I found a Bel Air, Maryland highway plan from 1959

[epzik8]

I go on a Maryland website called plats.net a lot to take a look at subdivision and roadway plats around my neck of the woods in Harford County to explore the history behind them. Within the past week, I was looking at the state plat book and I found this 1959 map plan for the area of Harford County's seat, Bel Air:

Pretty interesting seeing the freeways and interchanges that never came to fruition. The "Cross-State Highway", or "New Route 23", is said by Mike Pruett of the website mdroads.com to have been planned to reach Carroll County. The continuation of the Bel Air Bypass (U.S. Route 1) beyond the north end of Route 147 at Benson was evidently supposed to be an extension of Perring Parkway in Parkville in Baltimore County. It looks like the U.S. 1/MD-24 interchange that eventually opened in 1987 was supposed to have more ramps, including one out to Atwood Road in the area of the Liriodendron Mansion in town. Atwood Road also looks like it was planned to be extended out to Vale Road. Today, it still only reaches Gordon Street outside of the Liriodendron.

"Ma and Pa Street", by the way, does exist today off Moores Mill Road as Ma and Pa Road, and approximately follows the former path of the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad through town.

And for comparison, this is what the Bel Air-area highway scene looks like today:

This is also my "post of the devil" because it's my 666th post. Anyhow, let me know what you think and feel free to share your knowledge if you happen to have it.

[epzik8]

Some other notes:

• The spot marked "FAIR GROUNDS" was at the time a horse racing track. The Harford Mall was built on the track's former property in 1972.
• Tollgate Road, the line just to the left of "New Route 24" on the 1959 map, was finally completed this year in 2017, when the missing link between Plumtree Road and Bel Air South Parkway was filled in. A right-of-way between Plumtree and Bel Air South had existed for some time before that. This was preceded by the completion of a roundabout at Tollgate and Plumtree in 2016.
• Routes 1 and 24 went straight through Bel Air in 1959. In 2017, they are Business Route 1 and Route 924.
• The portion of the U.S. 1 bypass around Hickory opened in the year 2000.

[Laura]

I'm resurrecting a 4 year old thread because I am a roadgeek and planner for Bel Air and was amazed when someone forwarded this thread to me. That Mike Pruett you mention is my husband

I'm amazed at how much was planned! I always suspected that there was an Atwood extension planned because of the right-of-way paper stub north of W. Gordon Street. Bel Air would have been a radically different town if the full interchange was built over the Liriodendron property.

Not sure if you've seen this, but here is the Harford County WebGIS: https://hcggis.harfordcountymd.gov/planning/harfordgis/ Someone drew proposed road alignments on the 1952 aerial map in the basemap gallery! (Now I faintly see the Atwood one...)

Do you live in or near Bel Air, too?

(Also mods, can you move this thread into Mid-Atlantic?)

[Roadgeekteen]

Did I-95 ever have plans to follow US 1 through Bel Air? Or was another freeway supposed to be built there?

[jp the roadgeek]

I'd like to know a little more about the proposed Cross-State Thruway.  Was it a proposed eastern extension of I-68, or would it have just connected I-83 and I-95 as a northeastern bypass of Baltimore?

[epzik8]

I'm resurrecting a 4 year old thread because I am a roadgeek and planner for Bel Air and was amazed when someone forwarded this thread to me. That Mike Pruett you mention is my husband

I'm amazed at how much was planned! I always suspected that there was an Atwood extension planned because of the right-of-way paper stub north of W. Gordon Street. Bel Air would have been a radically different town if the full interchange was built over the Liriodendron property.

Not sure if you've seen this, but here is the Harford County WebGIS: https://hcggis.harfordcountymd.gov/planning/harfordgis/ Someone drew proposed road alignments on the 1952 aerial map in the basemap gallery! (Now I faintly see the Atwood one...)

Do you live in or near Bel Air, too?

(Also mods, can you move this thread into Mid-Atlantic?)

Used to live in Forest Hill, now live in Aberdeen. I have spent a lot of time in Bel Air due to it being the county seat.

Did I-95 ever have plans to follow US 1 through Bel Air? Or was another freeway supposed to be built there?

I-95 was always going to be built parallel to US 40 and the Northeast Corridor. At least one source claims that what is now Perring Parkway in northeast Baltimore/Parkville was going to be a continuous freeway relocation of US 1 through Harford County and all the way to Philadelphia. Parts of this were built as the Bel Air Bypass and the Kennett-Oxford Bypass in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

I'd like to know a little more about the proposed Cross-State Thruway.  Was it a proposed eastern extension of I-68, or would it have just connected I-83 and I-95 as a northeastern bypass of Baltimore?

The Cross-State Thruway was planned to carry MD 23 into at least Carroll County. Mike states on MDRoads that it was referred to as the Piedmont Expressway at one point. Only the easternmost seven miles, between Hickory and Jarrettsville, ended up being built. This is named East-West Highway and supplanted Jarrettsville Road as "new Route 23". Today, East-West Highway ends at a light at the Hickory Bypass (part of the US 1 bypass chain), where the planned parclo is on the 1959 map. Other than bridges over two roads (Phillips Mill and Morse), everything is at-grade. I have never heard of the corridor being planned to reach I-95, though it certainly would have had access to I-83.

[Mapmikey]

I'd like to know a little more about the proposed Cross-State Thruway.  Was it a proposed eastern extension of I-68, or would it have just connected I-83 and I-95 as a northeastern bypass of Baltimore?

It was envisioned to reach I-95 - see pdf. pg. 37 here - http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/stagser/s1800/s1883/000000/000005/pdf/msa_s1883_000005.pdf

If you look at the maps you can see it actually was planned to reach I-70 Hagerstown!  Mostly called East-West Highway except east of Bel Air.

[froggie]

Interesting find, Mike.  There's a few things I'm aware of from the 60s or early 70s that aren't in that 1959 book:

• A "Shadyside Freeway" splitting off MD 4 near the Patuxent River and connnecting to MD 468.
• A freeway loop on the northeast side of Frederick
• The "Sligo Creek Parkway", which depending on which map you look at either ties into MD 32 or I-70.

[cpzilliacus]

I'd like to know a little more about the proposed Cross-State Thruway.  Was it a proposed eastern extension of I-68, or would it have just connected I-83 and I-95 as a northeastern bypass of Baltimore?

It was envisioned to reach I-95 - see pdf. pg. 37 here - http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/stagser/s1800/s1883/000000/000005/pdf/msa_s1883_000005.pdf

If you look at the maps you can see it actually was planned to reach I-70 Hagerstown!  Mostly called East-West Highway except east of Bel Air.

This is correct about Hagerstown.  I have been told by former MDOT staff (not SHA) that at some point this was planned to mostly be a Super-2 highway with full access control (I do not think Maryland would design or build a new Super-2 today).

[cpzilliacus]

The "Sligo Creek Parkway", which depending on which map you look at either ties into MD 32 or I-70.

This is almost certainly the Northern Parkway, which was to run from the intersection of MD-97 (Georgia Avenue) and MD-390 (16th Street) under the Capital Beltway near the site of present-day Holy Cross Hospital, then north along the Sligo Creek stream valley as far as Arcola Avenue, then along the east edge of Wheaton Regional Park, then continue north in the Northwest Branch stream valley past Randolph Road (former MD-183), past Bonifant Road and a big interchange at what is now MD-200 (the ICC), then north along MD-182 (Layhill Road) and Ednor Road into Howard County, then along Browns Bridge Road and Hall Shop Road to an interchange at MD-32.

[Mapmikey]

Some other intended items that did not occur start on pdf pg. 385 here - http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/stagser/s1800/s1875/000000/000003/pdf/msa_s1875_000003.pdf

Mentions a Hagerstown bypass (no MD rt assigned); MD 41 all the way to PA; MD 32 freeway to Annapolis; a Rockville freeway tying into an outer beltway;

All kinds of good stuff available from this page - http://guide.msa.maryland.gov/pages/combined.aspx?action=viewSeriesList&agency=DEPARTMENT%20OF%20TRANSPORTATION%20STATE%20HIGHWAY%20ADMINISTRATION&orderBy=ContainerOrigin

ID numbers starting with 'S' have electronic files.

[behogie230]

Thank you for this! I grew up in Bel Air and often miss it. I always wondered what the initial plan was for US 1 and MD 24. Fascinating!

[74/171FAN]

(Also mods, can you move this thread into Mid-Atlantic?)

I would move it there myself if I could.