Maryland

[The Ghostbuster]

Is it likely that Interstate 68 in Cumberland will be reconstructed anytime soon?

[Beltway]

Any alternative I can see, it would be a highly impacting urban freeway project.
I don't think relocating to a bypass would work (that may be one of their alternatives), it is mountainous to the north and they would have to go thru West Virginia to the south and there is no good place to put it.

Prefacing my comments with the note that I drive to or through downtown Cumberland on average more than once a month, my thoughts are:
[...]
Relocating Highway
Despite the complexity, I think this is the better answer as it helps to clean up a lot of issues.
Heading eastbound, I would envision I-68 crossing the North Branch Potomac River into WV and then back into MD on a centerline around the present WV 28 ALT/Jewell Street intersection. As it came back into MD, it would start an arc to the northern passing through the northern part of the Fairfield Inn, cross Park Street roughly at Cecilia Street, and tie back in to I-68 just east of Maryland Avenue.

I have considered that alternative in the past. It would eliminate the three major curves that make the alignment such a problem.

But that means building two river bridges, impacting a small neighborhood in WVA that may like their relative isolation from the city, and getting another state involved that may have a different set of priorities and not want to accept this.

That is probably why the current alignment was built the way it was 60 years ago. The same reasoning may still be in effect.

[Bitmapped]

Is it likely that Interstate 68 in Cumberland will be reconstructed anytime soon?

Maryland is studying it per https://www.mdot.maryland.gov/OPCP/MDOT_BIPGrant_I-68CumberlandViaduct.pdf. The existing viaduct needs a $100M full deck replacement in the next couple years and the steel superstructure has fatigue cracking. MDOT SHA is looking to see if there are other alternatives that would better fit Cumberland than just rehabbing the existing structure.

[vdeane]

I mean, I get that local traffic is used to using I-68 to bypass traffic lights and railroad tracks, but that doesn't mean they need it.  Most areas wouldn't expect to use an interstate for such short hops.

[epzik8]

Well, I got to use part of the newly reconfigured ramp from MD 24 south to I-95 south today. Just cannot wait for those concrete barriers to disappear from there.

[Mapmikey]

well it took a decade but i finally found where MD 538 was...

See pg. 300 here - https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/stagser/s1800/s1883/000000/000030/pdf/msa_s1883_000030.pdf

It part of a series of streets in Montgomery County that became part of MD 513 (now MD 320)...

The 1949 Montgomery County map does not get detailed enough to show MD 538.

[epzik8]

I caught SHA in the act of putting up a new light at US 1 and MD 276 in Cecil County:

[Bitmapped]

Maryland is significantly upgrading truck-related signage for the I-68 eastbound descent into Cumberland. They now have sets of signs every 2-3 miles warning of the grade beginning at the flat part west of Finzel, which first shows a 14-mile downgrade. They've added many more speed limit assemblies for the truck speed limit, and they are now posted on both sides of the road.

In the past month, they've installed an overhead cantilever just east of MD 36 with flashing lights that will turn on to warn trucks they are going too fast. (Truck speed limit is 45, car speed limit is 70 here.) There are two other sets of foundations poured in the median in the same vicinity, although it's not clear what they're for.

[MASTERNC]

I caught SHA in the act of putting up a new light at US 1 and MD 276 in Cecil County:

Definitely needed a light there given all the turning traffic and high rates of speed