New I-93 exit set to open
Exit 20 to offer access to Logan, South Boston
By Mac Daniel, Globe Staff, 1/24/2003
Beginning sometime tomorrow morning, there will be yet another new route to South Boston, Logan Airport, and points north.
Not the new Interstate 90 connector, which opened last weekend to wide praise, but a new exit off I-93's northbound lanes, which will swing South Shore drivers and others off the Central Artery and over to the eastbound lanes of the new connector.
The new Exit 20, just past Exit 18 (Mass. Ave./Roxbury/Frontage Road), is expected to lift some 200 vehicles per hour off I-93 north -- and thus the Central Artery -- onto a new elevated roadway. It will then route them onto a new road that runs parallel to the new connector.
Drivers can use the exit to get off at the new Exit 25 (Congress Street) in South Boston, head through the Ted Williams Tunnel into Logan, or head up Route 1A.
There is no corresponding exit from I-90 west to I-93 south. To head south on I-93, those who want to head south from Logan Airport will have no other option but to use the Sumner Tunnel. This old route is expected to remain in place for the next year until new ramps are built from I-90 west to I-93 south.
Big Dig officials weren't saying much about it Wednesday, but the new Exit 20 route can also be reached from streetside Boston around the Albany Street Connector -- one of the first cityside connections to the new route.
In addition, Big Dig officials announced another milestone -- the permanent closure of Exit 24 of I-93 north to the Callahan Tunnel, which will be taken off the maps at 8 p.m. next Wednesday.
To get to the Callahan after the closure, drivers will use either the current Logan/Callahan exit off I-93 south, or take Atlantic Avenue to North Street from the city. Drivers from the South Shore have no more need for Exit 24 with the new Exit 20.
Motorists headed north on I-93 to the Government Center area should take Exit 22, which has new signs that read "Northern Avenue/Government Center."
Meanwhile, drivers in Charlestown will welcome the reopening this weekend of the City Square on-ramp to I-93 -- southbound only. The ramp, which has been closed for about 18 months, has forced Charlestown residents into crowded traffic over the North Washington Street Bridge and into a clogged downtown to get onto the interstate.
Big Dig officials noted, however, that access to I-93 north will remain permanently closed.
Officials declined to say when Exit 20 would officially open, fearing again that motorists waiting to be the first to use the new ramp would tie up traffic.
"Let's say midnight Friday night," said Turnpike Authority chairman Matthew Amorello. "But it could also be sometime Saturday morning. Who knows?"
This story ran on page B2 of the Boston Globe on 1/24/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
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