County]], at the interchange with [[Interstate 93|I-93]], [[Interstate 95 in Massachusetts|I-95]], and [[U.S. Route 1 in Massachusetts|U.S. Route&nbsp;1]] (US&nbsp;1) in [[Canton, Massachusetts|Canton]]. It immediately begins as a [[controlled-access highway|freeway]]. Until the 1990s, its southern terminus was located at the junction of I-93, US&nbsp;1, and [[Massachusetts Route 3|Route&nbsp;3]] (the [[Braintree Split]]) in [[Braintree, Massachusetts|Braintree]]. At this present-day terminus, Route&nbsp;128 [[Concurrency (road)|runs concurrently]] with I-95, and follows the mileage-based exit numbering scheme used by I-95 as it enters Massachusetts from [[Pawtucket, Rhode Island]]. It also begins a wrong-way concurrency with US&nbsp;1; as Route&nbsp;128 and I-95 are signed traveling north, US&nbsp;1 is signed traveling south, and vice versa. US&nbsp;1 splits onto its own roadbed at exit&nbsp;29 (old exit&nbsp;15) in [[Dedham, Massachusetts|Dedham]].

==== The decision to route Interstate 95 through Route 128 ====
In response to the outcome of the 1970 [[Boston Transportation Planning Review]], Massachusetts focused federal highway funding on public mass transportation rather than building new highways through Boston and the inner suburbs ("inside of Route&nbsp;128"), cancelling plans for completion of a northeast Expressway and construction of a southwest expressway to carry I-95 through downtown Boston. This policy cascaded into designation of the segment of the Yankee Division Highway between the existing I-95 junction in Canton and the new I-95 junction in Peabody as I-95 rather than building a new highway to complete the connection, coupled with a decision to extend I-93 southward along the Central Artery and John Fitzgerald Expressway and onto the southern end of the Yankee Division Highway to the I-95 junction in Canton. After completion of the I-95/Route&nbsp;128 interchange in Peabody in 1988, the State Highway Department changed the numbers of all exits south of the newly completed junction to those of the respective Interstate Highway designations. Since then, the highway has had three sets of exit numbers: I-93 exits&nbsp;7–1 from the southern terminus to the I-95 junction in Canton, I-95 exits&nbsp;26–64 (old exits&nbsp;12–45) from the I-95 junction in Canton to the I-95 junction in Peabody, and the original Route&nbsp;128 exits&nbsp;37–55 (old exits&nbsp;29–12) from the I-95 junction in Peabody to the northern terminus. The interchange with I-93 in Woburn, which was Route&nbsp;128 exit&nbsp;37 before the renumbering, became I-93 exit&nbsp;37 (now exit&nbsp;28) in the renumbering and thus coincidentally retained its number until the switchover with the mileage-based system in 2021. Along with other highways in the commonwealth, exits were renumbered with a [[Exit numbers in the United States|mileage-based]] system in 2021.<ref>{{cite web |title = New MassDOT Exit Renumbering |url = https://www.newmassexits.com/ }}</ref>

As a result of this political decision, about two thirds of Route&nbsp;128 runs in tandem with I-95 from Canton north to [[Peabody, Massachusetts|Peabody]], and after I-95 splits off and continues north from Peabody toward [[New Hampshire]], Route&nbsp;128 runs eastward on its own right-of-way from Peabody to Gloucester. The I-95 and I-93 signage were added in the mid-1970s when plans to construct I-95 through Boston, directly connecting the two I-95/Route&nbsp;128 interchanges, were cancelled leaving a gap filled using Route&nbsp;128. An unused [[Cloverleaf interchange|cloverleaf]] in [[Canton, Massachusetts|Canton]], partially removed circa 1977, was one of the leftover structures from this plan as well as the existing expressway (part of US&nbsp;1 since 1989).

The decision to reroute I-95 onto Route&nbsp;128 rather than building a new highway inside of Route&nbsp;128 has contributed to three significant problems.

* At the junction in Canton, I-95 northbound uses the original cloverleaf, which is fairly tight, to transition from the southern segment to the Yankee Division Highway. More than a few unsuspecting truckers have entered the cloverleaf at full highway speed and thus managed to flip over their rigs. As a result, the cloverleaf has been referred to as "Dead Man's Curve" to locals.
* The I-95 overhead traffic also has become a major contributor to congestion on the segment of the highway known as I-95.
* The [[Southeast Expressway (Massachusetts)|Southeast Expressway]], as the only highway coming into Boston from the south, carries more than double its capacity on a daily basis. The highway is prone to some of the worst traffic in the region, as all traffic from south of the city (coming from three different highways) must merge onto this one route.

[[File:128 north end.jpg|thumb|left|The north end of Route&nbsp;128 is at Route&nbsp;127A in Gloucester. The sign pointing Route&nbsp;127A south straight is incorrect; it is actually to the right, where the sign points "ALT&nbsp;127".]]

The political decision not to build new highways inside of Route 128 also led to abandonment of plans to extend the [[U.S. Route 3|US&nbsp;3]] freeway from its current interchange with the Yankee Division Highway in [[Burlington, Massachusetts|Burlington]] to a junction with [[Massachusetts Route 2|Route&nbsp;2]] in [[Lexington, Massachusetts|Lexington]] as originally planned. This decision caused a temporary reroute of US&nbsp;3 onto the Yankee Division Highway, but in the opposite direction, to connect with its original route, one interchange to the north of the current junction, to become permanent.

A [[metropolitan planning organization]] for the Boston area studied the Route&nbsp;128/I-95 Corridor from approximately 2005 to 2010. The study focused on the heavily congested section from I-90 (Newton) to US&nbsp;3 (Burlington), and was completed in November 2010. As of 2010, the highway carried over 200,000&nbsp;vehicles per day. Some possible improvements to Route&nbsp;128 include [[HOV]] Lanes, reconstruction of shoulders, [[ramp metering]], bus on shoulder, and fiber optic traffic system improvements. More studies will need to be completed before projects will begin.