Interstate 495 (Massachusetts) - Route Description

Route Description

Interstate 495 begins as the direct continuation of Route 25 at the intersection with Interstate 195 in West Wareham.It starts as a two lane highway in both directions. It gets the third lane during the interchange with Route 24. The junction includes the unusual transition of shrinking from the six-lane Route 25 to the four-lane interstate, due to the third lane of Route 25 joining to and from I-195. The road heads roughly northwest, passing through the towns of Rochester and Middleboro (where the road meets U.S. Route 44) as a four lane highway before entering Bristol County, crossing the Taunton River at Raynham. There, it becomes a six-lane highway just southeast of the Route 24 interchange (which is actually in neighboring Bridgewater).

The road continues northwest through Taunton and Norton before entering Mansfield, where there is a short exit lane concurrency with Route 140. Interstate 495 makes its southern junction with its parent route, Interstate 95 on the border between Mansfield in Bristol County and Foxboro in Norfolk County. The road continues through Plainville (where there is a junction with U.S. Route 1, a popular exit for those heading to Gillette Stadium) and Wrentham (where the Wrentham Village Premium Outlets lie beside the highway at Route 1A). The highway comes within 2 miles of the Rhode Island state line before turning in a more northerly direction through Franklin and Bellingham.

Interstate 495 then begins to weave between far eastern Worcester County and western Middlesex County, passing through Milford in Worcester County, to Hopkinton in Middlesex County (where the junction with the Massachusetts Turnpike, or Interstate 90, is located). It then passes back into Worcester County a second time, going through Westboro (where the road meets Route 9) and Southboro. It then returns to Middlesex County briefly in the towns of Marlboro (where the road meets U.S. Route 20 and Interstate 290) and Hudson before making its final pass through Worcester County in the towns of Berlin, Bolton (where the road finally begins to turn northeasterly) and Harvard.

After weaving through the edge of Worcester County, the road finally re-enters Middlesex County, passing through Boxboro, Littleton (where there is an intersection with Route 2), Westford and Chelmsford. At the Chelmsford-Lowell line lies the intersection with U.S. Route 3 and the Lowell Connector (formerly Business Spur 495). The road continues through Lowell and Tewksbury before entering Essex County at Andover, directly at exit 39.

In Andover, the road has a junction with Interstate 93. It then enters the city of Lawrence, where the road turns due north, crossing the Shawsheen River into North Andover before crossing the Merrimack River at the O'Reilly Bridge back into Lawrence. It then heads into Methuen, where the road turns back to a northeasterly route after the junction with the Loop Connector (Rte. 213). The road heads into Haverhill, crossing the Merrimack twice more at a bend in the Bradford section of town. It passes north of downtown Haverhill, coming within 150 yards of the New Hampshire state line, the closest the road comes to leaving the state. Interstate 495 then passes through the towns of Merrimac and Amesbury before finally terminating as it merges with Interstate 95 in Salisbury, approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south of where that interstate enters New Hampshire.

Throughout its path, the road passes closely to several existing state highways. From Wareham through to the Middleboro Rotary, it parallels Route 28. For much of the stretch between Norton and Milford, the road is within a few miles of Route 140, with two junctions of that highway in Mansfield and Franklin. From Milford to Bolton, the road passes just west of Route 85. Much of the northern third of the route also roughly parallels Massachusetts Route 110.