| U.S. Route 48 | |
|---|---|
| Corridor H | |
| Route information | |
| Length: | 148 mi (238 km) |
| Existed: | 2002 – present |
| Major junctions | |
| West end: | I-79 at Weston, WV |
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US 119 at Buckhannon, WV |
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| East end: | I-81 / SR 55 at Strasburg, VA |
| Highway system | |
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United States Numbered Highways |
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U.S. Route 48 (US 48), or Corridor H, is part of the Appalachian Development Highway System. It is an east–west United States highway that runs 148 miles (238 km) from northern Virginia to central West Virginia.
Contents |
The US 48 designation has now been applied in West Virginia from Wardensville in Hardy County to Forman in Grant County. The designation will follow Corridor H from Interstate 79 in Weston eastward to Virginia.
US 48 will intersect the following highways:
When Corridor H is complete, US 48 will pass by Moorefield, Elkins, and Buckhannon.
US 48 is sparsely signed along current State Route 55. It ends at Interstate 81 northwest of Strasburg.
US 48 is one of the newest additions to the United States Numbered Highway system, having been commissioned in 2002. Before this designation, sections east of Moorefield, West Virginia to Interstate 81 were known as West Virginia Route 55 and Virginia State Route 55, and sections north of Elkins, West Virginia were known as US 219. Currently, West Virginia has US 48 signed sparsely within its borders.
US 48 is one of the few U.S. Route numbers to be used three times for three separate roadways. The first use of US 48 was in the 1920s, in Northern California, before being absorbed by US 50. The original U.S. Route 48 was of the original routes in the United States Numbered Highways system. Assigned in 1926, it ran between U.S. 99 at French Camp, California, outside Stockton, and U.S. 101 at San Jose, California. By 1931, however, the route had been deleted. Most of the route later became part of U.S. 50. US 48 was the first US highway to be deleted in California.
Then, US 48 was designated for what is now Interstate 68 before it entered the Interstate Highway System. Its newest, current usage is the future designation of Corridor H. Another interesting fact is that the US 48/US 219 concurrently running highway designation will also have been used twice when the section of US 48/US 219 is completed from Parsons to Elkins, West Virginia. It was first used on the segment of US 48/US 219 from Grantsville to Keyser's Ridge in Maryland.
This current designation for Corridor H is also a "violation" of the AASHTO numbering scheme, which places east–west U.S. Routes in ascending numerical order southward across the continental U.S. The last use of US 48 was south of US 40 and north of US 50, whereas the current route is located south of US 50 and north of US 60.
The Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965 was passed as part of an effort to stimulate economic growth in Appalachian rural areas. The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) was created by the act, which also authorized the ARC to create the Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS). The Appalachian region, as defined by the act, stretches from Mississippi to New York. Congress defined it to "provide a highway system which, in conjunction with the Interstate System and other Federal-aid highways in the Appalachian region, will open up an area or areas where commerce and communication have been inhibited by lack of adequate access". Some 23 transportation corridors were to be developed as part of the ADHS, and Corridor H was designated in 1965.
Corridor H has had a particularly controversial history as conservationists and environmentalists vied with federal agents, developers and the business community over the issue of what constituted the most environmentally sensitive route among several alternatives.
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Main U.S. Routes |
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| 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 87 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | ||
| 101 | 163 | 400 | 412 | 425 | |||||||||||||||
| Lists | U.S. Routes • Bannered • Divided • Bypassed | ||||||||||||||||||