historic context of maryland highway bridges built between 1948 ...

4. Section 2 TW O Historic Co ntextSECTIONTHREEHistoric Context4.1 INTRODUCTIONThe years between 1948 and 1960 are one of the most active periods of road and bridgeconstruction in Maryland‘s history. Relentlessly increasing traffic volumes, coupled with aminimal amount of maintenance during the World War II years, created the almostinsurmountable challenge for highway engineers of rebuilding the state‘s road system. Prewarpredictions from highway experts could not envision the volume of traffic and the increases invehicle speed and size that would occurred after 1945. Maryland was in need of an improvedhighway system to meet these demands and to enable the state‘s businesses to prosper (PublicAdministration Service 1952:6).In 1947, Governor William Preston Lane (1947-1951) unveiled a plan to launch the greatest roadbuilding program in Maryland‘s history intended to make the state‘s highway system ―second tonone in the nation‖ and to lay the groundwork for major construction projects in the 1950s (StateRoads Commission 1949:61; 1960:3). By the early 1950s, the motoring public was beginning tosee some improvement as new road construction (such as the limited-access WashingtonNational Pike) and reconstruction (such as the divided highway extension of US 140 in CarrollCounty) were underway or completed (State Roads Commission 1950:1; 1952:2, 4). Between1947 and 1951, the state saw 757 miles of roads built or rebuilt, work on the Chesapeake BayBridge (the governor‘s highest priority project) began, and planning for a statewide expresswaysystem was underway (LeViness 1958:157; State Roads Commission 1964:17).Maryland‘s next Governor, Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin (1951-1959), continued the efforts toimprove roadways and bridges in the state. In 1951-1952, McKeldin commissioned a study thatfound that 67 percent of the state‘s roads were in need of improvement or reconstruction to reachstandards adopted by the State Roads Commission (SRC) in 1948. The study recommended a 12-year program to rebuild Maryland‘s highway system by 1965 (LeViness 1958:165–167, 175–176; State Roads Commission 1952:5; 1954:2). Many Maryland residents saw that effort as toolittle and too slow; by 1960, the public was impatient with what they perceived as inadequate andobsolete roadways. A five-year program, the so-called ―Go Roads‖ program, was instituted in1960 to plan for 100 miles of primary and interstate highway construction in each of the nextfive years and to extend modern primary highways or expressways into every region of the state,with beltways to serve urban areas (State Roads Commission 1960:3).Bridge building and design was an integral part of Maryland‘s overall road-building programafter World War II. Failing bridges were in need of replacement or repair and new bridges wereplanned as part of an overall upgrade of the state‘s road system. During 1947 and 1948, theDivision of Bridge Design completed preliminary studies, estimates, and schemes forconstructing more than 50 new bridges and bridge improvement projects to repair and strengthenexisting structures (State Roads Commission 1949:65–66, 70). This was particularly important ina state like Maryland split down the middle by the Chesapeake Bay with numerous tributariesthroughout the state feeding the bay.In addition, many large bridge and road projects built during this period had important socialimplications: the Chesapeake Bay Bridge ended the isolation of the Eastern Shore; the PatuxentRiver Bridge united two Southern Maryland counties; and the beltways around Washington andBaltimore under construction at the end of the period encouraged the relentless sub-urbanizationof their surrounding counties. The SRC bridge database lists 586 bridges built between 1948 and\15-SEP-11\\ 4-1