Portal:Maryland roads

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Maryland Roads

The Maryland highway system consists of roads in the US state of Maryland that are maintained by the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA). The three main systems of roads that comprise the Maryland highway system are Interstate Highways, US Highways, and Maryland state highways. Other roads in Maryland are maintained by individual cities and counties.

Interstate Highways and US Highways are assigned at the national level. Interstate Highways are numbered in a grid—even-numbered routes are east–west routes (the lowest numbers are along Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico), and odd-numbered routes are north–south routes (with the lowest numbers along the Pacific Ocean). US Highways are also numbered in a grid—even numbered for east–west routes (with the lowest numbers along Canada) and odd numbered for north–south routes (with the lowest numbers along the Atlantic Ocean). For this reason, mainline (two-digit) Interstate Highways in Maryland all have numbers between 81 and 97 for north-south routes and between 68 and 70 for east-west routes. In addition, mainline US Highways all have numbers between 1 and 29 for north-south routes and between 40 and 50 for east-west routes. Three-digit Interstate and U.S. Highways, also known as "child routes," are branches off their main one- or two-digit "parents". The Interstate and US Highways are generally maintained by the SHA, with some toll roads maintained by the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) and some roads maintained by municipalities, including most roads in the city of Baltimore. Interstate 95 (I-95) and U.S. Route 40 (US 40) are the longest examples in the state.

Maryland state highways are the other state highways maintained by the SHA. Some state highways are maintained by municipalities while the Maryland Route 200 (MD 200) toll road is maintained by the MDTA. All roads maintained by the SHA are assigned route numbers, ranging from through routes passing through multiple counties to minor service roads that are less than a mile long. Many of the shorter state highways are unsigned. Some routes consist of multiple segments with letter suffixes; these suffixes are unsigned with the exception of MD 835A. There are two geographical clusters for Maryland state highways. The first, ranging from 2 to 37, consists of longer intercounty routes, with 2 to 6 in Southern Maryland, 7 to 10 originally skipped, 12 to 21 on the Eastern Shore, and 22 to 37 running west from Central Maryland to Western Maryland. The second cluster consists of routes from 38 to 378, running across the state from Garrett County in the west to Worcester County in the east. Numbers above 378 are assigned randomly.

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View west from the east end of US 40 Alt. at I-68/US 40/US 220 in Cumberland
View west from the east end of US 40 Alt. at I-68/US 40/US 220 in Cumberland

U.S. Route 40 Alternate (Alt US 40) is the United States highway designation for a former segment of U.S. Route 40 (US 40) through Garrett and Allegany Counties in Maryland. The highway begins at US 40 near exit 14 on Interstate 68 and runs 31.80 miles (51.18 km) eastward to Cumberland, where it ends at exit 44 on Interstate 68. The highway is known as Old National Pike to reflect the fact that it follows the original alignment of the National Road. As the route of the historic National Road, there are many historic sites along Alt US 40, including the Casselman Bridge in Grantsville and the last remaining National Road toll gate house in Maryland, located in LaVale. When the National Freeway was built in western Maryland paralleling the old National Road, parts of U.S. Route 40 were bypassed. The part of the bypassed road between Keyser's Ridge and Cumberland became Alt US 40, and other bypassed sections east of Cumberland became Maryland Route 144 and U.S. Route 40 Scenic. The road remains an important route for local traffic and serves as the Main Streets of Grantsville and Frostburg. (more...)

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