Massachusetts Turnpike
The Massachusetts Turnpike is a controlled-access toll road that runs concurrently with Interstate 90 in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is the longest Interstate Highway in Massachusetts, spanning along an east–west axis.
The turnpike opened in 1957, and it was designated as part of the Interstate Highway System in 1959. It begins at the New York state line in West Stockbridge, linking with the Berkshire Connector portion of the New York State Thruway. The original western terminus of the turnpike was located at Route 102 in West Stockbridge before I-90 had been completed in New York state. The turnpike intersects with several Interstate Highways as it traverses the state, including I-91 in West Springfield; I-291 in Chicopee; I-84 in Sturbridge; the junction of I-290 and I-395 in Auburn; and I-495 in Hopkinton. The eastern terminus of the turnpike was originally at Route 128 in Weston, and has been extended several times: to Allston in 1964, to the Central Artery in Downtown Boston in 1965, and to Route 1A in East Boston as a route to Logan International Airport in 2003 as part of the "Big Dig" megaproject. I-190 and I-290 are the two auxiliary Interstate Highways that serve the route.
The turnpike was maintained by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which was replaced by the Highway Division of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation in 2009. The implementation and removal of tolls in some stretches of the turnpike have been controversial; travel between most, but not all, exits requires payment. The Fast Lane electronic toll collection system was introduced alongside cash payment in 1998, and rebranded to E-ZPass in 2012. The original toll booths were demolished and replaced by toll gantries with the transition to open road tolling in 2016, which replaced cash payment with "pay-by-plate" billing.
Route description
The Massachusetts Turnpike is informally divided into two sections by MassDOT: the original "Western Turnpike" extending from the New York state border through the interchange with I-95 and Route 128 at exit 123 in Weston, and the "Boston Extension" that continues beyond exit 123 through Boston. It is a four-lane highway from the New York state border through its interchange with I-84 at exit 78 in Sturbridge; it expands to six lanes beyond this interchange and briefly travels with eight lanes from exit 127 in Newton through exit 133 by the Prudential Center in Boston. The underwater section of the Ted Williams Tunnel, which carries the turnpike under Boston Harbor to its eastern terminus at Route 1A by Logan International Airport, is reduced to four lanes. The turnpike is the longest Interstate Highway in Massachusetts, while I-90 in full is the longest Interstate Highway in the United States.Western Turnpike
In the west, the turnpike begins in Berkshire County at the Massachusetts state line in West Stockbridge, where I-90 enters from Canaan, New York. Most toll plazas were located on the entrance/exit ramps before entering the turnpike itself. An exception was the mainline West Stockbridge toll plaza, designed for toll collection from inbound traffic from New York; it existed shortly after exit 3, an eastbound-only entrance and westbound-only exit in Massachusetts. The turnpike crosses the Williams River later in West Stockbridge and passes over the Housatonic River in Lee. The gap between exit 10 to US 20 in Lee and exit 41 to US 202 and Route 10 in Westfield is the longest gap between exits on the entire length of I-90, and the fifth-longest gap between exits in the entire Interstate Highway System. The highest elevation on the turnpike exists in the Berkshires, reaching above sea level in Becket; this point is also the highest elevation on I-90 east of South Dakota. Beyond the peak elevation and between the exits, an eastbound runaway truck ramp exists in Russell.After almost of relative ruralness, I-90 has an interchange that leads to the separate routes of I-91 and US 5 at exit 45 in West Springfield; it passes over the Connecticut River before reaching Route 33 at exit 49 and I-291 at exit 51, both in Chicopee. The turnpike passes through Ludlow at exit 54 before crossing the Quaboag River to exit 63 in Palmer. The turnpike first enters Worcester County in Warren before dipping back into Hampden County by way of Brimfield. After a few miles, I-90 crosses back into Worcester County in Sturbridge, where exit 78 serves as the eastern terminus of I-84. In Auburn, exit 90 has a two-Interstate interchange with I-395 traveling southbound and I-290 traveling eastbound. The Blackstone River flows underneath the turnpike in Millbury, where it has an interchange with Route 146 and a second direct connection to US 20 at exit 94. Entering Middlesex County in Hopkinton, it has an interchange with I-495 at exit 106. The turnpike crosses the Sudbury River between exit 111 at Route 9 and exit 117 at Route 30, all located within Framingham. The last connection with another Interstate Highway on the Western Turnpike is located in Weston, at the I-95 and Route 128 concurrency. This multipiece interchange is collectively referred to as the "Weston tolls". Before being renumbered exit 123 in both directions, exit 14 was an eastbound exit and westbound entrance, and exit 15 was a westbound exit and eastbound entrance; prior to demolition, a mainline toll plaza existed for through traffic. Following the removal of the toll plazas, exit 15 was reconfigured into exit 15A for I-95 and Route 128, and exit 15B toward Route 30. At this junction, the turnpike crosses over the Charles River.
Boston Extension
The first exit of the Boston Extension, exit 125, is an eastbound entrance and westbound exit at Route 16 in Newton. The turnpike enters Suffolk County in Boston before reaching the "Allston–Brighton tolls", depositing traffic toward the Boston neighborhoods of Allston and Brighton and the nearby city of Cambridge. This exit is also used to access Soldiers Field Road, a surface parkway that provides local access through central Boston and parallels the Turnpike. Before being renumbered exit 131 in both directions, exit 18 was a left-hand eastbound exit and westbound entrance, and exit 20 was a westbound exit and eastbound entrance; a mainline toll plaza was previously placed in between them for through traffic and was classified as "exit 19". Past the tolls, the turnpike reduces to six lanes, heads through the campus of Boston University and passes Fenway Park before crossing over the Muddy River as it approaches the city's central neighborhoods.Exit 133 and the now-closed Clarendon Street onramp are located within the Prudential Tunnel, which takes the turnpike underneath the Prudential Center; the former is an eastbound exit towards the Prudential Center and Copley Square, while the latter is a westbound-only entrance from Clarendon Street. Beyond the Prudential Tunnel, exit 134 is labeled as a singular exit traveling westbound, but splits into three ramps for eastbound travel; exit 134A is a left-hand exit toward South Station, while exits 134B and 134C are directed toward I-93 northbound and southbound, respectively. The turnpike travels under the Fort Point Channel before reaching South Boston at exit 135, after which it enters the Ted Williams Tunnel to pass beneath Boston Harbor. Exit 137 to Logan International Airport is the sole exit within the Ted Williams Tunnel, before the turnpike exits the tunnel and meets its eastern terminus at Route 1A northbound toward Revere.
Service plazas
Tolls
, toll revenue generated from the Massachusetts Turnpike is to be spent in the section in which it was collected, either the Western Turnpike or the Boston Extension.At the recommendation of former secretary of administration and finance Eric Kriss, who recommended that tolls be eliminated along the entire turnpike except for the tunnels leading to Logan International Airport, the MTA voted to remove all tolls west of Route 128 in Weston in October 2006. Members of the Massachusetts Legislature Transportation Committee cited the potential need to amend state law and the uncertainty of how the turnpike would be maintained as setbacks to the toll removal, which ultimately never came to fruition.
In the November 9, 2006, edition of The Boston Globe, Governor Mitt Romney announced his intention to try to remove the tolls before his successor, Deval Patrick, was inaugurated in January 2007, but this did not occur. In 2008, Patrick announced a similar plan to remove most tolls west of I-95, but this also did not occur before his term ended in January 2015. State law requires tolls to be removed west of Route 128 when its debt is paid and the road is in "good condition", but MassDOT plans to continue tolls after the bonds are paid off in January 2017, because the road will still need $135 million per year for repairs and maintenance.
At a January 22, 2009, board meeting, the turnpike decided to stop charging a one-time $25.95 fee for the acquisition of a Fast Lane toll transponder, replacing it with a 50-cent monthly recurring service fee. The implementation of the 50-cent monthly fee was canceled after long delays at toll plazas on Easter Sunday.
Tolls
The turnpike traditionally utilized the ticket system for toll collection; a driver would obtain a ticket from an onramp, which they would surrender to an offramp and pay a toll based on traveled distance. While most toll plazas were located on the entrance/exit ramps by the turnpike, exceptions included the mainline toll plazas in West Stockbridge, Weston, and Allston–Brighton. Motorists were previously charged $27.50 for Fast Lane transponders, although this fee has since been removed.When all-electronic tolling went live on the Mass Pike in 2017, the Tobin Bridge, Callahan Tunnel, Sumner Tunnel, and Ted Williams Tunnel joined the system and were converted to charging a single toll in both directions, rather than a double toll in one direction. The Tobin Bridge was converted to all-electronic tolling for southbound only in July 2014.
In addition to license plate information, the gantries also collect vehicle speed data; a MassDOT spokesperson said that the agency "will not be using the AET system to issue speeding violations". Toll data is not a public record and is not subject to Freedom of Information Act requests, and MassDOT states that "All data collected will remain secure and kept confidential." The data can be obtained by subpoena, however, and law enforcement will be able to specify license-plate numbers that will generate an immediate email if detected by the system.