retired

CT line in Webster to Worcester.

Expressway for the entire length.

Rt 52 make its first potential appearance in 1969. CT had finished its highway up the state line and it crossed as far as current exit 1. I assume (but do not know) that the stub of road was MA 52. The highway was completed to exit 3 in 1972. My 1975 AAA shows it complete to modern exit 4. It also does not show exit 3, and shows MA 12 ending at the newly completed exit 4. The 1979 state map shows it as complete to I-90, exit 6 built and marked as 6, no exit 5, and exit 3 is reinstated as a highway stub to Rt 12, which has returned to the border. The highway was renumbered I-395 in 1983.

[flickr-gallery mode=”search” tags=”MA 52″ user_id=”80252055@N02″]

52 may be the only Massachusetts highway to only ever exist as a divided highway.