History
The Prince Frederick Road portion of MD 231, originally named Benedict Road, was constructed as a gravel road by 1921. The Hallowing Point Road section was built in gravel around 1923. Burnt Store Road was constructed of gravel starting in 1930 and was completed by 1933. At MD 231's western terminus, Olivers Shop Road was originally MD 232, which ran from MD 234 at Wicomico north to what was then MD 233 (Woodville Road) north of Bryantown. MD 232 was removed from the state highway system around 1989, leaving MD 231's western terminus at a county highway.
Ferry service began between Benedict and Hallowing Point began around 1933. On the west side of the Patuxent River, MD 231 originally turned south into the village of Benedict, following Benedict Avenue to the ferry terminal where the avenue starting following the riverbank. The Hallowing Point terminal remains today as a boat ramp immediately south of the bridge. State senator Louis L. Goldstein of Calvert County sponsored a bill to construct a bridge between Benedict and Hallowing Point. In order to get enough votes to pass, the bridge bill stipulated the bridge would have a 25-cent toll. Work on the Benedict Bridge began in May 1950. The toll plaza and administration building were completed on the Calvert County side of the bridge in autumn 1951. The bridge itself and 24-foot (7.3 m) wide gravel approach roads on both sides of the river were completed and opened in spring 1952. The toll was removed from the bridge in 1955 due to very low traffic; a daily average of 237 vehicles used the bridge in its first year. By comparison, the bridge had an average annual daily traffic figure of 12,340 vehicles in 2011.
The completion of the Benedict Bridge greatly improved the connection between Calvert County and both Charles and St. Mary's counties. Prior to 1952, the southernmost bridge on the Patuxent River had been Hills Bridge, by which MD 4 crosses the river at Upper Marlboro. By 1953, MD 231 between MD 5 in Hughesville and MD 2 in Prince Frederick was marked as a "main highway" on the state highway map. Reconstruction of MD 231 between MD 5 and MD 2 began in 1954. In both counties, the road was resurfaced in two stages: a first stage of bituminous stabilized gravel and a second stage of bituminous concrete. The reconstruction of MD 231 was completed from Prince Frederick to Hallowing Point in 1956 and from Hughesville to Benedict by 1958. The Benedict Bridge remained the southernmost crossing of the Patuxent River until the opening of the Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge between Solomons at the bottom of Calvert County and California in St. Mary's County in 1978. The "functionally obsolete" bridge underwent major repairs in 2002, during which the bridge was reduced to one lane of traffic in alternating directions.
Read more about this topic: Maryland Route 231
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