On September 12, 2015 MassDOT posted an advertisement calling for bids on a contract (Project No. 608024) that will convert the state's interstates an other US and State Route expressways to the Geographic Reference Location or Milepost Exit Numbering System starting in 2016. The winning bidder is to be chosen on November 17, 2015. This ends a process started with the 2009 Massachusetts Supplement to the federal MUTCD, section 2E.31 stating: "Massachusetts will be changing all its interchange exit signs statewide to the reference location numbering system, with the entire state highway system to be converted to the new numbers over the next five to ten years." According to a MassDOT source, a chief sign engineer, however, when the state approached the FHWA about funding an ongoing conversion project, they insisted the only way Massachusetts could get 90% federal funding was if they did the project all at once, in what is termed a blanket contract. According to
Because every road has a story.