Mass Pike reopened following emergency repairs

(Updated Saturday March 1, 2025)

All west bound lanes of the Mass Pike reopened Friday night after state transportation officials were forced to close I-90 westbound traffic in Hopkinton at the I-495 interchange earlier in the day.

All three lanes on the westbound side of the highway were closed, and motorists were  detoured onto Route 9 at exit 111 in Framingham starting early Friday morning, Massachusetts Department of Transportation officials said. Traffic along the Mass. Pike and other nearby routes was backed up due to the closure.

One lane of traffic was reopened late Friday afternoon.

At a press conference, State Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver  said ongoing construction and the reconfiguration of the I-495 interchange likely caused the damage. He said contractor work to install bridge supports appears to have caused the soil to shift under the highway, causing cracks and potholes to form along a 400-foot stretch of highway.

The settlement did not cause damage to vehicles, Gulliver said.

Crews worked to reinforce the embankment on the side of the highway and fill in potholes so the highway could reopen, said Gulliver.

Calling the I-495 interchange project "one of the largest construction jobs going on in Massachusetts right now," Gulliver said MassDOT staff will assess how construction on can continue without causing additional problems. He said work will be halted until that review occurs.

" We're going to be doing an after action with our engineers, bringing in our geotechnical staff," he said, "really going through it to make sure that we can proceed with that activity again safely to get the rest of this construction done."