Interstate 68 (I-68) is a Interstate Highway in the U.S. states of West Virginia and Maryland, connecting I-79 in Morgantown, West Virginia, east to I-70 in Hancock, Maryland. I-68 is also Corridor E of the Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS). From 1965 until the freeway's construction was completed in 1991, it was designated as U.S. Route 48 (US 48). In Maryland, the highway is known as the National Freeway, an homage to the historic National Road, which I-68 parallels between Keysers Ridge and Hancock. The freeway mainly spans rural areas and crosses numerous mountain ridges along its route. A road cut at Sideling Hill exposed geological features of the mountain and has become a tourist attraction.
US 219 and US 220 overlap I-68 in Garrett County and Cumberland, respectively, and US 40 overlaps with the freeway from Keysers Ridge to the eastern end of the freeway at Hancock.
The construction of I-68 began in 1965 and continued for over 25 years, with completion on August 2, 1991. While the road was under construction, it was predicted that economic conditions would improve along the corridor for the five counties connected by I-68: Allegany, Garrett, and Washington in Maryland and Preston and Monongalia in West Virginia. The two largest cities connected by the highway are Morgantown, West Virginia, and Cumberland, Maryland. Although the freeway serves no major metropolitan areas, it provides a major transportation route in western Maryland and northern West Virginia and also provides an alternative to the Pennsylvania Turnpike for westbound traffic from Washington DC and Baltimore.
Various West Virginia officials have proposed extending the highway westward to the Ohio River valley, ending in either Moundsville, or Wheeling, West Virginia. An extension to Moundsville was approved by federal officials at one point but shelved due to funding problems.
History
thumb|left|Time-lapse video of an eastbound trip on I-68 in 2017
Predecessors
Prior to the construction of the freeway from Morgantown to Hancock, several different routes carried traffic across the region. West Virginia Route 73 (WV 73) extended from Bridgeport to Bruceton Mills, serving regions now served by I-79 (Bridgeport to Morgantown) and I-68 (Morgantown to Bruceton Mills). After the I-68 freeway, then known as US 48, was completed in West Virginia, the WV 73 designation was removed. Portions of the road still exist as County Route 73 (CR 73), CR 73/73, and CR 857. Between I-68's exit 10 at Cheat Lake and exit 15 at Coopers Rock, I-68 was largely built directly over old WV 73's roadbed.
At Bruceton Mills, WV 73 ended at WV 26, which, from there, runs northeast into Pennsylvania, becoming Pennsylvania Route 281 at the state line and meeting US 40 north of the border. From there, eastbound traffic would follow US 40 into Maryland. I-68 now parallels US 40 through western Maryland.
US 40 followed the route of the National Road through Pennsylvania and Maryland. The National Road was the first federally funded road built in the U.S., authorized by Congress in 1806. Construction lasted from 1811 to 1837, establishing a road that extended from Cumberland to Vandalia, Illinois. Upon the establishment of the U.S. Numbered Highway System in 1926, the route of the National Road became part of US 40.
Cumberland Thruway
thumb|left|The Cumberland Thruway bridge, as seen from the Baltimore Street bridge over Wills Creek in Cumberland, Maryland|alt=A highway bridge passes above a creek, with a railroad bridge visible in the background.
In the early 1960s, as the Interstate Highway System was being built throughout the U.S., east–west travel through western Maryland was difficult, as US 40, the predecessor to I-68, was a two-lane country road with steep grades and hairpin turns. This portion of the highway, which consists of a mile-long () elevated bridge, was completed and opened to the public on December 5, 1966. The elevated highway connected Lee Street in west Cumberland to Maryland Avenue in east Cumberland, providing a quicker path for motorists traveling through the town on US 40 and US 220. The Cumberland Thruway was extended to US 220 and then to Vocke Road (Maryland Route 658, or MD 658) by 1970. Problems quickly emerged with the highway, especially near an area called "Moose Curve". At Moose Curve, the road curves sharply at the bottom of Haystack Mountain, and traffic accidents are common.
Corridor E
thumb|right|View east along I-68 east of WV 26 in Preston County, West Virginia
In 1965, the Appalachian Development Act was passed, authorizing the establishment of the ADHS, which was meant to provide access to areas throughout the Appalachian Mountains that were not previously served by the Interstate Highway System. A set of corridors was defined, comprising of highways from New York to Mississippi. Corridor E in this system was defined to have endpoints at I-79 in Morgantown, West Virginia, and I-70 in Hancock, Maryland. At the time, there were no freeways along the corridor, though construction on the Cumberland Thruway began that year. It was this corridor that would eventually become I-68.
The construction of Corridor E, which was also designated as US 48, took over 20 years and hundreds of millions of dollars to complete. The cost of building I-68 from Cumberland to the West Virginia state line came to $126 million (equivalent to $ in ); the portion between Cumberland and Sideling Hill cost $182 million (equivalent to $ in ); and the section at Sideling Hill cost $44 million (equivalent to $ in ).
Much of the work in building the freeway was completed during the 1970s, with US 48 opened from Vocke Road in LaVale to MD 36 in Frostburg on October 12, 1973, and to MD 546 on November 1, 1974. On November 15, 1975, the West Virginia portion and a portion from the West Virginia state line to Keysers Ridge in Maryland opened, followed by the remainder of the freeway in Garrett County on August 13, 1976.
Designation as I-68
thumb|left|I-68/US 40 eastbound and US 219 northbound at MD 495 near Grantsville, Maryland
Though the National Freeway was designated as US 48, as the completion of the freeway neared, the possibility of the freeway being designated as an Interstate Highway came up. In the 1980s, the project to improve US 50 between Washington DC and Annapolis to Interstate Highway standards had been assigned the designation of I-68. MDSHA, however, later concluded that adding additional route shields to the US 50 freeway would not be helpful to drivers since about half the freeway already had two route designations (US 50 and US 301) and drivers on the freeway were already familiar with the US 50 designation. This made the designation to be applied to that freeway more flexible, and so, in 1989, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the organization composed of the various state departments of transportation that decides route numbering in the U.S., approved MDSHA's request to renumber the US 50 freeway from I-68 to I-595. That same year, AASHTO approved changing US 48's designation to I-68.--> This change took effect upon the completion of the last section of the National Freeway on August 2, 1991. This marks the third time that the US 48 number has been assigned to a highway, the first use being for a highway in California that existed in the 1920s.
Incidents
Numerous crashes and incidents have occurred on I-68. On June 1, 1991, a gasoline tanker descending into downtown Cumberland from the east attempted to exit the freeway at exit 43D, Maryland Avenue. The tanker went out of control and overturned as the driver tried to go around the sharp turn at the exit. Gasoline began to leak from the damaged tanker, forcing the evacuation of a three-block area of Cumberland. Approximately 30 minutes later, the tanker exploded, setting eight houses on fire. The fire caused an estimated $250,000 in damages (equivalent to $ in ) and prompted MDSHA to place signs prohibiting hazardous materials trucks from exiting at the Maryland Avenue exit.
On May 23, 2003, poor visibility due to fog was a major contributing factor to an 85-vehicle pileup on I-68 on Savage Mountain west of Frostburg. Two people were killed and nearly 100 people were injured. Because of the extent of the wreckage on the road, I-68 remained blocked for 24 hours while the wreckage was cleared. In the aftermath of the pileup, the question of how to deal with fog in the future was discussed. Though the cost of a fog warning system can be considerable, MDSHA installed such a system in 2005 at a cost of $230,000 (equivalent to $ in ).
Effect on surrounding region
thumb|right|I-68 eastbound in Garrett County, Maryland, past the West Virginia state line
One of the arguments in favor of the construction of I-68 was that the freeway would improve the poor economic conditions in western Maryland. The economy of the surrounding area has improved since the construction of the freeway, especially in Garrett County, where the freeway opened up the county to tourism from Washington DC and Baltimore. Correspondingly, Garrett County saw a sharp increase in population and employment during and after the construction of the road, with full- and part-time employment increasing from 8,868 in 1976 to 15,334 in 1991. Economic difficulties, however, remain in Allegany and Garrett counties. There were concerns over loss of customers to businesses that have been cut off from the main highway due to the construction of the new alignment in the 1980s, leading to protests when then-Governor Harry Hughes visited the Sideling Hill road cut when it was opened.
Proposed extension
In the 1990s, there was discussion about a future westward extension to I-68. Such an extension would connect the western terminus of I-68 in Morgantown to WV 2 in Moundsville. A 1989 proposal had suggested a toll road be built along this corridor. In 2003, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) approved the extension, paving the way for federal funding and for the road to become part of the National Highway System on completion. The project, however, ran into problems due to lack of funds, and, in 2008, West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin suggested dropping the project altogether, making construction of a westward extension of I-68 unlikely in the near future.
In 2014, Marshall County officials brought the extension of I-68 up again as a way for oil companies to have easier access to drill into the area, likely by fracking. Much like the second leg of PA 576 (Southern Beltway) in the Pittsburgh area, an extension of I-68 is being spurred in response to the Marcellus natural gas trend. If the extension were to be built, it would also include a widening of WV 2 to four lanes and would cost an estimated $5 million per mile (/km). It is expected that the project would be divided into two legs, first from Morgantown to Cameron and then Cameron to Moundsville.
Others have proposed extending I-68 to Wheeling, West Virginia, and connecting it with I-470.
Route description
See also
Notes
References
External links
- Interstate Guide – I-68
- I-68 in West Virginia at AARoads.com
- I-68 in Maryland at AARoads.com
- I-68 at MDRoads.com
- West Virginia Roads - I-68
- Maryland Roads - I-68
- Roads to the Future - National Freeway (I-68)