Route 203 is a east-west

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either Route number, numbered or maintained by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered ...

located wholly within the city of

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. The western terminus is at Centre Street (formerly

U.S. Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, ...

) in

Jamaica Plain Jamaica Plain is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood of in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of Roxbury, Massachusetts, Roxbury. The community seceded from Roxbur ...

and the eastern terminus is at the Southeast Expressway (

Interstate 93 Interstate 93 (I-93) is an Interstate Highway in the New England states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the United States. Spanning approximately along a north–south axis, it is one of three primary Interstate Highways ...

US 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway System, United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort ...

/ Route 3) and Route 3A in Neponset. Route 203 is poorly signed, but runs along part of the Arborway, Morton Street and Gallivan Boulevard, all

parkway A parkway is a landscaped thoroughfare. The term is particularly used for a roadway in a park or connecting to a park from which trucks and other heavy vehicles are excluded. Over the years, many different types of roads have been labeled p ...

s formerly part of the Metropolitan District Commission system of parks and roads.

Maintenance

Prior to the creation of the

Massachusetts Department of Transportation The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) oversees roads, public transit, aeronautics, and transportation licensing and registration in the US state of Massachusetts. It was created on November 1, 2009, by the 186th Sessio ...

(MassDOT) in 2009, the route was owned and maintained by the

Department of Conservation and Recreation The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is a state agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, situated in the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. It is best known for its parks and parkways. Th ...

(DCR, previously the Metropolitan District Commission). On November 1, 2009, the Msgr. William Casey Highway overpass in Jamaica Plain, Morton Street in

Mattapan Mattapan () is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Mattapan is the original Native American name for the Dorchester area, Galvin, William Francis, (Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts)" Archaic Community, Distri ...

and Gallivan Boulevard in Dorchester were transferred to MassDOT, while the Arborway continues to be maintained under the DCR.

History

Route 203 was designated in the early 1970s as part of a large

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

-area renumbering. Most of the route had been part of Route 3, which came south along the Jamaicaway with US 1 and split to the east onto the Arborway and along present Route 203. Route 3 turned south at Granite Avenue to join the Southeast Expressway in Milton, and Route 3A began southbound at the same location. With the renumbering, Route 3 was rerouted onto the Southeast Expressway (I-93) into downtown, Route 3A was truncated to its current end in Neponset (although it is technically concurrent with Route 3 between Boston and Burlington), and the former alignment of Routes 3 and 3A were redesignated as Route 203. While the former routes had been signed north–south, the new route was signed east–west to better reflect its actual direction of travel. In the 1980s, US 1 was removed from its surface alignment in Boston and instead cosigned with I-95 and I-93. As a result, Route 203 no longer terminates at a numbered route at its western end.

Major intersections

The entire route is in

, Suffolk County.

References

{{Streets and squares in Boston

203 Year 203 ( CCIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Plautianus and Geta (or, less frequently, year 956 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 203 for this ye ...

Streets in Boston Transportation in Suffolk County, Massachusetts