Massachusetts to begin changing highway exit numbers

BOSTON — What will your new highway exit number be? The state begins changing the exit numbers this month to the federal system based on which mileage post an exit is at.

On the South Shore in Pembroke, Poopsies Pizza dates back to 1973.  Owner Robert Thompson III says the directions off Route 3 have always been, “get off Exit 12, take a right and 1/2 mile up on your right-hand side."

But like many major highway exits across Massachusetts, the highway exit numbers are all changing.

Poopsies will now be at Exit 27.  

“It’s been Exit 12 since the beginning and we have been here 47 years," said Thompson.

Drivers we talked to are just getting up to speed on what’s going on. We asked one woman in Weymouth if she knows he new exit number and she told us, “I have no idea.”

The $2.8 million project is part of a federal mandate to make all highway exit numbers based on which milepost they are at.  

For example, along I-95 the exit numbers will be based on how many miles they are from the Rhode Island border. The old exit numbers will be posted near the exit sign for up to two years.  In some cases, a current exit number, like 16 in Weymouth will now be in Plymouth at Exit 7 because that exit is 16 miles from where Route 3 starts.

This project was scheduled to be completed over the summer but MassDOT pushed it back because of the pandemic.  

“There is never a good time for confusion but that is how we live but I’m sure everyone will adapt to it," one driver told us.

Poopsies, which will soon be located off Route 3 in Pembroke at Exit 27, plans to continue making great pizzas regardless of the change.

“It’s going to take a little getting used to," said Thompson.

MassDOT estimates it will take about a year to do the work but they are still finalizing the contractors who will complete it.

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