Blue Star Memorial Highway | ||||
Route information | ||||
Maintained by MassDOT | ||||
Length | 10.006 mi[1] (16.103 km) | |||
Existed | 1957–present | |||
Major junctions | ||||
West end | I-195 / I-495 in Wareham | |||
US 6 / Route 28 in Wareham and Bourne | ||||
East end | Route 28 in Bourne | |||
Location | ||||
Country | United States | |||
State | Massachusetts | |||
Counties | Plymouth, Barnstable | |||
Highway system | ||||
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Route 25 is a 10-mile-long (16 km) freeway located in Plymouth County and Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The route is a nominally east–west highway, and less commonly known as the Blue Star Memorial Highway. An eastward continuation of Interstate 495, Route 25 provides freeway access to Cape Cod. The route's western terminus is at a trumpet interchange with I-495 and I-195 in West Wareham. The route has three numbered interchanges along its length before terminating at the northern end of the Bourne Bridge in Bourne; the mainline of Route 25 continues across the bridge and over the Cape Cod Canal as Massachusetts Route 28 south.
Prior to 1982, the Route 25 designation was given to that segment of what is now I-495 from Route 24 in Raynham to the interchange with I-195 in Wareham. Upon completion of the I-495 segment between Route 24 and I-95, that portion of the existing freeway was redesignated as I-495 in various stages during the 1970s and 1980s, eventually reducing Route 25 to a 2.5-mile (4 km) segment that continued eastward from I-495 to the modern location of Exit 3 in Downtown Wareham. Construction of an eastern continuation of Route 25 to the Bourne Bridge was delayed for nearly three decades due to property disputes and environmental concerns, but the final 7.5-mile (12 km) segment opened in 1987. The freeway was originally planned to continue over the Bourne Bridge into Cape Cod as part of a planned "Southside Connector", but this plan was abandoned by the Massachusetts Highway Department (MassHighway) in the late 1970s.