Portal:Maryland roads/Selected article/November 2013

Westbound I-70 in Hancock

Interstate 70 (I-70) is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from Cove Fort, Utah to Baltimore, Maryland. In Maryland, the Interstate Highway runs 93.62 miles (150.67 km) from the Pennsylvania state line in Hancock east to the Interstate's eastern terminus near its junction with I-695 at a park and ride in Baltimore. I-70 is the primary east–west Interstate in Maryland; the Interstate Highway connects Baltimore with Western Maryland. The Interstate serves Frederick and Hagerstown. I-70's route from Frederick to West Friendship was constructed as a divided highway relocation of US 40 in the early to mid-1950s and a freeway bypass of Frederick in the late 1950s. The first section of the Interstate to be marked as I-70 was an upgrade of US 40 near Hancock in the early 1960s. The remainder of the Interstate highway in Maryland west of Frederick was built on a new alignment in the mid- to late 1960s. I-70 was constructed from West Friendship to its present terminus in Baltimore in the late 1960s. The highway from Bartonsville in Frederick County to West Friendship was upgraded to Interstate standards in the mid-1970s. The final non-limited access portion of I-70 between Frederick and Bartonsville was eliminated in the mid-1980s. The Interstate is presently being upgraded through Frederick in a series of projects that began in the late 1990s. I-70 was intended to enter Baltimore as an east–west freeway that had been proposed since the 1940s. Around 1960, I-70 was planned passing through a pair of parks and several neighborhoods in West Baltimore to end at an interchange with I-95 and I-83 at the Inner Harbor in Downtown Baltimore. A new plan was introduced around 1970 that would have moved I-70's eastern terminus to Southwest Baltimore. However, community opposition to the Interstate's planned route through the city parks resulted in I-70 being removed from city plans in the early 1980s. (more...)

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