Maryland Route 18 - History

History

The first sections of MD 18 was paved as three separate state-aid roads within Queenstown and Grasonville by 1915, and between Stevensville and Chester shortly after 1915. The first section paved as a state road was between Centreville and Queenstown by 1919; there were also short pieces of state road paved in Chester and east of Grasonville by 1921. The state road in Chester was extended east to Kent Narrows and the state road road near Grasonville was extended west through the village in 1923. The Stevensville–Chester road and the Queenstown–Centreville road were marked as MD 18 by 1927. The road from Stevensville to Love Point was started in 1929 and completed to just south of Love Point in 1930. The highway was extended to its present western terminus by 1933. Pavement was also laid from the west end of Grasonville to Kent Narrows by 1930. The east–west highway between Stevensville and Queenstown was finished with the completion of a timber trestle bascule bridge over Kent Narrows. That highway was marked as MD 404 in 1933; the highways from Stevensville to Love Point and from Queenstown to Centreville remained marked as MD 18.

When US 50 was extended to the Eastern Shore in 1949, it was routed along MD 404 to Wye Mills. The US 50 divided highway started construction in 1950 and was completed between the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Queenstown in 1952, including a new drawbridge over Kent Narrows. The 1933 bridge over Kent Narrows was dismantled in 1953. MD 18 was subsequently assigned to old US 50 between Stevensville and Queenstown, following its own alignment except for a concurrency with US 50 and later US 301 over Kent Narrows.

Business Parkway was constructed in 1987 as a new alignment and northern extension of MD 8. MD 18 was extended west to Business Parkway and north on the divided highway to bypass the Stevensville Historic District in 1989; the old alignment was designated MD 835C. MD 18 also bypassed the center of Chester in 1989 by the construction of an overpass of US 50 and US 301 just west of MD 552, replacing the intersection at Castle Marina Road. The latter improvement was part of the transformation of US 50 and US 301 to a freeway from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to Queenstown, which was completed in 1991. The upgrade included a new fixed high-level bridge over Kent Narrows for US 50 and US 301, relegating the 1952 drawbridge to be used only by MD 18. In 1999, MD 18 was relocated to the north to use a new roundabout at Castle Marina Road in Chester; the old mainline was designated MD 18R. The MD 18 – US 301 junction in Queenstown was transformed into a superstreet intersection in 2003, resulting in the splitting of the MD 18C designation; MD 18S was assigned to the highway south of the junction.

As part of the reconstruction of US 50 as a six-lane freeway from US 301 in Queenstown to MD 404 in Wye Mills, the Maryland State Highway Administration plans to construct an overpass of MD 18 over US 50 in Queenstown. MD 18 and US 50 would become connected by a pair of right-in/right-out interchanges. Access to eastbound US 50 would be via a new service road south of US 50 and connections with westbound US 50 would be made through Outlet Center Drive. As of 2011, the project has not been funded.