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Maryland Route 24 north - Edgewood to Bel Air
Leaving the Edgewood Arsenal of the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Hoadley Road (the Arsenal's main north-south thoroughfare), makes its transition into Maryland Route 24. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The highway passes over Amtrak's Northeast Corridor right-of-way, which is shared here by MARC's Penn Line. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The route's shoulders widen, and its speed limit is 50 miles per hour. For more than ten miles, MD 24's access will be controlled. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
MD 24's first northbound traffic signal is at Trimble Road. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Trimble Road runs from Joppa Farm Road in the community of Joppatowne east to Edgewood Road on Edgewood's far-south, just north of Edgewood's MARC station and a closed Edgewood Arsenal gate. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The signal is followed by the first MD 24 reassurance. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Hanson Road is intersected next. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Following a course similar to Trimble Road, Hanson Road goes from just west of Maryland Route 152 in Joppa to Perry Road in Edgewood's Willoughby Court neighborhood. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Another MD 24 shield follows Hanson. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The route is preparing to expand into a four-lane divided highway. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
A junction with Maryland Route 755 is forthcoming. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
MD 755 (Edgewood Road), a historic alignment of MD 24 through the area, goes north to a signal at U.S. Route 40 (Pulaski Highway), and south through the center of Edgewood. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Past the US 40 signal ahead, Edgewood Road continues north under county maintenance. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
MD 24's median becomes concrete after MD 755, then returns to grass and trees. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The route intersects Maryland Route 7 in one mile, Interstate 95 half a mile after that, and Harford County seat Bel Air is listed as 8 miles away. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The route goes on to a crossing of US 40 seen here. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
MD 24 then proceeds over Otter Point Creek, a link between Winters Run to the north and the Bush River. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
MD 24 has an access road to US 40, the Otter Creek Ramp. It took until the 1990s for it to be built, before which drivers had to take MD 755 between the two routes. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
MD 24 meets the ramp at this traffic signal. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The route's interchange with I-95, with control cities of New York and Baltimore, is a mile away. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
MD 24 reassurance accompanies the highway's subsequent crossing over CSX right-of-way. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The MD 7 junction is ahead. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Bel Air is straight ahead, as are two park-and-rides. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
MD 7 (Philadelphia Road), a prior alignment of US 40 pre-Pulaski Highway, goes east from here to Abingdon proper. Four separate sections of MD 7 exist along the US 40 corridor from Havre de Grace to the Delaware line beyond the main section's eastern end west of Aberdeen. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
MD 24 and I-95 shields are seen inches past the MD 7 signal. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Through traffic remaining on MD 24 north is to keep left, and traffic bound for I-95 or Maryland Route 924 to keep right. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The highway now approaches a signal at Edgewood Road (left) and Van Bibber Road (right). Photo taken 06-02-2024.
A pedestrian crosswalk is located at the signal. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The ramp to MD 924 also leads to Tollgate Road, which is accessed through a left turn at the end of the ramp. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
After the signal, an overhead sign assembly outlines the designated lanes for each component of the I-95 and MD 924 interchange complex. Just ahead sits the ramp from MD 24 north to I-95 north. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Northbound MD 24 traffic has the left two lanes as the ramp to I-95 north branches off. The new park-and-ride, opened in 2022, is located at MD 924 and Woodsdale Road and is marked straight ahead. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
At this point, MD 24 becomes known as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway, a designation created in 1987. Meanwhile, in the distance sits a signal at the ramp between MD 24 south and I-95 north. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Past that light, the northbound carriageway of MD 24 and the ramp to MD 924 north and Tollgate Road (from which the cloverleaf ramp to I-95 south is also accessed) become separated by a concrete median. The 924/Tollgate interchange, a diamond, opened in 2011, replacing an at-grade signalized intersection at which the three facilities met. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The highway proceeds over I-95. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Signage for the ramp to I-95 south is seen at right. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Traffic that has just left I-95 south merges onto MD 24 north at left. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The northbound interchange roadway then prepares to meet MD 924 (Emmorton Road) and Tollgate Road at a signal. From here to US 1, the current iteration of MD 24 opened in 1987, replacing its old course through downtown Bel Air which is now MD 924. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
For now, MD 24's speed limit is 50 miles per hour. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Tollgate Road left-turn movement signage for exiting traffic also includes a notation that it leads to Constant Friendship Boulevard, the main drag through a same-name retail strip, along which some of the services advertised for the preceding exit on I-95 are located. Tollgate Road itself parallels MD 24 to the west (as MD 924 does to the east), acting as a residential arterial through the corridor. It was completed when a segment from just north of Bel Air South Parkway to Plumtree Road opened in 2016. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
MD 24 now crosses over MD 924, which officially ends feet to the west of this bridge at the ramps from and to MD 24 south; at that point, Harford County takes over responsibility of it, beginning Tollgate Road. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
At right, the northbound entrance ramp from 924 and Tollgate, which also carries traffic coming from I-95 north, merges onto MD 24 north. Also sitting beside the highway at right is the Constant Friendship Shopping Center. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Drivers have now gotten fully past the preceding series of signals and ramps, and a MD 24 reassurance shield at right marks this. At the time of these photos, construction work was ongoing along this segment of MD 24. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The speed limit now goes up to 55. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
A "Hospital", namely the Bel Air campus of the Upper Chesapeake Medical Center, is four miles to the north, Bel Air itself in four and a half, and U.S. Route 1, the Bel Air Bypass, in five. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
MD 24 is preparing to encounter Singer Road at the next traffic signal. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Singer Road goes from MD 152 east to MD 924, where it transitions into Abingdon Road and continues through the southeast side of Abingdon to MD 7 and US 40. Singer Road crosses Winters Run due south of the Atkisson Reservoir. Just to the west of here at Tollgate Road sits Abingdon Elementary. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
A larger MD 24 shield follows Singer Road. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The highway goes through a heavily tree-lined area between intersections, though those trees separate it from view from residential neighborhoods. Meanwhile, the active construction zone ends not far ahead. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Wheel Road meets MD 24 next; it is one of two signals in the vicinity of the Festival at Bel Air shopping center. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Wheel Road runs from the public school-sanctioned Harford Glen environmental education center to Schucks Road a distance to the east. It has roundabouts at Tollgate Road and Laurel Bush Road, along with a second traffic signal at MD 924 and its own entrance to the Festival. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The next signal is at Bel Air South Parkway on the north side of the Festival. To the east, it turns into Laurel Bush Road at MD 924. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
This light was added when Bel Air South Parkway was constructed in 1990. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The highway has maintained its 55 MPH speed limit thus far. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
At a hillcrest, MD 24 nears Plumtree Road. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
This is the newest light along modern MD 24, installed in 1998, over a decade after the highway's opening. Plumtree Road goes from Somerville Road just west of Winters Run to MD 924 due east of this intersection, with a roundabout at Tollgate Road feet to the west of here. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
There is MD 24 reassurance past Plumtree. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
With a bush-lined median, the highway goes sharply downhill. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
At the bottom of the hill, it begins curving gradually to the right. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The next intersection is at Ring Factory Road. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Ring Factory Road goes from a Winters Run bridge, through several developments on the south side of Bel Air, to MacPhail Road where it becomes Brierhill Drive. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
In the distance past Ring Factory sits the Upper Chesapeake hospital. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The Bel Air branch of the Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) is ahead at right. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
West MacPhail Road meets MD 24 at the forthcoming signal. Two left turns separate northbound MD 24 from the hospital's entrance. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
With MD 24 entering Bel Air's retail zone, the speed limit decreases to 40 miles per hour. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Meanwhile, Bel Air's historic district is two signals away, accessible via northbound US 1 Business. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Not far to the right, West MacPhail turns hard-left and becomes Atwood Road. It is separated from East MacPhail by Homestead/Wakefield Elementary School. East MacPhail runs from MD 924 at the school entrance to Wheel Road. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Business and mainline US 1 are both ahead, half a mile apart. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The highway's median is again tree-lined as it comes up on Marketplace Drive. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Opened in 1996 in conjunction with the area Target store, Marketplace Drive (named for the Tollgate Marketplace, formerly Tollgate Mall) links Tollgate and Atwood Roads, and the former's first roundabout intersects it. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Rocks State Park and the Fiore winery in northern Harford County are a respective 10 and 16 miles from the brown sign at right, both following MD 24's northern split from the Bel Air Bypass. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
MD 24's junction with US 1 Business is ahead. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Known here as Baltimore Pike, US 1 Business was mainline US 1's original path through downtown Bel Air. It has entrances to the Tollgate Marketplace and Harford Mall just to the west of here, before intersecting Tollgate Road. On the other side of this signal sit the Bel Air Plaza and Town Center. This was also MD 24's only planned signal upon opening in 1987. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Between signals, there is MD 24 reassurance with an elongated directional banner. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Boulton Street is where the final northbound signal prior to the bypass is situated. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
A speed limit sign is placed before the signal. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
At left, Boulton Street has entrances to the main Harford Mall and its Annex, and signals at Gateway Drive and Tollgate Road. To the right, it runs to Atwood Road, where it becomes George Street and continues to Hays Street. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The highway then continues straight, with Kelly Field at right behind a row of trees. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
U.S. Route 1, the Bel Air Bypass, is ¼-mile ahead. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Rocks State Park and Fiore are reiterated to be north on MD 24. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
Each northbound lane now splits into a separate facility, leading to US 1 south toward Baltimore (left), and US 1/MD 24 north with control city Philadelphia. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The lane split is seen here. Traffic to US 1 south intersects the bypass at a traffic signal. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The ramp to US 1 north now goes steeply uphill, with a posted 50 MPH speed limit. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
At left, the roadway encounters excess asphalt, a result of scrapped plans for this interchange to be bigger and completely limited-access, with at least one bridge. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The ramp emerges from the trees, and a green sign at right displays directions to reach the roads led to from each ramp of the forthcoming MD 24/924 interchange. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
The Bel Air Bypass is a two-way trafficway with mandatory headlight use. Photo taken 06-02-2024.
MD 24 now joins US 1, where it will spend about a mile before exiting. Photo taken 06-02-2024.