Massachusetts Roads - MA 79/138

MA 79 and 79/138



Saving the best for first. Southbound just at the end of MA 79 or just past the end - it's indecisive, because 79 ends duplexed with MA 138 at I-195. This sign is at the south end of the interchange, and the left turn is only allowed so that surface traffic from Battleship Cove via Davol St. is able to get onto I-195 and make it back home again.


After the MA 79/138 SB ramp merges with the MA 138 NB ramp, they diverge again at this assembly - and it's still up now that the detour has ended, as awkward as it looks. I had to go about 5 MPH to get a shot of the shield not blocked by the detour sign, so it's really time to undo that for people who aren't sure of where they are. If you look closely, notice that the EAST banner comes from Mass. D.P.W. in Wellesley (or came, since it's now MassHighway that maintains the roads), while the other banners are plain D.P.W. I don't know if there's any significance to the random signs around the state stamped with Wellesley.


Davol St. NB at Central St. in Fall River, underneath MA 79/138 with the I-195 interchange in the background. Cut-corner LGS's date from the 1960's into the early 1970's; they were white before then, and rectangular after then.


Looking east from Battleship Cove at the MA 79 viaduct and the I-195 interchange, from south to north. This is the only four-level interchange east of New York, even though three of the levels are stacked parallelly atop each other. The truss in the first photo is to carry the 79/138 viaducts over industry on Anawan St.


Southbound on the lower level of the viaduct, right through the truss to the double-decker's end. The Truck Detour sign is still here, although it left the photo way above.


Looking across Battleship Cove to the Braga Bridge on I-195. Plenty more photos on that page, linked at bottom.


NB from on top of the viaduct to the end of the 138 multiplex, then off the exit ramp onto US 6 WB/MA 138 NB (missing the "NORTH"), Davol St. at Brightman St. Both exits are to the frontage road, Davol St.; the first one is for US 6 EB, but the only semi-old sign is the exit gore. None of the signs on the MA 79 freeway are terribly old, but they all are old enough to have non-reflective backgrounds.


SB, same spot; obviously the MA 138 shields were replaced, because you can tell the 79 is original and it looks different (and more worn). The signs in the last photo are above the second traffic signal at the top of the ramp.


These photos are in order southbound, but the middle two were taken a few years before the outer two. Not much progress, eh? Eventually, I hope, this will be the new US 6/MA 138 crossing of the Taunton River.


NB in March 2011, with the new bridge finally in; it opened by the end of that year. Now the old bridge can be closed, although its removal is uncertain. I presume it will proceed, this not being Rhode Island. The last photo is of the MA 79 SB ramp to US 6 WB.


NB (first photo) and SB (other three photos) at Main St., which is old MA 79. North of MA 24, MA 79 is back on Main St., and south of Fall River, after MA 79 ends and dumps MA 138 onto Broadway, 138 follows Broadway back to - voila! - Main St., and goes back to the road it always used to follow. (I would guess MA 79 ended at Brightman St. or wherever MA 138 met it until the freeway was constructed.)


The freeway has obviously ended by now. NB in Freetown - the curly 9 is the old font.


The first two photos are front and back of the same Lakeville-Taunton town line assembly, found on Crooked Lane at MA 79. The repainted job is between there and the photo before these town lines.

Onto MA 138 alone

Onto I-195
Onto US 6
See more of Bristol County
MA 79 on Steve Anderson's bostonroads.com
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