Interstate 195 (Maryland) - History

History

Friendship International Airport was constructed between 1947 and 1950 as the new primary airport for Baltimore. To directly connect the airport with Baltimore, an access road was planned to link the new Baltimore–Washington Expressway, later designated MD 295, with the airport terminal. The first portion of the Friendship International Airport Access Road was completed from a full Y interchange at the expressway to an interchange with MD 170 in October 1949 and designated MD 46. The access road was completed from MD 170 to the airport terminal in July 1951, about the same time the expressway was completed between MD 46 and downtown Baltimore. The remainder of what is now I-195 was planned as early as 1969, when the portion of Metropolitan Boulevard north of US 1 was placed under construction. The freeway opened from the US 1 ramps northwest through the I-95 interchange to an intersection with Sulphur Spring Road just south of the modern Selford Road overpass in August 1974. The freeway was extended to its present terminus at Rolling Road and the ramps to UMBC Boulevard were constructed in 1975. Metropolitan Boulevard south of the I-95 interchange was marked as a second segment of MD 46 from when it opened. North of I-95, the freeway was marked as a relocation of MD 166. That segment of MD 46 was renumbered as an extension of MD 166 by 1981.

The missing connection between US 1 and MD 295 resulted in a circuitous path for traffic between I-95 and BWI Airport. In 1974, that route involved exiting I-95 at MD 100, which then served as a connector between the Interstate and US 1. Traffic took US 1 south to MD 176, then took MD 176 east to MD 295 and north to the western end of MD 46. Construction on the missing link, which by then was planned as part of I-195, began in 1987, when the highway's bridges over US 1 and I-895 were constructed. The remainder of the highway from MD 295 to the I-895 overpass was completed, including reconstruction of the interchange with MD 295, and the intermediate section opened in June 1990. The I-195 designation was applied to the highway's present length at the same time, and MD 166 was truncated to its present southern terminus. In 2002, as part of an expansion project at the airport, several new ramps were constructed to access parking lots and facilitate an easier U-turn for motorists leaving the terminal who wish to return to the terminal.