Big Savage Mountain

Big Savage Mountain is a ridge of Savage Mountain in Western Maryland, near the Garrett and Allegany county line. I-68, the National Freeway, runs concurrent with US 40 and crosses the ridge at about 2,800 feet above sea level (AARoads). For most truckers the summit is not the problem. The eastbound descent toward Cumberland is. Sources describe it as roughly a 13-mile, 6% downgrade, and AARoads confirms the 6% value from Frostburg to LaVale.

The grade is not continuously downhill the whole way, but it is long enough and steep enough to cook brakes. The truck speed limit on the descent drops to 45 mph while cars start at 65 and step down through 55, 50, and 40 mph into downtown Cumberland. The Finzel scale house sits on the western approach, and Maryland State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement watches truck speeds hard through the 45 and 40 mph zones. Past the descent, a sharp curve atop Haystack Mountain near Exit 42 is where tractor-trailer rollovers tend to cluster.

This is an exposed Allegheny ridge, so weather stacks on top of the grade. Big Savage is one of two named fog zones on I-68, the other being Keysers Ridge. After a deadly fog pileup in 2003, Maryland installed a reduced-visibility warning system here. In winter the National Weather Service routinely flags this stretch for blowing and drifting snow, quarter-mile visibility, and gusts in the 30 to 40 mph range with ice on the highest ridges.

• Highway crossing of the ridge sits at about 2,800 feet above sea level (AARoads); the natural peak of Big Savage Mountain is 2,566 ft (Wikipedia)
• The eastbound descent toward Cumberland is roughly a 13-mile, 6% downgrade (TruckersReport, Cross Country Roads); AARoads confirms 6% from Frostburg to LaVale
• Highway drops about 1,800 feet in 9 miles from Savage Mountain down to LaVale (Wikipedia)
• Truck speed limit on the descent is 45 mph; cars step from 65 down to 40 mph into Cumberland (Cross Country Roads)
• Maryland State Police have inspected over 47,000 trucks at the Finzel scale house (Cumberland Times-News)
• Fog warning system installed in 2005 cost about $230,000 and alerts drivers when visibility drops below 1,000 feet (Wikipedia citing MDSHA)
• A signed eastbound Truck Brake and Equipment Check Area sits about half a mile before the final Cumberland descent (Cross Country Roads)

Maryland does not run a graduated chain-control system like the western states. There are no R-1, R-2, or R-3 levels, no chain-law season, and no permanent chain-up pullouts on I-68 over Big Savage. What exists is narrower. Under Maryland Transportation Code Section 21-1119, the State Highway Administration can designate and sign a road as a snow emergency route. When that road is signed and the Secretary of State Police declares a snow emergency, vehicles other than motorcycles may not drive it unless they carry chains or snow tires on at least one wheel at each end of a driving axle. Outside of a declared snow emergency, Maryland lets drivers run chains at their own discretion for traction in snow and ice. So there is no fixed start or end date. The requirement turns on when a snow emergency is declared and lifted for a signed route, not on a posted seasonal calendar.

I-68 opened through the Savage Mountain ridge in Garrett County on August 13, 1976 (Wikipedia). The stretch took on a darker reputation in May 2003, when a fog-related pileup involving roughly 85 vehicles hit the road west of Frostburg on Savage Mountain. Two people were killed and nearly 100 were injured. In response, Maryland SHA installed the state's fog and reduced-visibility warning system on this segment in 2005, at a cost of about $230,000, with signs reading "Reduced Visibility Possible" that activate when visibility falls below 1,000 feet (Wikipedia citing MDSHA, with USDOT ITS and TRID records documenting the project).

The truck problem has stayed in the news in recent years. After four tractor-trailer crashes on the Haystack Mountain section, the Maryland Motor Truck Association publicly warned eastbound drivers to use extreme caution from the Garrett County line through Cumberland. The Cumberland Times-News has reported a rash of big-rig fires on the eastbound grade, attributed largely to driver error and overheated brakes, and State Police have run commercial-vehicle speed-enforcement initiatives at and near the Finzel scale house.