Route 6 in Harwich Will Start Closing at Night. Here's the Way Around.

State bridge work along Route 6 in Harwich starts this month and runs into 2028, with overnight closures expected on work nights, Sunday through Thursday. The town administrator says Town Hall found out when the detour signs went up.

The signs came first. Detour signs, going up around Harwich. Then came the questions, and the people in the town administrator's office didn't have the answers either.

"It has caused a lot of stress here," Town Administrator Jay McGrail told the select board Monday night, describing the signs. His office, he said, had received limited information and had to push MassDOT hard for details. The Cape Cod Chronicle spent two days trying to get those details from the state's public affairs office and didn't get them either.

Here is what's known.

Three bridges, one contract

The work is MassDOT project 609436, a preservation job on three bridges along Route 6 in Harwich. Two of them carry local roads over the highway: Pleasant Lake Avenue (Route 124) and Route 137. The third carries Route 6 over Depot Street. The state awarded the $5,484,000 contract to New England Infrastructure Inc.

Crews mobilize in mid-October, and the work is expected to run through July 2028.

During the day, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., no closures are expected. Night work, 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., Sunday through Thursday, is expected to bring Route 6 closures. That doesn't mean every one of those nights for two years. Watch the signs and the state's traffic advisories for the actual schedule. Police Chief Kevin Considine noted that state road work on the Cape generally stops for the summer.

Pleasant Lake Avenue and Route 137 stay open over the top.

Exit 82, then left

These are the detours as the Chronicle reported them. The signs on the road win if they say something different.

At the Depot Street bridge, eastbound traffic gets off at the Route 134 exit in Dennis and takes Route 134 to Upper County Road, then Great Western Road east into Harwich. Westbound traffic gets off at Exit 82 (Route 124), heads south on Pleasant Lake Avenue to Great Western Road, and rejoins Route 134 in Dennis.

At the Route 124 bridge, westbound traffic takes Exit 82, turns left on Pleasant Lake Avenue, then right on Great Western Road. Eastbound traffic takes Exit 82, turns right on Pleasant Lake Avenue, left on Route 39, left on Route 137, and climbs back onto Route 6.

At the Route 137 bridge, westbound traffic takes Exit 85, turns left on Route 137 and right on Route 39 west, then heads for the Route 124 on-ramp or keeps going on Great Western Road to Route 134. Eastbound traffic takes Exit 82, right on Route 124, left on Route 39, left on Route 137, and back up to Route 6.

If you live on Great Western Road or Pleasant Lake Avenue, the detours run past your house.

The ride to the hospital

Considine sat in on an online session with MassDOT about a month ago, where the traffic plans were laid out. He said these detours have been used for years, sometimes a couple of times a year, whenever the lane-dividing stanchions get replaced. "I don't see a lot of local impacts," he said. "The traffic at night will have to be monitored to keep an eye on it."

Fire Chief David LeBlanc raised one concern. The closures, he said, will affect hospital transports and mutual aid to the Lower Cape. "It will definitely be an issue for Lower Cape ambulances transporting to Cape Cod Hospital," he said. He also said his department is used to detours and construction, and he doesn't see it as a big impact.

The way around is under construction too

Two of the usual back ways are already dug up. A long stretch of Queen Anne Road west of Route 39 is closed for sewer work. Route 28 from Dennis Port to West Harwich is under construction.

So the map in your head, the one that says "if 6 is a mess, take 28," needs a footnote for a while.

The detour signs will be part of the drive until 2028.

Route 6 bridge preservation, Harwich | MassDOT project 609436: Pleasant Lake Ave (Route 124) and Route 137 over Route 6; Route 6 over Depot St.

Mobilization mid-October 2026; work through July 2028. Overnight closures expected on work nights, 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., Sunday through Thursday. No daytime closures expected.

Project page: hwy.massdot.state.ma.us (project 609436) · Live traffic advisories: mass511.com · Follow posted signs.