Portal:Maryland roads/Selected article/August 2016

MD 30 northbound in the center of Manchester

Maryland Route 30 (MD 30) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known for most of its length as Hanover Pike, the highway runs 19.16 miles (30.84 km) from MD 140 in Reisterstown north to the Pennsylvania state line near Melrose, where the highway continues as Pennsylvania Route 94 (PA 94). MD 30 is a major, two-lane regional highway in western Baltimore County and northeastern Carroll County. Locally, the highway serves the towns of Manchester and Hampstead; the latter town is bypassed by the highway but served by a business route. Regionally, MD 30 connects Reisterstown and Baltimore with Hanover, Pennsylvania. MD 30 originated in the colonial era as part of a wagon road connecting Baltimore with the new settlement that was to become Hanover. This highway was improved as a turnpike in the 19th century. MD 30 was constructed as a state road by the Maryland State Roads Commission in the late 1910s and early 1920s, and it became one of the original state-numbered highways in 1927. The state highway was relocated and widened near Reisterstown in the late 1930s and along the rest of its route in the early 1950s. The Hampstead Bypass was planned as early as the 1960s to ameliorate increasing congestion. However, the construction of the bypass was continually delayed due to environmental issues and politics. The bypass was finally constructed between 2006 and 2009; the old highway through Hampstead became MD 30 Business. A MD 30 bypass of Manchester has also been discussed since the 1960s, but the Maryland State Highway Administration (MDSHA) has no plans to construct the new highway in the foreseeable future. (more...)

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