WESTBOROUGH, Mass. - The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is in the midst of a five-year project to revamp the interchange of the Mass Pike and Interstate 495, and first responders and local business advocates are excited for the potential benefits.

Over the years, the interchange has been the site of a number of crashes and countless traffic headaches, and some feel its outdated design might even be slowing down the state’s economy. Roughly 75,000 vehicles per day navigate the interchange, including 50% of the state’s commercial truck traffic.

Barry Lorion, district highway director with MassDOT, said with its sharp turns and heavy traffic volume, the area can create a recipe for disaster.

“The ramps are very tight,” Lorion said. “We have commercial truck traffic coming through the interchange, they roll over on the ramp system. We want to address those truck turnovers, we want to address the idea that this location has about twice what we would expect for crashes per year versus other interchange locations.”

Lorion also said the removal of toll booths made weaving traffic more dangerous.

The massive effort to completely reconstruct the interchange is currently the state’s largest highway project.  It won’t be completed until 2027, but the $440 million investment is welcome news for first responders in nearby towns, who have grown familiar with trying to navigate this traffic in life-and-death situations.

“We've already responded to 22 crashes this year,” said Westborough Fire Chief Patrick Purcell. “I would say statistically, probably one in four crashes also involves a large truck.”

Renovations will address the interchange’s dangerous turns, and will aim to alleviate traffic with an added lane on I-495 from the interchange to Route 9.

For those in the 495 Metro West Partnership, a group of businesses, town governments and other stakeholders, the renovations have been a long time coming. They had been sounding the alarm on the economic impact of the outdated system for years.

Jason Palitsch, the partnership’s executive director, feels the region’s economic advantages will be able to fully flourish once traffic frees up.

“It’s a highly-skilled, highly-educated workforce, and from a commercial and industrial real estate standpoint, it's just a lot more affordable for a business to be here,” Palitsch said. “But if we don't have good transportation infrastructure, that's going to be threatened. If this is not a place where it's perceived folks can get around easily, where freight can move easily. That is a direct threat to continued economic growth.”

The benefits of this reimagined interchange won’t be felt for four more years, so MassDOT is asking for patience. Crews are working under strict environmental constraints due to nearby swamps and rivers, and shutting the busy interchange down to get the project done faster wouldn’t have been realistic.

"The good thing for the general public is that we are not closing lanes on the Mass Pike, we are not closing lanes on 495,” Lorion said. “We are not closing ramps. They will remain open the entire duration of the project in their current capacity, but we will we do have nighttime closures when traffic volumes are significantly lower.”

For more information on the project or to ask questions about it to MassDOT, visit its official website.