Principal Amount Effective Interest Rate and Maturity Date for Debentures and Senior Notes (Detail) - USD ($)	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2015	Dec. 31, 2014
6.6% Senior Notes, Due 2018
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Principal Amount	$ 300,000,000
Effective Interest Rate	6.81%
Maturity Date	Apr. 15, 2018
7% Debentures, Due 2025
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Principal Amount	$ 125,000,000
Effective Interest Rate	7.12%
Maturity Date	Dec. 01, 2025
6.25% Senior Notes, Due 2037
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Principal Amount	$ 230,000,000
Effective Interest Rate	6.45%
Maturity Date	May 01, 2037
4.25% Senior Notes, Due 2024
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Principal Amount	$ 400,000,000
Effective Interest Rate	4.25%
Maturity Date	Jul. 02, 2024
Floating Rate Notes, Due 2017
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Principal Amount	$ 300,000,000
Effective Interest Rate	1.71%	1.33%
Debt Instrument Effective Interest Rate	LIBOR+1.10%
Maturity Date	Jun. 30, 2017

Debt Instrument Effective Interest Rate

No definition available.

Name:	mlm_DebtInstrumentEffectiveInterestRate
Namespace Prefix:	mlm_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Face (par) amount of debt instrument at time of issuance.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 835
-SubTopic 30
-Section 55
-Paragraph 8
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=34725769&loc=d3e28878-108400

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 835
-SubTopic 30
-Section 45
-Paragraph 2
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6451184&loc=d3e28551-108399

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentFaceAmount
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Effective interest rate for the funds borrowed under the debt agreement considering interest compounding and original issue discount or premium.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 210
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.5-02.22(a)(1))
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6877327&loc=d3e13212-122682

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 835
-SubTopic 30
-Section 45
-Paragraph 2
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6451184&loc=d3e28551-108399

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentInterestRateEffectivePercentage
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Date when the debt instrument is scheduled to be fully repaid, in CCYY-MM-DD format.

+ References

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentMaturityDate
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:dateItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentAxis=mlm_SixPointSixPercentSeniorNotesDueTwentyEighteenMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentAxis=mlm_SevenPercentDebenturesDueTwentyTwentyFiveMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentAxis=mlm_SixPointTwoFivePercentSeniorNotesDueTwentyThirtySevenMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentAxis=mlm_FourPointTwoFivePercentSeniorNotesDueTwentyTwentyFourMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentAxis=mlm_FloatingRateSeniorNotesDueTwentySeventeenMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: