Massachusetts Route 146

Route 146
Map of Worcester County in central Massachusetts with Route 146 highlighted in red
Route information
Length:	20.9901 mi[1] (33.7803 km)
Major junctions
South end:	Route 146 in North Smithfield, RI
	Route 146A / Route 16 in Uxbridge Route 122A in Millbury / Worcester I‑90 / Mass Pike / US 20 in Millbury I‑290 in Worcester
North end:	Quinsigamond Ave. / Cambridge St. / Millbury St. in Worcester
Location
Counties:	Worcester
Highway system
Massachusetts State Highway System Interstate US State ← Route 145 Route 147 →

Route 146 is a high-speed road, mostly freeway, linking Rhode Island Route 146 (the North Smithfield Expressway towards Providence, Rhode Island) to I-290 in Worcester, Massachusetts. South of the interchange with Route 122A, Route 146 is known as the Worcester-Providence Turnpike. Unlike some roads designated as turnpikes, the road has never had tolls, and was built on a brand new alignment in the 1930s. Similar never-tolled turnpikes are the Berlin Turnpike in Connecticut and the Boston-Providence Turnpike in Massachusetts.

History

During the late 1940s, the Massachusetts Department of Public Works (MassDPW) planned an extension of Route 146 from Rhode Island north toward Worcester. MA 146 was built between 1949 and 1952 as a four-lane divided roadway from US 20 in Millbury to Boston Road in Sutton and from Sutton south to the Massachusetts-Rhode Island border, Route 146 was built as a three-lane undivided roadway, providing one lane in each direction and a shared lane in the center.

In 1981 the MassDPW began work on rebuilding Route 146. During the next three years, the state rebuilt the 13.1-mile-long section from just south of Boston Road in Sutton to the Massachusetts-Rhode Island border, replacing the three-lane undivided section with a four-lane freeway and eliminating all at-grade intersections and curb cuts.

The project upgrading the section linking Exit 10A on the Massachusetts Turnpike north into downtown Worcester at Brosnihan Square to Interstate Highway standards was completed in November 2007 according to the State Highway Administration. The improvements to the road created an economic boon to the Blackstone Valley through which it passes. The improved transportation corridor has attracted several large employers since the road was upgraded.^[2] As of 2015, there still remains a non-freeway section of 146 in the Sutton-Millbury area, though the road was widened and a major intersection was improved to fix traffic flow problems.^[3]

Exit list

Exits traditionally were not numbered, but sequential numbers were assigned by MassHighway during the last sign replacement project. The entire route is in Worcester County.

All interchanges were to be renumbered to milepost-based numbers under a project scheduled to start in 2016.^[4] However, this project has now been indefinitely postponed.^[5]

Location	mi	km	Exit	Destinations	Notes
Millville	0.0	0.0		Route 146 south – Providence	Continuation into Rhode Island
Uxbridge	1.1	1.8	1	Route 146A – South Uxbridge, North Smithfield, RI
	2.6	4.2	2	Chocolog Road to Route 146A – Uxbridge
	5.3	8.5	3	Route 16 – Uxbridge, Douglas
Douglas	7.6	12.2	4	Lackey Dam Road  – Douglas, Northbridge
Northbridge	8.5	13.7	5	Main Street  – Northbridge, Sutton
Sutton	10.3	16.6	6	Purgatory Road  – Northbridge
	12.3	19.8	7	Central Turnpike  – Northbridge, Oxford
			North end of freeway
	13.8	22.2		Boston Road  – Wilkinsonville, Sutton Center	At-grade intersection with traffic signal
Millbury	16.0	25.7	8	West Main Street  – Millbury
			South end of freeway
	16.9	27.2	9	Route 122A south – Millbury Center	Southern terminus of concurrency with Route 122A
	17.9	28.8	10	US 20 / I‑90 / Mass Pike – Boston, Springfield	Mass. Pike Exit 10A
Worcester	18.8	30.3	11	Millbury Street  – Quinsigamond Village	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
	19.5	31.4	12	Route 122A north (McKeon Road) to I‑290 west – Vernon Hill	Northern terminus of concurrency with Route 122A
	20.5	33.0	13	I‑290 east – Shrewsbury, Marlboro	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
	20.8	33.5		Quinsigamond Avenue / Cambridge Street / Millbury Street	Northern terminus
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus       Incomplete access       Tolled

Suffixed routes

Route 146A in Massachusetts, United States, is a 4.1 mile north to south route which connects Route 122 in Uxbridge, and Rhode Island Route 146A in North Smithfield.^[1] There are two connector entrances to Route 146, along Route 146A. These are Exit 1, which connects Route 146 directly to Route 146A, and Exit 2, the Chockalog Road exit in Uxbridge.^[1] This highway was renamed by the General Court of Massachusetts in 2004 as the Lydia Taft Highway, after America's first woman voter, Lydia Chapin Taft, a colonial woman from Uxbridge. Lydia Chapin Taft's historic vote and her role in the history of Women's suffrage is recognized by the Massachusetts legislature since 2004, which named Route 146A from Uxbridge to the Rhode Island border in her honor.^[8] Route 146A is completely within the town limits of Uxbridge.

In colonial times, this route had the name of "the Great Road", and later "the Quaker Highway", after Quakers from Smithfield, Rhode Island settled here. There are a number of historic sites along this road including the Friends Meetinghouse, which is on the National Historic Register. The "Moses Farnum House, and the Ironstone Mill Housing and Cellar Hole are two other sites along this road. Route 98 also connects with Route 146A, near its midpoint, and has significant historic sites of the original Quaker village known as Quaker City, and Aldrich Village, which are also on the National Historic Register. Just beyond the northern terminus of Route 146A and continuing north on Route 122 is a famous historical house known as Elmshade, a home and gathering place of the influential Taft family in America. Part of what is now Route 146A was the original Route 146 before a new limited access highway was constructed from the Rhode Island line to Worcester, between 1981 and 1984.^[7] This project involved moving a former almshouse cemetery and led to archeological findings on mortuary practices following that excavation.^[7] The Second Great Awakening changed local mortuary practices for the poor.^[9]

Major intersections

The entire route is in Uxbridge, Worcester County.

mi	km	Destinations	Notes
0.0	0.0	Route 5 / Route 146A south	Continuation into Rhode Island
0.9	1.4	Route 146	Exit 1 on Route 146
2.3	3.7	Route 98 south	Northern terminus of Route 98
2.6	4.2	Chockalog Road to Route 146	Exit 2 on Route 146
4.1	6.6	Route 122	Northern terminus
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References

External links

• Mass. Route 146 Current and Speculative Future Exit Numbers List