The Lancaster Turnpike

The first engineered and planned road in the United States was the Lancaster Turnpike, a privately constructed toll road built between 1793 and 1795. Connecting Philadelphia and Lancaster in Pennsylvania, its 62-mile length had a maximum grade of 7 percent and was surfaced with broken stone and gravel in a manner initially uninfluenced by the work of Telford and McAdam. However, pavement failures in 1796 led to the introduction of some of the new European methods.

The Cumberland Road

The Cumberland Road, also known as the National Pike, was an even more notable road-building feat. It had been advocated by both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to aid western expansion and national unity. Work commenced in 1811, and the road opened for traffic between Cumberland, Maryland, and Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1818. By 1838 it extended to Springfield, Ohio, and part of the way to Vandalia, Illinois. Specification requirements called for a 66-foot right-of-way completely cleared. The roadway was to be covered 20 feet in width with stone 18 inches deep at the centre and 12 inches deep at the edge. The upper six inches were to consist of broken stone of three-inch maximum size and the lower stratum of stone of seven-inch maximum size. The road was constructed by the federal government, much of the finance being raised by land sales. Although maintenance was funded by tolls and federal appropriations, the road surface began to deteriorate in the 1820s. Federal funding ceased in 1838, and in 1841 the project was abandoned at Vandalia for political and practical reasons.