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

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J. Millard Tawes and the “Go Roads” Program, 1959-1965
Governor J. Millard Tawes was elected to office in 1958, following McKeldin’s two
terms. Through McKeldin’s Twelve-Year Program, the SRC had scheduled highway
construction until 1965. Although Tawes was a Democrat, and a politician from a smaller, more
rural county, he understood the significance of the highway system. Rather than stopping the
program, he reorganized the SRC to make it “more efficient.” The SRC’s new proposal for the
“Go Roads” Program, wherein 100 miles of highway would be built every year until 1965,
received the Governor’s support. The Twenty-Seventh Biennial Report, Tomorrow’s Roads
Today, for the 1959-1960, states that during this period, “the SRC had widened and resurfaced
365 miles of highway in every part of the state.” At the same time, because of inadequate roads
that required dualizing or relocating, it was necessary to expedite construction in order to focus
on the primary road system. 63
The primary road system had been in place since 1916 when the SRC first began
receiving federal aid for highway construction. The agency identified a system of highways that
would connect all of the county seats with Baltimore and with one another within various regions
throughout the state. By 1952, the state had approximately fifty five highways in the primary
system. The 1959-1960 Report underscored the difference between the state’s primary road
system and the secondary highway system which consisted of smaller feeder roads that
connected to the primary system. As reported in the Exhibits for the Report, the primary road
system highways that were improved during 1959-1960 included MD 51 in Allegany County,
US 301 and MD 2 in Anne Arundel County, and MD 404 in Caroline County. Several of these
roads were important because they were outside the Baltimore-Washington-Annapolis-Frederick
area, and provided citizens in more distant parts of the state with safe, modern highways. The
secondary road system also received attention; however, the heart of the SRC’s message was that
the agency remained focused on meeting the construction deadline for the interstate since the
federal government planned to end the program in 1969. 64
Among the highways that the SRC planned to complete as interstates were the
Washington Beltway (I-495) and the Northeast Expressway (I-95) between White Marsh Road
and the Delaware State Line. The 1959-1960 Report also identified the I-95 segment between
Washington, DC and Baltimore, I-70 west of Frederick and the East-West Expressway through
Baltimore as roads that remained to be constructed. 65 By the end of Fiscal Year 1960, the SRC
had constructed 112 miles of interstate that was open for travel, while 35 miles of highway were
then under construction. Maryland received eighty two percent of the federal aid allotment,
while Baltimore City received forty percent. The interstate highways that had been completed
included the Baltimore-Harrisburg Expressway (I-83), which was the relocation of Baltimore-
York, Pennsylvania Turnpike in northern Baltimore County. Since the 1930s York Road had
been identified as one of the dangerous roads with steep grade that made the road dangerous, the
63 State Roads Commission of Maryland, Twenty-Seventh Biennial Report, Tomorrow’s Roads Today, for the 1959-
1960, Baltimore, MD 1961
64 Ibid. p. 4, and pp. 94-101
65 Because Baltimore is an independent city with an ability to generate its own revenue through taxation, so it also
maintains control of the state highways within its borders (I-83, MD 2, MD 139, MD 147, US 1, US 40). However,
it does not maintain control of I-95 or I-895.