Massachusetts Roads - MA 3A - Southern

Southern

Mostly for my own records, the shield above can be seen as one turns onto Merrymount Parkway in Quincy. It's a bypass of downtown, where MA 3A used to come in, turn, and come out where MA 3A now turns at MA 53.


Old SB signs in Plymouth.


The NB face of the sign, which may be town-erected or even put up by the church eons ago, but has the aura of a 1930s state guide sign.


Heading south at the Kingston-Plymouth border, the first is an old stone post from the days of turnpikes and horses - K = Kingston - and the second is demonstrating the earliest possible date on a Massachusetts town sign as well as the fact that many state highways have town-maintained portions.


NB in Kingston.


SB at MA 53 at its southern end in Kingston. It's interesting that if one heads straight northbound, one goes from MA 3A onto MA 53 and then (after following 53) back onto MA 3A much farther north.


Old street sign in Cohasset.


Rockland St. EB is cut in half. The western half turns seamlessly into George Washington Blvd., which heads toward Hull. Once upon a not-too-distant time, though, Rockland was continuous and Washington Blvd. ended in a T...


...and this sign would have made sense. Right now, it still faces Washington Blvd. traffic, but that traffic merely continues straight and curves right into Rockland St. There's no way to turn right here, but if there were, as you can see it would end in half a block anyway. Why wasn't this sign removed?


NB at Summer St. in a Hingham rotary.


I've never seen this before - a temporary drawbridge. It connects Quincy and Weymouth (photo taken heading southbound), while the new span is replacing the old drawbridge to the left.


Another old-font sign, this is Washington St. EB in Quincy, which was MA 3A before 3A was routed around downtown. MA 53 (which you saw before) begins to the right (south), and MA 3A rejoins its old alignment straight ahead.


Hancock St. NB (former MA 3A), probably at Temple St., in central Quincy. It is true that you can go straight to MA 3A NB or right to MA 3A SB, but this is really a horrible way to communicate that fact. What's worse is that this assembly is really helping people find the non-existent NJ 3A, or perhaps DE 3A.


MA 3A SB at Quincy Shore Drive, which steals the mainline away just after it began from Morrissey Blvd. and MA 203 at I-93. Only New Hampshire regularly hyphenates its suffixed routes. Before this was MA 3A, the original MA 3 followed 203 west to former US 1 through the Fens, then across the BU Bridge (now MA 2) before splitting from 1 and turning into US 3 on Memorial Drive.

Northern MA 3A
Parent MA 3
Back to MA 3A main page


Onto MA 106
To MA 27
Onto MA 53
Onto Quincy Shore Drive
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