Spotted a new sign in Elkton this past weekend.
The GMSV image shows that it was there in 2019, but not 2015. However, older imagery at the junction shows that it was signed back in 2008, so there must be a story.
There is a story, yes. MD 7 is a bunch of old alignments of US 40. The Elkton section of it (MD 7D per SHA inventory) used to continue all the way through town and all the way down West Main St to where it dead ends near the train tracks (Mike's MDRoads route list, which hasn't been updated in a while,
still shows this). At some point in the last decadeish, the part west of South Street was dumped from state maintenance and so the route was truncated to as the HB now shows it.
The most recent HLR (which admittedly is 2018) concurs with this, as does what I can garner from online GIS (data from this year).
The new sign which has popped up pointing to MD 7 heading west from MD 213 is most likely in error, erected based on outdated information about the extent of the MD 7 designation. I am inclined to disregard it as such, unless some official source shows that section of West Main Street having been reuploaded to state maintenance - but this does not appear to be the case.
