MARYLAND ROUTE 32

'Maryland Route 32' is a highway in central Maryland that connects Westminster, in Carroll County, to Anne Arundel County (near Annapolis), via Howard County.

Counties traversed

★ Carroll County

★ Howard County

★ Anne Arundel County

Cities and towns

MD 32 directly serves the following cities and towns:

★ Odenton

★ Gambrills

★ Fort Meade

★ Annapolis Junction

★ Savage

★ Columbia

★ Clarksville

★ West Friendship

★ Sykesville

★ Eldersburg

★ Louisville

★ Gamber

★ Westminster

Route description

Sykesville Road

The route begins at the Westminster city limits, located at milepost 51.7, and is known as 'Old Washington Road'. It serves as a local suburban street through the southern suburbs, paralleling MD 97 to the west. Near Carroll Community College, the route assumes the name of 'Sykesville Road' and maintains it for a considerable distance. The route is a suburban road until it finally does reach MD 97, where it becomes a rural route. After intersecting with the southern terminus of MD 91 in Gamber it remains rural until reaching Eldersburg, where it becomes a congested suburban thoroughfare. It bypasses Sykesville to the east, and south of that town remains rural in character, despite heavy traffic and an interchange with Interstate 70.

Patuxent Freeway

The route becomes an east-west highway at Clarksville in Howard County, at an interchange with MD 108. From here to its eastern terminus in Anne Arundel County, MD 32 is a limited-access freeway that is sometimes known as the 'Patuxent Freeway', named after the nearby Patuxent River. The route is extremely busy and serves as a connector between other major highways in central Maryland, including U.S. 29 (near Columbia), U.S. 1 (near Savage), Interstate 95 (also near Savage), the Baltimore-Washington Parkway (near Annapolis Junction), and Interstate 97 (north of Annapolis). MD 32 also has an interchange for the Maryland Rail Commuter (MARC) station at Savage. The route serves as one of the major access roads into Columbia, alongside U.S. 29, MD 100 and MD 175.
Beyond the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, MD 32 enters Fort Meade. Roadworks completed by the Maryland State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA) in 2004-2005 provided interchanges for two access roads into the fort, primarily to remove at-grade intersections and replace them with interchanges. Additionally, part of Maryland Route 198 was closed and diverted into an existing interchange, which was massively upgraded. The completion of these works has resulted in a fully limited-access freeway route within the confines of Fort Meade, part of which is maintained by the U.S. government.
At the route's terminus with Interstate 97, traffic is defaulted onto I-97 South; travelers for I-97 North and MD 3 South must exit the freeway. When I-97 was constructed between this interchange and U.S. 50/U.S. 301, some of the funding was used to construct a segment of MD 32's current alignment in the area.

Points of interest

Route 32 Bridge

The Sykesville bypass, an alignment built to remove traffic from downtown Sykesville, is famous for the presence of a unique type of bridge built using aluminum instead of steel. This bridge spans a minor road, the B&O main line and the Patapsco River near Sykesville.
The bridge is one of only seven bridges in the U.S. that use aluminum for the bridge substructure. It is even more unique due to the use of a triangular aluminum girder framework, of which only three examples exist (this bridge is the longest of the three). The bridge was constructed in the late 1950s/early 1960s, during a time of severe steel shortage. The lack of steel led to the use of aluminum as an experimental material for bridge construction. Modern bridges are not built using aluminum due to the high cost, despite advantages such as lack of weight and sufficient protection against deterioration to not require regular painting.
When the bridge's aluminum construction was discovered in the 1990s, it was added to the Historic Bridge Inventory maintained by MDOT SHA. Subsequently, it was found that the use of steel to support the aluminum girders was resulting in galvanic corrosion of the girders. After determining that repairs using existing technology would result in damaging the bridge further, the bridge was bypassed by a new bridge; construction began in the fall of 2002 and finished on May 17, 2004.
With the approval of the Maryland Historic Trust, the SHA permitted the original bridge to be retained as a historic landmark. The SHA also created a small exhibit beneath the bridge, accessible via a minor road.

Junction list

County	Location	Mile	#	Destinations	Notes
Anne Arundel	Crownsville	0.0	1A	Interstate 97 south - Annapolis	eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		0.66	1B	Maryland Route 3 north; Interstate 97 north - Baltimore	eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		0.8	1C	Maryland Route 3 south - Gambrills; Bowie
	Gambrills	2.8	3	Burns Crossing Road - Gambrills; Odenton (Maryland Route 32AA)
	Odenton	4.54	4	Maryland Route 170 - Telegraph Road; Severn; Odenton
	Odenton	6.08	6	Maryland Route 175 - Odenton; Fort Meade
	Fort Meade	8.39	9	Maryland Route 198 - Laurel; Fort Meade
		changes jurisdiction from MDOT SHA to U.S. Government
		9.21	10	Samford Road - NSA	employee-only exit
		changes jurisdiction from U.S. Government to MDOT SHA
				Canine Road - NSA; Colony Seven Road	employee-only exit
		10.41		Baltimore Washington Parkway - Washington, DC; Baltimore (to MD 295)
	Annapolis Junction	11.11		Guilford Road; National Business Parkway	westbound exit and entrance
Howard	Annapolis Junction	11.79	11	Maryland Route 732R / Dorsey Run Road; Henkels Lane; Guilford Road; National Business Parkway	Guilford Road ( ) is former route of
	Savage	12.96	12	U.S. Route 1 - Laurel; Elkridge; Corridor Road	split into 12A and 12B
	Guilford	14.54	13	Interstate 95 - Washington, DC; Baltimore	split into 13A and 13B
	Columbia	16.33	14	Broken Land Parkway	split into 14A and 14B on eastbound only
	Columbia	16.88	15	Eden Brook Drive; Shaker Drive
		17.76	16	U.S. Route 29 - Washington, DC; Columbia Town Center	split into 16A and 16B
	Clarksville	18.95	17	Cedar Lane; Sanner Road
		20.7	19	Maryland Route 732V / Great Star Drive	westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		21.9	20	Maryland Route 108 / Clarksville Pike - Highland, Columbia	former route of
	freeway ends; continues as two lanes
		24.13		Linden Church Rd. E
		24.29		Linden Church Rd. W - to Ten Oaks Rd.
		25.69		MDOT SHA Dayton Maintenance Shop	emergency-signalled intersection
		27.17		Ten Oaks Rd. - to Triadelphia Rd.	end of two-lane limited-access portion of
		27.39		Burntwoods Rd.
		27.65		Pfefferkorn Rd.
		29.03		Rosemary Lane
	West Friendship	30.5		Maryland Route 144 / Frederick Rd. - Lisbon, Ellicott City
		31.0		Interstate 70/US 40 - Frederick, Baltimore	grade-separated interchange between two routes
		31.8		Maryland Route 99 east / Old Frederick Rd. - Mount Hebron (to US 29)
		34.78		Maryland Route 851 north / West Friendship Rd. - Sykesville	old alignment of through Sykesville
crosses B&O Railroad next to aluminium bridge
Carroll	Sykesville	35.53		Sandosky Rd./Raincliffe Rd.	provides access to Northrop Grumman facility
	Sykesville	36.39		Maryland Route 851 south / Springfield Ave. - Sykesville, Springfield Mental Hospital
	Eldersburg	38.4		Maryland Route 26 / Liberty Rd. - Woodbine, Randallstown
	Eldersburg	38.74		Bartholow Rd./Londontown Blvd. - Liberty High School (to MD 97)
	Louisville	42.18		Bollinger Mill Rd. east
	Gamber	43.4		Maryland Route 91 north / Gamber Rd. - Finksburg (to MD 140)
		48.9		Maryland Route 97 / New Washington Rd. - Westminster, Cooksville
	Fenby	49.3		Maryland Route 854B south / Old Washington Rd.	former route of
	Westminster	51.67		Bennett Ave. east
ends at Westminster city limits

Future work

There are plans to upgrade MD 32 from a two-lane undivided highway to a limited-access freeway from MD 108 to I-70 near West Friendship, as the stretch of MD 32 between MD 108 and I-70 is notorious for accidents due to its high speed limit and heavy traffic. Completion of these works will provide a limited-access freeway bypass of both Baltimore and Washington, allowing travelers from I-70 direct access to I-97 and Annapolis. [1]
The first project to be initiated as part of this freeway upgrade is the construction of a grade-separated interchange between MD 32 and Burntwoods Road. This interchange will be the most complex of the interchanges to be built, as it has to cater for traffic headed to and from three suburban roads. The interchange is scheduled for construction in 2008. The remaining interchanges, as well as the upgrade of the road itself into a freeway, is currently being planned, with no schedule for start of construction.

History

The route began as a countryside road, running from U.S. Route 140 in Westminster to the state line near Emmitsburg. It was later bypassed by MD 97 (this bypass would later be designated MD 140). Eventually it was extended south of Westminster as far as Maryland Route 144 (formerly U.S. Route 40), and eventually as far as U.S. 1, all before World War II. The northern terminus was rolled back to MD 140 in Westminster, cutting off a former segment now numbered MD 832; the route was further truncated to the southern city limits of Westminster at an indeterminate time. The southern terminus was extended south of U.S. 1 sometime in the 1950s or 1960s via Annapolis Junction Road to interchange with the Baltimore-Washington Parkway northwest of Fort Meade; south of the interchange, the state route ended, with the road continuing into the fort.
Between a business park near the interchange with I-95 and Fort Meade, the former route of MD 32, now known as 'Guilford Road', was once designated 'Maryland Route 732'. Before MD 32's arrival, the roadway north of U.S. 1 was once designated 'Maryland Route 106'. A small spur from Guilford Road, named Glen Oaks Lane, is still designated Maryland Route 432, but is not signed.
Before the completion of the current freeway segment between Clarksville and U.S. 29, a second segment of Guilford Road, running to the south of the current freeway segment, was designated and signed as MD 32. In Clarksville, the route overlapped MD 108 for a short distance before joining its current limited-access alignment in the vicinity of Exit 20. Prior to the rerouting of U.S. 29, this concurrency would have consisted of U.S. 29 and MD 32.

Notes

Because of the heavy traffic on MD 32 between MD 108 and I-70, the segment between these two routes is now a mandatory headlight use area. Vehicles on this section of the route are required to turn on their headlights in order to increase their visibility and to prevent people from wandering into opposing traffic.

External links

★ MD 32 @ MDRoads.com

★ Photos of the Route 32 Bridge

★ Rare design wins a new life for old Howard County bridge

★ MD 32 Patuxent Freeway project page @ MDOT SHA

★ Burntwoods Road Interchange project page @ MDOT SHA

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