Editing Interstate 68 (section)

===Designation as I-68===
[[File:2021-08-01 17 10 53 View east along Interstate 68 and U.S. Route 40 and north along U.S. Route 219 (National Freeway) from the overpass for Maryland State Route 495 (Bittinger Road) just southwest of Grantsville in Casselman, Garrett County, Maryland.jpg|thumb|left|I-68/US&nbsp;40 eastbound and US&nbsp;219 northbound at MD&nbsp;495 near Grantsville, Maryland]]
Though the National Freeway was designated as US&nbsp;48, as the completion of the freeway neared, the possibility of the freeway being designated as an [[Interstate Highway]] came up. In the 1980s, the project to improve [[U.S. Route 50|US&nbsp;50]] between [[Washington DC]] and [[Annapolis, Maryland|Annapolis]] to [[Interstate Highway standards]] had been assigned the designation of I-68. MDSHA, however, later concluded that adding additional route shields to the US&nbsp;50 freeway would not be helpful to drivers since about half the freeway already had two route designations (US&nbsp;50 and [[U.S. Route 301|US&nbsp;301]]) and drivers on the freeway were already familiar with the US&nbsp;50 designation.<ref name=tunv>{{cite news |work = [[Washington Times]] |first = Ron |last = Shaffer |date = January 12, 1990 |title = Tunnel Visions |page = E1 |url = https://www.proquest.com/docview/307243358 |access-date = July 6, 2017 |archive-date = January 17, 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170117021115/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/doc/307243358.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+12%2C+1990&author=Shaffer%2C+Ron&pub=The+Washington+Post+%28pre-1997+Fulltext%29&edition=&startpage=e.01&desc=Tunnel+Visions |url-status = live }}</ref> This made the designation to be applied to that freeway more flexible, and so, in 1989, the [[American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials]] (AASHTO), the organization composed of the various state departments of transportation that decides route numbering in the U.S., approved MDSHA's request to renumber the US&nbsp;50 freeway from I-68 to [[Interstate 595 (Maryland)|I-595]].<ref name=aashto19891>{{AASHTO minutes |year= 1989S |link=yes |page= 4 |access-date= January 17, 2009}}</ref> That same year, AASHTO approved changing US&nbsp;48's designation to I-68.<ref name=aashto19891 /><!--<ref name=aashto19892>{{AASHTO minutes |year=1989S |page= 6 |access-date= January 17, 2009}}</ref>--> This change took effect upon the completion of the last section of the National Freeway on August 2, 1991.<ref name=mdrd/>

With the completion of I-68 and the change in its route number, the US&nbsp;48 designation was removed. In 2002, AASHTO approved the establishment of a [[U.S. Route 48|new US&nbsp;48]], this time for the [[Corridor H]] highway from [[Weston, West Virginia]], to [[Strasburg, Virginia]].<ref name=aashto2002>{{AASHTO minutes |year= 2002A |page= 8 |access-date= February 4, 2009}}</ref> This marks the third time that the US&nbsp;48 number has been assigned to a highway, the first use being for [[U.S. Route 48 (1926)|a highway in California]] that existed in the 1920s.<ref name=1926_ush>{{cite map |author1= [[Bureau of Public Roads]] |author2= [[American Association of State Highway Officials]] |date= November 11, 1926 |title= United States System of Highways Adopted for Uniform Marking by the American Association of State Highway Officials |url= https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_System_of_Highways_Adopted_for_Uniform_Marking_by_the_American_Association_of_State_Highway_Officials.jpg |scale= 1:7,000,000 |location= Washington, DC |publisher= [[United States Geological Survey]] |oclc= 32889555 |access-date= November 7, 2013 |via= [[Wikimedia Commons]] |name-list-style= amp |archive-date= April 13, 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170413153913/https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_System_of_Highways_Adopted_for_Uniform_Marking_by_the_American_Association_of_State_Highway_Officials.jpg |url-status= live }}</ref>