All Points In Maine: The Maine Highways Route Log
"All points" and acknowledgements
We are proud to offer a complete (but always being updated)
log of Maine state routes, US highways and Interstates past and
present. The information in the most current
route log was graciously provided by
Mr Herb Thomson of the MDOT Office of Communications and his staff, who
were kind enough to provide a complete listing of routes, termini and total
miles as well as basic historical information.
A big thank-you is also due to Eric
Bryant, who contributed many observations from his own map archive and
reports from the field.
What this list has
- All state route numbers since their initial designation,
with present termini, distance and history (in brief).
Photographs and links are also provided where appropriate/available.
- All Interstate highway numbers since their initial designation,
with present termini, distance and history (in brief).
Photographs and links are also provided where appropriate/available.
- All US highways/"Federal highway" numbers
since their initial designation,
with present termini, distance and history (in brief).
Photographs and links are also provided where appropriate/available.
What this list doesn't have
- Inventory roads, except where listed for termini. There's just
too many. See the FAQ.
- New England Interstate route numbers are not listed directly
(instead read Maine's New England Interstate
Routes [1925]). However, NEI routes corresponding to a later
numbered route are listed under the subsequent number for cross-reference,
and NEI numbers that are used by a modern highway will be listed for
disambiguation.
- Pole highways are not listed directly (instead read
Maine's Pole Highways
and Auto Trails [1919-1925]). However,
pole colours corresponding to a later
numbered route are listed under the subsequent number
for cross-reference.
- Lettered highways are not listed directly (instead read
Maine's Lettered Highways [1913]). However,
lettered highway alignments corresponding to a later numbered route
are listed under the subsequent number for cross-reference.
- Site entries do not presently have Federal Functional Classification
information. It is hoped that this can be added in the future.
Bibliography for this log
These items are all in my personal possession, except for online resources.
- Internal documentation
- "First Annual Report, State Highway Commission, Maine" (1913)
- "A History of Maine Roads 1600 - 1970" and 1995 addendum. Internal
document, State of Maine Department of Transportation. (grateful
acknowledgement to MDOT Communications)
- Maine Highway News (published by the State Highway Commission):
6/1958,
7/1958,
8/1958,
9/1958,
10/1958,
11/1958,
12/1958;
1/1959,
2/1959,
3/1959,
9/1959,
10/1959,
11/1959;
6/1960,
9/1960;
9/1962;
1/1963,
10/1963;
4/1964,
5/1964,
6/1964
- Transportation News (published by the Department of Transportation):
7/1973,
8/1973,
10/1973
- Official maps/internal maps
- Maine State Highway Commission official maps:
1925, 1929,
1930, 1932, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937-8, 1939-40,
1940-1, 1942, 1946, 1948, 1949,
1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959,
1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969,
1970, 1971, 1972
- Maine Department of Transportation official maps:
1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977-8, 1979-80
- Maine Publicity Bureau official maps: 1991, 1997
- DeLorme official maps (under contract): 1987, 1993, 1998
- Maine Department of Transportation internal logs: 2002?, 2006
- Maine State Highway Commission General Highway Atlas: 1961-1968
- National Surveys state survey maps: 1923, 1934
- University of New Hampshire Library, Government Information Department:
Historic USGS Maps
of New England & New York (various years)
- Additional maps and atlases
- Rand McNally regional maps: 1923, 1924, 1933, 1981
- Hammond regional atlas: 1924
- Gehring National Atlas: 1925
- Tydol-Trails: 1926
- General Drafting Co. regional maps: 1927, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1933
- Rand McNally National Atlases: 1926, 1929,
1938, 1941, 1946, 1955, 1959, 1966, 1976,
1983, 1984, 1990, 2005, 2006, 2007
- H.M. Gousha regional maps: 1933, 1935
- Works Progress Administration maps (from American Guide Series, "Maine,"
published by Houghton Mifflin): 1937
Due to directly contradictory information in the AADT reports
compared with official MDOT routing tables,
I have intentionally not used them as a definitive resource for
routings except if no more reliable source is available.
Legend, conventions and disclaimers
Where divided alignments
exist, they are grouped with the main route except
if internally suffixed (see below).
Routes are sorted with business alignments
mated to the mother route; for
example, 1B will sort above 1A, and so on.
Certain entries are suffixed, and all suffixes receive separate entries,
with legend as follows: A =
alternate, B and C = business
(except 9B), BYP = bypass (for US 1BYP only, not an official
MDOT suffix), SH = state highway (for disambiguation in
number, not an official MDOT suffix),
E/W = alternate split highways (obsolete, 166E and 166W only),
S/W = alternative south and westbound alignments for divided highways
(except 166W), T =
truck routing (not an official MDOT suffix),
X = mainline (i.e., referring to the main unsuffixed route,
for disambiguation in termini). Except for A, B and BYP, suffixes are usually
internal designations only and typically unsigned, but may be bannered (C).
Descriptions of termini may be truncated or abbreviated due to limitations
in record-keeping.
Although signage in the field is useful, it is done often from a guidance
or convenience perspective, and a signed terminus in some cases does not
actually correspond to the administrative terminus.
Also, dates of alignment changes may only be approximate
or even utterly wrong;
for many highways this has to be painstakingly gleaned from comparison of
accumulative mileage logs, a method fraught with peril
as older logs may be comparatively imprecise due
to less optimal methods of measure. In particular,
a modest but noticible shift in measuring technique occurred
by the 1949 logs, making comparison with alignment lengths taken prior to
that year much more difficult. Dates are based on the general principle
that a change appearing on log dated year X likely
occurred in year (X-1) to make it into that published edition, but
this rule might break down for double-year issue dates.
Map inferences or first-person reports
may also be used to time-fix a particular change. Probable earlier alignments
should similarly be considered with care, and their presence in this section
does not necessarily mean that they are still driveable.
For approximately five years (on 1956-1960 route logs), the official map
route logs
didn't list highways shorter than 10 miles. This means very short
highways or highways that were cut down during this period may
have inversely wide realignment intervals since the precise year can't be
fixed with any more detail, unless other map data is available.
Maine loves its multiplexes and making sure the cross-references match
for an alignment with multiple routes signed over it is a thorn of huge
proportions. Often finding the history of a particular alignment may require
reading several entries which may not necessarily even be connected. Sorry
about that; I'm trying to improve this.
Remember that routing and alignment do not mean the same thing.
If you don't understand the difference, please see the
Roadgap glossary.
A project this large means there are inevitable errors. I gratefully
accept any verifiable corrections.