TOMORROW'S ROADS TODAY - Maryland State Highway ...

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24 Post-war traffic volumes picked up as soldiers returned from the war and the economy turned from war production to peace time initiatives. In 1941, 429,937 cars and buses were registered in Maryland. By 1948, the number of vehicles on state roads rose to 569,082. 35 The SRC and the Maryland government were aware of the traffic rate’s rapid rise because the state’s roads were overcrowded and accidents occurred frequently (Figure 4). Passage of the 1947 Expressway Act allowed the SRC to begin the two projects that would complete portions of the Primary Bridge Program: the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and the Baltimore-Washington Expressway. The SRC awarded Greiner Engineering the contract and work began in 1948 on the highway. Starting at the City line, the state began grading the road to the south. The highway became the first new road in Maryland to be constructed according to the 1941 Interregional Highways report. The road was not two parallel roads with a median and one grade such as the 1930s’ US 40. Rather it was two independent roads on similar alignments, but if the terrain changed, each could also follow the changing topography. Most importantly, there were interchanges that allowed traffic to move at speed from one highway to another with extended merge lanes that eased vehicles onto the highway. The interchanges allowed for connections between nine cross roads at Bladensburg, Annapolis, Riverdale, Greenbelt, Powder Mill, Laurel- Fort Meade, Savage, Jessup’s, Dorsey, Friendship Airport and New Nursery. The design of each interchange matched traffic volumes, and included cloverleaf, diamond and one “paperclip” design (Figure 5). Figure 5: MD 295 and MD 201 and US 50 Interchange, Prince George’s County. One “paperclip ramp” is in the northwest corner of the interchange. 36 Also, landowners were not allowed to have access to the highway except from the interchanges, thereby eliminating dangerous access points that had plagued Maryland’s earlier highways. In fact, landowners whose properties bordered the highway were required to realign their entrances to side roads. The SRC completed the Baltimore-Washington Expressway in 1951 between the Baltimore City line and Jessup’s Road (MD 175), and opened the road to traffic in 1952. The SRC designed this section of the highway as an expressway, with three lanes of traffic between the City line and I-695 southbound, and from I-195 to the City line northbound. 35 Statistics from “State Motor Vehicle Registrations – 1941,” Public Roads, Vol. 23, No. 5 (July-August-September 1942) p. 101; and “State Motor Vehicle Registrations – 1948,” Highway Statistics 1948, U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Public Roads, Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1950, page 26. 36 Source SHA Photo Archive.
25 The BPR and National Park Service (NPS) completed the eighteen mile federal portion designed as a parkway in 1954. Unlike the northern expressway segment, the federal portion between MD 175 (Jessup’s Road) and I-495 had two lanes northbound and southbound, separated by a large median. The median was landscaped with both natural and planned elements, and the park surrounded the parkway. The NPS designed twenty-eight bridges and overpasses incorporating designs for parkway bridges with stone masonry facing over concrete rigid frame or steel girder and beam structures. Underpasses tended to be built with minimal decoration, while overpasses, which were more visible to motorists, were faced with granite. 37 The seventeen bridges that the SRC built between the Baltimore City line and MD 175 during the Five Year Program were either stringer/multi-beam girder or concrete rigid frame structures. The Baltimore-Washington Parkway crossed roads as well as rivers and streams, so the steel beam bridges could be constructed with minimal disruption to the cross roads (Figure 6). Figure 6: MD 168 over MD 295 Northbound, SHA Bridge No. 0201200 constructed in 1949 (photo by Anne Bruder, SHA, 2009) These bridges were not new designs for the SRC. The agency began using standardized plans in 1912 for concrete slab and beam bridges. 38 In response to increasing traffic over these structures, the SRC periodically refined the bridge designs by strengthening girders and increasing the width of the structures. By the 1930s, the metal girder had become the SRC’s regularly chosen standard design, although the agency no longer depended on a published standard plan. The use of metal girder bridges continued in the early 1940s. By the late 1940s, the SRC needed to build roads efficiently and quickly because of the rapidly increasing traffic. In the three years following the war’s end, more than 74,000 cars were added to those that had been on the highways in 1941. Before the war, the SRC had struggled to keep up with growing traffic on the state’s highways. After the war, it was a necessity. In addition to growing car ownership, many people chose to live outside the Washington and 37 Melissa F. Blair, DOE AN-0101, SHA Bridge No. 0201900, Ridge Road over MD 295, 11-15-2005. The Baltimore-Washington Parkway controlled by the NPS is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. A number of the bridges on this portion of the highway have been widened, although the original designs were maintained and each was determined to continue to contribute to the Parkway. 38 Report of the State Roads Commission of Maryland, Baltimore, MD: 1916, p. 56
Page 1 and 2: "TOIORROW'S ROADS TODAY" EXPRESSWAY
Page 3 and 4: 3 SHA identified 286 highway bridge
Page 5 and 6: 5 Table of Figures Figure 1: US 40
Page 7 and 8: 7 Until 1941, Maryland did not have
Page 9 and 10: 9 plate metal girder bridges. The n
Page 11 and 12: 11 Epigraph “Tomorrow’s Roads T
Page 13 and 14: 13 after 1965. Those developments h
Page 15 and 16: 15 Figure 1: US 40 over the Patapsc
Page 17 and 18: 17 State Struggles The SRC also pro
Page 19 and 20: 19 As the SRC finalized the bridges
Page 21 and 22: 21 This central shore location was
Page 23: 23 William Preston Lane, Jr. and th
Page 27 and 28: 27 project. The highway bonds sold
Page 29 and 30: 29 highways that connected county s
Page 31 and 32: 31 Figure 10: I-695 at Dulaney Vall
Page 33 and 34: 33 Figure 12: Atomic Energy Commiss
Page 35 and 36: 35 Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956
Page 37 and 38: 37 Maryland continued to apply for
Page 39 and 40: 39 SRC expanded the road to a four-
Page 41 and 42: 41 completion of the two interchang
Page 43 and 44: 43 Figure 17: Governor Elbert N. Ca
Page 45 and 46: 45 Each of these bridges provides u
Page 47 and 48: 47 Bibliography American Associatio
Page 49 and 50: 49 Maryland-National Capital Park a
Page 51 and 52: 51 ____________, Report of the Stat
Page 53 and 54: 53 Appendix A: Results of Field Inv
Page 55 and 56: 55 Steel Deck Truss - similar to St
Page 57 and 58: 57 Concrete Encased Steel Beam, SHA
Page 59 and 60: 59 or Bethlehem Steel types would b
Page 61 and 62: 61 Eligible Bridges The following b
Page 63 and 64: 63 to carry boats. Sometimes carrie
Page 65 and 66: 65 Bridge Condition Ratings - Throu
Page 67 and 68: 67 to the arch below. The first arc
Page 69 and 70: 69 Deck Bridge - A bridge in which
Page 71 and 72: 71 Embankment - Angled grading of t
Page 73 and 74: 73 Girder - A horizontal structure
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75 Headwall - The device placed at
Page 77 and 78:
77 Lag - Crosspieces used to connec
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79 Parapet - A low wall along the o
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81 of multiple members of a truss.
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83 Spandrel - The roughly triangula
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85 Swing Bridge - A movable deck br
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87 Unit Stress - The stress per uni
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Appendix D: SHA Bridges Included in
Page 91 and 92:
91 Eligibility Description Bridge N
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Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
101 Eligibility Description Bridge
Page 103:
Appendix E: Resume Anne E. Bruder i
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