Baltimore-Washington Parkway

Infobox Maryland highway
number=295
name=Baltimore-Washington Parkway
maint=National Park Service, MDSHA, Baltimore DOT

---

length_mi=32.52
length_ref= [http://www.mdroads.com/routes/280-299.html#md295]
length_round=2
from_direction=South
from=
to_direction=North
to=
routes_junctioned=

previous_type=Interstate
previous_route=295
next_type=MD
next_route=297The Baltimore-Washington Parkway is a freeway in the U.S. state of Maryland, running southwest from Baltimore to Washington, D.C.

The National Park Service-maintained portion of the freeway is dedicated to Gladys Noon Spellman.

Counties traversed

*Prince George's County
*Anne Arundel County
*Baltimore County
*Baltimore City

Cities and towns

The parkway directly serves the following cities and towns (bolded entries are control cities):

columns
col1=
*Washington D.C. (via US 50)
*Bladensburg
*Greenbelt
*Laurel
*Jessup
col2=
*Linthicum
*Lansdowne
*Baltimore

Ownership

Slightly over half of the road, from the District of Columbia line (at New York Avenue) north to just south of Maryland Route 175 at Fort Meade, is owned and maintained by the National Park Service, which bans trucks from its section. Most of the rest of the road, north to the Baltimore city line, is maintained by the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA); the northernmost 1.5 miles (2.5 km) are maintained by the city of Baltimore.

Route description

Tuxedo Interchange

The parkway begins at the Tuxedo Interchange, a large hybrid cloverleaf just outside the D.C. boundary that is maintained by the Maryland State Highway Administration. Two routes converge at the southern and western ends of the interchange: US 50, which follows the first convert|0.2|mi|km of the B-W Parkway from the DC line, and MD 201, which begins at the D.C. line and follows the northernmost tip of the Kenilworth Avenue Freeway (signed as D.C. Route 295 within the District). Within the interchange, the B-W Parkway proper splits from US 50, which interchanges with MD 201 before continuing east as the John Hanson Highway. MD 201, after interchanging with US 50, itself splits from the Kenilworth Avenue Freeway, and the remaining segment of this freeway merges with the B-W Parkway at a wye junction within the interchange.

NPS segment

Now maintained by the National Park Service, the B-W Parkway has no route designation, and signs along this section use the Park Service standard of brown sign with Clarendon font (as opposed to the MUTCD-standard green sign with FHWA Series fonts). The parkway runs northeast to interchange with MD 202 and MD 450 in Bladensburg. It continues northeast and interchanges with MD 410 west of New Carrollton. North of here, the route enters Greenbelt Park and interchanges with Interstate 95 and Interstate 495 (Capital Beltway) in the northeastern corner of the park. This interchange is signed with standard NHTSA green signage, and is the only one to feature such signage on the NPS segment.

Beyond the Beltway, the route runs through the heart of Greenbelt, interchanging with MD 193 within the town. At the northern edge of the town, the route interchanges with an employee-only access road into the Goddard Space Flight Center; beyond this interchange, the route enters the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. The Parkway's only interchange within the center is at Powder Mill Road, south of Capitol College.

Outside the center, the Parkway interchanges with MD 197 south of Laurel, then passes through the western edge of the Patuxent National Wildlife Research Refuge and interchanges with MD 198 east of the town. Continuing north, the Parkway interchanges with MD 32 almost within the borders of Fort Meade; MD 32 offers northbound travelers direct access into the fort and to the National Security Agency, while the next interchange, another employee-only access road into Fort Meade, can only be reached by southbound travelers. After this interchange, the NPS segment comes to an end within the MD 175 interchange, and jurisdiction returns to MDOT SHA.

Maryland Route 295

For reference, MDOT SHA designates the entire route Maryland Route 295; this includes the portions south of MD 175 not maintained by the agency. With the truck ban rescinded, MD 295 becomes an ordinary four-lane grade-separated freeway, interchanging with the western end of Arundel Mills Boulevard and MD 100 in the space of a couple miles. Continuing northeast, the route curves around the Baltimore-Washington International Airport and eventually interchanges with Interstate 195 northwest of the airport. Still on a northeast track, the route intersects West Nursery Road near Linthicum (at the BWI Hotel District) before interchanging with Interstate 695 (Baltimore Beltway) at a full cloverleaf. Turning north, the route reaches a partial interchange with Interstate 895 (Harbor Tunnel Thruway) before entering the city of Baltimore.

Within Baltimore

In Baltimore, MD 295 continues as a limited-access freeway, albeit an aged one, and interchanges with MD 648 just beyond the city line. Now running due north the B-W Parkway soon reaches its northern terminus at Interstate 95; MD 295 itself downgrades from a limited-access freeway into a city street, and assumes the name of Russell St.

MD 295 now runs west of Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium. After interchanging with Martin Luther King Jr, Blvd., the route splits at Washington Blvd.; northbound traffic follows Paca Street, and southbound traffic follows Greene Street. MD 295 officially ends at US 40 in downtown Baltimore.

Exit list

Future work

In 2004, former Governor Robert L. Ehrlich announced plans to widen MD 295 between I-695 and I-195. The widening will make use of the median, with the extra travel lanes added to the inside of each carriageway. Additionally, a new interchange is planned to be constructed at Hanover Road, the type of which has not yet been decided upon (choices range from a diamond to a SPUI to a modified cloverleaf). The project, costing $24 million, is expected to begin in 2007.MDOT SHA. [http://www.sha.state.md.us/WebProjectLifeCycle/ProjectDocuments.asp?projectno=AA372112# B-W Parkway widening project page @ MDOT SHA] URL accessed 12:35, 30 January 2007.]

Studies are also in progress to widen the B-W Parkway between MD 100 and I-195.

History

The early days

As early as the 1920s, various business-affiliated groups in Baltimore and Washington were agitating for a limited-access freeway route between the two cities. Their proposals for the Parkway were based upon the designs of Robert Moses, a planner from New York. In 1924, gubernatorial candidate Harry W. Nice called for the Parkway to be constructed during his election campaign.

Early proposals made by the National Capital Park and Planning Commission involved a route that followed US 1 north to MD 198, then east to Fort Meade, but lack of funding led to simpler plans to widen US 1 instead. During the 1930s, the New Deal programs promulgated by President Franklin Roosevelt led to a heightened awareness of the Parkway proposals; a 1937 report by the Maryland State Planning Commission increased awareness further. Spiraling accident levels on US 1, combined with awareness of the need to mobilize national defense before World War II led to further proposals being floated by the Maryland State Roads Commission, as well as increased pressure to build the Parkway as a way to facilitate the growth of Friendship Airport (now known as Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, or BWI).

In 1944, Federal and state officials commissioned the firm J.E. Greiner to create designs for the Parkway. Their designs included a large Y-junction at the southern terminus to connect with New York Avenue and the proposed Anacostia Freeway, with provision for a further parkway (now the John Hanson Highway). The northern end included a similar wye, with one end running to US 40 Franklin St. and the other end crossing the Inner Harbor, but this was modified in 1945 to the current configuration.

Construction

Construction on the northern convert|12|mi|km of the highway was begun in 1947 by the state of Maryland, with the NPS segment being started three years later in 1950. The state-owned segment was completed in 1952, with the Federal-owned segment being completed two years later, making it the first limited-access highway in Maryland. Motorists could travel the convert|30.8|mi|km between the two cities in 45 minutes.

Three years after the highway was completed, the Federal government began to promote suburbanization by moving several federal agencies out of the capital in order to protect them against nuclear attack. As a result, suburban neighborhoods began to appear in Laurel, Severn, Bowie and Greenbelt. The direct link to Friendship Airport via MD 46 (now I-195) further promoted development.

Interstate aspirations

In 1963, the State Roads Commission, the National Park Service, and the Bureau of Public Roads (the direct predecessor of the Federal Highway Administration) created tentative plans to transfer the convert|19|mi|km|sing=on NPS segment of the Parkway to the state of Maryland, who would then rebuild it to modern freeway standards, with trucks and buses permitted throughout. The plan collapsed due to the state's reluctance to spend the money necessary to reconstruct the Parkway, which was one of the most dangerous roads in the NPS road system.

In 1968, the State Roads Commission proposed to the FHWA that the Parkway be included in the Interstate Highway System and designated Interstate 295; the road itself was known by some at the time as Temporary Interstate 95.Wickes, Rush. [http://groups.google.com/group/misc.transport.road/msg/1a87e6f929644911?dmode=source Baltimore Washington Parkway designation] URL accessed 12:47, 30 January 2007.] The designation was granted in 1969, but later withdrawn from all except the current portion signed as I-295 due to lack of funds available to modernise the route. As a result of the withdrawal of the Interstate designation, the state-owned portion became MD 295 and the NPS portion remained undesignated. Despite this setback, however, plans still existed to widen the Parkway to six or even eight lanes, but despite the 1970 Federal Highway Act's appropriation of $65 million for this purpose, funding was insufficient to execute these projects. The cancellation of the North Central Freeway and the Northeast Freeway, I-95's routing between New York Avenue and the College Park Interchange offered a chance for modernisation, as plans existed to route I-95 via the B-W Parkway; however, this came to naught, and after the completion of the "between-the-beltways" segment of I-95 in 1971, trucks were banned from the Parkway once more.

Modernization

In 2002, the Federal government completed a 20-year modernisation plan of the NPS segment of the B-W Parkway. $177 million was spent on a complete rebuild of the entire highway; although the lane widths remained the same, all of the interchanges were revamped and other major improvements were made to the fabric of the highway.

Major events

*In 1989, an overpass being built at Maryland Route 198 over the B-W Parkway just east of Laurel, Maryland, collapsed during rush hour, injuring 14 motorists and construction workers. The incident was blamed on faulty scaffolding used to support the uncompleted span.
*On July 9, 2005, a sinkhole opened beneath the Parkway at a construction site, leading to the complete closure of the northbound carriageway. The sinkhole was filled with concrete to shore up the roadbed and prevent further collapse; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers attempted to expedite repairs, but the route remained closed until July 10, 2005.Washington Post. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/08/AR2005070801050.html Rains Open B-W Parkway Sinkhole] URL accessed 12:37, 30 January 2007.]
*On August 24, 2007, both directions of The Parkway were closed when chunks of concrete fell from the overpass at MD Rt. 193/Greenbelt Rd. onto the northbound lanes.ABC2 News Baltimore [http://www.abc2news.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=025cc652-1ea7-4fa2-b041-730d09106c98 UPDATE: Bridge Crumbling on Baltimore-Washington Parkway] ]

Notes

*The Parkway provides a significant commuter route within the Baltimore-Washington region. Two major users of the B-W Parkway are the National Security Agency and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, both of which have their own exits off of the Parkway specifically for their respective employees only.
*The route bisects Greenbelt Park, whose land was obtained through the same acquisition as that of the parkway.
*As on other federally maintained roads, signs are brown rather than the standard green and use serifs on their text, except at the I-95/I-495 (Capital Beltway) interchange.

ee also

*Interstate 95 in Maryland
*Maryland Route 201
*George Washington Parkway
*Highways along the BosWash corridor

References

External links

* [http://www.mdroads.com/routes/280-299.html#md295 MD 295 @ MDRoads.com]
* [http://www.nps.gov/bawa/ National Park Service - Baltimore-Washington Parkway]
* [http://www.dcroads.net/roads/bw-pkwy/ Steve Anderson's DCroads.net: Baltimore-Washington Parkway (MD 295)]