Interstate 195 and 270 in Maryland

 

I-195
Begin Baltimore Airport
End Catonsville
Length 5 mi
Length 8 km
Route
1 Baltimore/Washington Airport2 → Washington / Baltimore

3

4 → Washington / Baltimore

5 University of Maryland

Interstate 195 or I -195 is an Interstate Highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The highway connects several north-south highways in the Baltimore metropolitan area with Baltimore Airport. The route is 8 kilometers long.

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Travel directions

The highway begins in the suburb of Catonsville, and then intersects with Interstate 95, the highway from Washington to Baltimore. The highway then has 2×2 lanes and just after it crosses Interstate 895, the bypass of downtown Baltimore. Shortly thereafter, you will cross SR-295, the second highway between Washington and Baltimore. The highway then ends at the Baltimore-Washington Interregional Airport terminals.

History

The first sections of I-195 opened in 1971, as SR-46, up to US 1. Then the road was slowly extended westward, until its current end in June 1990.

Traffic intensities

The traffic volumes are between 34,000 and 61,000 vehicles per day, which makes it not a very busy road.

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Maryland Interstate 270

I-270
Get started Bethesda
End Frederick
Length 35 mi
Length 55 km
Route
0 → Washington Beltway1 Bethesda

2 → Spur

4 Montrose Road

5 Falls Road

6 Rockville

8 Shady Grove Road

9 → Laurel

10 Gaithersburg

11 Quince Orchard Road

12 Watkins Mill Road

13 Middlebrook Road

15 Germantown

16 Damascus

18 Boyds

22 Hyattstown

26 Urbana

31 Frederick

32 → Pittsburgh / Baltimore

Interstate 270 or I -270 is an Interstate Highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The highway connects the Washington metropolitan area with Interstate 70, which runs from Baltimore to Columbus. Large parts of the route run through suburban areas. The route is 55 kilometers long.

Travel directions

I-270 at Rockville.

The highway begins with two branches at Interstate 495 at Bethesda, on the northwest side of Washington. The highway has 2×4 lanes here. This leads to Rockville, a suburb of 59,000 residents and Maryland ‘s second largest city. The highway has parallel lanes, with a total of 12 lanes. You pass through a suburban office area, and the corridor is quite wide at 85 meters. There are also emergency lanes on the left. In Gaithersburg, one crosses Interstate 370, a short branch of I-270. Then you come to the last big suburb, Germantown, which also has office parks. This city is already 40 kilometers from Washington.

You then leave the agglomeration, and the highway has 2×3 lanes. Outside the urban area, the landscape is more open, with regular meadows. A little further north, the road narrows to 2×2 lanes. In Frederick, near the interchange with Interstate 70, I-270 becomes US 40, which circles Frederick. This is where I-270 ends.

History

In 1947, plans were made for a freeway to be called the Washington National Pike, which would run parallel to US 240, today’s State Route 355. This freeway was to connect Bethesda with Frederick, two regional cities in the Washington DC area of ​​influence. The first section of the highway opened in 1951 and the entire route was completed in 1960. The highway is before the Interstate Highwaysystem was built, and was first numbered as an Interstate in 1959, with the number I-70S. In 1973, the highway was renumbered to today’s I-270. Originally, there were plans for an extension of I-270 into Washington DC, where it would connect to the also planned I-95. In 1970 these plans were canceled and in 1977 Washington DC’s I-95 was also cancelled. In the 1980s, the highway was widened to 2×4 lanes, with 12 lanes between connections at some points. The corridor of I-270 has developed into an important work location.

Opening history

From Unpleasant Length Date
Exit 22 exit 32 16 km 1951
Exit 18 Exit 22 6 km 1953
Exit 15 Exit 18 5 km 1955
exit 6 Exit 15 14 km 1956
Exit 1 exit 6 8 km 1959
exit 0 Exit 1 2 km 1960

Future

The split from I-270 to I-495.

On September 21, 2017, it was announced that express lanes will be added to I-270. I-270 is notoriously congested, not only due to commuter traffic to and from Washington, but also because the corridor has a lot of employment opportunities. Due to high house prices, many commuters live in Frederick. The express lanes are planned as two toll lanes in each direction and are being developed as a PPP project.

On February 18, 2021, Transurban was chosen as the contractor to develop the express lanes. Subsequently, the construction of the express lanes appeared to become uncertain, but on July 21, 2021, the plans were still approved, along with the express lanes on I-495. Subsequently, on 11 August 2021, the award of a contract for the elaboration of the plan was approved by Transurban.

Traffic intensities

The intensities below are north of the mentioned connection.

Location 2016
(west branch) 129,000
(east branch) 116,000
2 I-270 split 261,000
4 Montrose 256,000
5 Rockville 242,000
8 Rockville 219,000
9 225,000
11 Gaithersburg 173,000
16 Germantown 104,000
18 Clarksburg 82,000
22 Hyattstown 83,000
26 Urbana 84,000
31 Frederick 115,000

Congestion

I-270 is one of the most congested highways in the United States. In addition to the many suburbs, the corridor also provides many employment opportunities. The portion immediately north of the merging of the two branches of I-270 is the busiest stretch of highway in Maryland at 261,000 vehicles per day. Congestion is common on I-270 throughout the day. There’s also quite a bit of upside, as Frederick also has several federal agencies that attract commuters from Washington’s suburbs.

Maryland Interstate 270