Widening of Route 3

The Widening of Route 3 rebuilt the four-lane Northwest Expressway, opened through Billerica in 1955 (see Opening of Route 3), as a six-lane highway between 2001 and 2005.

By about 1990 the four-lane road was badly congested, and the state began planning to widen it. From 1991 the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments reported each year that it was tracking "the on-going environmental work associated with the Route 3 widening project," and the town kept a Route 3 Widening Committee, later the Project Advisory Council, on which Town Manager Richard A. Montuori represented the town. The state let the work as the Route 3 North project, its first design-build highway contract, under which Modern Continental Construction widened the 21 miles from Route 128 to the New Hampshire line to three lanes in each direction and replaced 40 bridges, at a cost of about $385 million. Work began in April 2001, three lanes were open each way by October 2004, and the project was finished in 2005.

In Billerica the widening reached well beyond the highway itself. The reconstruction of Concord Road, Phase I, was awarded as part of the Route 3 project in 2000. The spring town meeting of 2002 voted unanimously to let the selectmen grant the Commonwealth easements on town land along Treble Cove Road, "some of the easements" permanent and "others for the period of construction only," with traffic lights planned at Treble Cove Road and River Street, and the state made new layouts at Treble Cove Road, Rangeway Road and the old Manning Road in 2002. The contractor built a wetland replication site inside Vietnam Veterans Park, begun in 2001 and finished in 2003, while the town's plans for a BMX track and soccer fields there waited on it. The new Manning Road bridge was designed with room for the proposed Yankee Doodle Bike Path, and in 2003 the town accepted Manning Road from Fortune Drive to Route 3 as a public way. The concrete arches of 1953 over the Concord River were replaced in 2004 by a steel beam bridge about 204 feet long, the Farm Road underpass was rebuilt as a steel bridge the same year and repaired by Modern Continental in 2004 and 2005, and only the Mill Brook culvert survived from the first construction. The Billerica interchanges, long exits 27 at Concord Road and 28 at Treble Cove Road, now carry the mileage numbers 76 and 78.

People

• Richard A. Montuori: Town Manager who represented the town on the Route 3 project council and explained the 2002 Treble Cove Road easements to town meeting.

References

1. Massachusetts state highway layouts in Billerica: Route 3 layouts 3937 (Feb. 5, 1952) and 4072 (Sept. 15, 1953), the 1953 town road relocations, and later alterations to 2002.
2. 2000 report, committees: Project Advisory Council (formerly Route 3 Widening Committee), Richard A. Montuori, Town Manager.
3. 2000 report, Engineering: Concord Road Phase I awarded as part of the Route 3 project.
4. 2000 report, Recreation: BMX track at Vietnam Veterans Park on hold pending the Route 3 wetland replication site.
5. 2001 report, Yankee Doodle Bike Path Committee: bike path across the new Manning Road bridge discussed with MassHighway.
6. 2002 report, spring town meeting, Art. 20: easements to the Commonwealth on Treble Cove Road for the Route 3 reconstruction, carried unanimously.
7. 2003 report, Recreation: Modern Continental completed the wetland replication site within Vietnam Veterans Park.
8. 2004 report, Recreation: Modern Continental to repair Farm Road at the Route 3 underpass.
9. FHWA project profile: Route 3 North design-build-operate widening, 21 miles, about $385 million, completed 2005.
10. Steve Anderson, Northwest Expressway (US 3): 1941 Chelmsford bypass, 1955 opening south to Route 128, 2001-2005 widening.
11. Wikipedia, 'U.S. Route 3 in Massachusetts': Northwest Expressway history and exit list (Concord Road exit 76, Treble Cove Road exit 78).