TOMORROW'S ROADS TODAY - Maryland State Highway ...
TOMORROW'S ROADS TODAY - Maryland State Highway ...
TOMORROW'S ROADS TODAY - Maryland State Highway ...
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29<br />
highways that connected county seats with Baltimore. MD 140 is an example of a highway that<br />
connected outlying towns such as Westminster in Carroll County to Baltimore that was upgraded<br />
by relocating the road to bypass the small towns. The work started in 1949 and continued for<br />
several years.<br />
Figure 9: Old Westover-Crisfield Road, Somerset County, 1950 45<br />
Although there were major highway projects planned by the SRC, the agency understood<br />
other roads also required attention, and therefore they required a “program of fixed priorities” in<br />
order to know how to best meet their proposed deadline of twelve years. The SRC also had<br />
concerns about road construction; they wanted to be sure that any new road would attract and<br />
distribute traffic in an effective manner. 46 In order to accomplish the Twelve-Year Program’s<br />
goals the General Assembly would need to approve new sales and gas taxes, increase registration<br />
fees, and issue new bonds.<br />
Baltimore County Beltway<br />
The public supported increased costs of highway construction due to the poor condition<br />
of the highways statewide. One problem that interested Governor McKeldin was the traffic<br />
congestion caused by citizens using Baltimore’s inner city roads as a thoroughfare for areas<br />
outside of the city limits While he considered the SRC’s Twelve Year Program, two local<br />
planning agencies, the Baltimore County Office of Planning and the <strong>Maryland</strong>-National Capital<br />
Park and Planning Commission in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, proposed that the<br />
counties construct circumferential highways around Baltimore and Washington, DC. Both<br />
agencies believed that traffic congestion could be relieved on all the counties’ radial roads by<br />
providing a single highway that connected those roads. Some of the roads were former turnpikes<br />
that connected Baltimore with Washington, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Frederick. Other<br />
45 Source: SHA Photo Archive; (also see Figure 6 above)<br />
46 Ibid., p. 12 and p. 24