The Baltimore–Washington Parkway (also referred to as the B–W Parkway) is a controlled-access parkway in the U.S. state of Maryland, running southwest from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. The road begins at an interchange with U.S. Route 50 (US 50) near Cheverly in Prince George's County at the Washington, D.C., border, and continues northeast as a parkway maintained by the National Park Service (NPS) to MD 175 near Fort Meade, serving many federal institutions. This portion of the parkway is dedicated to Gladys Noon Spellman, a representative of Maryland's 5th congressional district, and has the unsigned Maryland Route 295 (MD 295) designation. Commercial vehicles, including trucks, are prohibited within this stretch. This section is administered by the NPS's Greenbelt Park unit. After leaving park service boundaries the highway is maintained by the state and signed with the MD 295 designation. This section of the parkway passes near Baltimore–Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.
Upon entering Baltimore, the Baltimore Department of Transportation takes over maintenance of the road and it continues north to an interchange with Interstate 95 (I-95). Here, the Baltimore–Washington Parkway ends and MD 295 continues north unsigned on Russell Street, which carries the route north into downtown Baltimore. In downtown Baltimore, MD 295 follows Paca Street northbound and Greene Street southbound before ending at US 40.
Plans for a parkway linking Baltimore and Washington date back to Pierre Charles L'Enfant's original layout for Washington, D.C. in the 18th century but did not fully develop until the 1920s. Major reasons surrounding the need for a parkway included high accident rates on adjacent US 1 and defense purposes before World War II. In the mid-1940s, plans for the design of the parkway were finalized and construction began in 1947 for the state-maintained portion and in 1950 for the NPS-maintained segment. The entire parkway opened to traffic in stages between 1950 and 1954.
Following completion of the B–W Parkway, suburban growth took place in both Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. In the 1960s and the 1970s, there were plans to give the segment of the parkway owned by the NPS to the state and make it a part of I-295 and possibly I-95; however, they never came through and the entire road is today designated as MD 295, despite only being signed on the state-maintained portion. Between the 1980s and the 2000s, the NPS portion of the road was modernized. MD 295 is in the process of being widened from four to six lanes, with more widening and a new interchange along this segment planned for the future.
Route description
thumb|left|Time-lapse video of a northbound trip on the Baltimore–Washington Parkway in 2014
NPS segment
The parkway begins at a large hybrid cloverleaf just outside the Washington, D.C., boundary at Tuxedo, Maryland, that is maintained by the Maryland State Highway Administration.
right|thumb|The Baltimore–Washington Parkway northbound at the exit for MD 450 in Bladensburg and Landover Hills
The portion of the B–W Parkway between the southern terminus and MD 175 is maintained by the National Park Service (NPS). From its southern terminus, the road continues north as a six-lane freeway with the unsigned MD 295 designation, containing brown signs featuring the Clarendon typeface. The parkway heads through wooded surroundings near industrial areas and passes over the Alexandria Extension of CSX's Capital Subdivision railroad line and MD 201, where there is a ramp from southbound MD 201 to the southbound B–W Parkway. It continues northeast, passing near Prince George's Hospital Center, to interchanges with MD 202 (Landover Road) in Cheverly and with MD 450 (Annapolis Road) in Bladensburg and Landover Hills and the former Capital Plaza Mall.
It continues north as a four-lane freeway with a wide, tree-filled median, and passes through woodland, skirting residential neighborhoods hidden by the trees. The road has a junction with MD 410 (Riverdale Road) west of New Carrollton. MD 193 provides access to College Park, which is home to the College Park Airport, a 1909 airport where the Wright Brothers taught the U.S. Army how to fly an airplane, and the University of Maryland, College Park, a public educational institution established in 1862.
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. Increasing accident levels on US 1 (which was called one of the deadliest roads in the world at the time) along with awareness of the need to mobilize national defense before World War II provided additional motivation for construction of the parkway.
In 1942, the Bureau of Public Roads began the process to start the construction design for the parkway. Federal and state officials commissioned the J. E. Greiner Company to create designs for the parkway, which included a large Y-junction at the southern terminus to connect with New York Avenue and the proposed Anacostia Freeway. Meanwhile, the northern end included a similar wye, with one end running to US 40 (Franklin Street) and the other end crossing the Inner Harbor, but this was modified in 1945 to the current configuration.
Construction
Construction on the northern portion of the highway began in 1947 by the state of Maryland, while construction on the NPS segment started in 1950. The state-maintained portion was completed in December 1950 between MD 46 (now I-195) and Hollins Ferry Road at the Baltimore city line and in 1952 from MD 175 to MD 46. The portion of the parkway within the city of Baltimore opened in 1951 while the NPS-maintained portion opened in October 1954.
Post-construction
Around the time 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. In addition, the road became a prime commuting route into both Washington and Baltimore, leading to suburban growth that would eventually cause the two distinct cities to merge into one large metropolitan area.
In 1963, the State Roads Commission, the National Park Service, and the Bureau of Public Roads (the predecessor of the Federal Highway Administration) (FHWA) created tentative plans to transfer the 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 1965, the Goddard Space Flight Center constructed the interchange for its employee entrance.
thumb|left|Northbound at the north end of the parkway entering downtown Baltimore
In 1968, the State Roads Commission proposed to the FHWA that the parkway be included in the Interstate Highway System and designated Interstate 295 (in anticipation of the completion of the parallel-running I-95 that occurred in 1971). 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 modernize the route. As a result of the withdrawal of the Interstate designation, the parkway remained an unnumbered road south of I-695 while the portion north of there became a part of MD 3 by 1975.
By 1973, MD 3 was designated along the Baltimore–Washington Expressway between I-695 and Monroe Street in Baltimore. MD 295 was designated along the state-maintained portions of the expressway, replacing the MD 3 designation between I-695 and Monroe Street, by 1981. By the 1990s, the portion of the road known as the Baltimore–Washington Expressway became known as the Baltimore–Washington Parkway.
In the mid-1980s, the National Park Service, along with the Federal Highway Administration, began a reconstruction of the NPS segment to modernize the road, including the improvement of several interchanges. Around 2002, the federal government completed the project with the reconstruction of the MD 197 interchange.
In 2004, Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich announced plans to widen portions of MD 295 near Baltimore–Washington International Airport. The MDSHA widened the parkway from two lanes on each side to three lanes on each side from I-195 north to I-695. Construction on the $12.4 million project, which began in late 2008, was completed in late 2011. The widening made use of the median as the extra travel lanes were to be added inside of each carriageway.
The Maryland State Highway Administration closed the southbound ramps of the interchange between the Baltimore–Washington Parkway and Arundel Mills Boulevard starting Monday, May 7, 2012. The closure was for the expedited replacement of the existing dumbbell interchange with Maryland's first diverging diamond interchange. The new interchange was part of $5 million in road upgrades being funded by the Cordish Company ahead of the June 6 opening of the company's Maryland Live! development, which features a casino, near Arundel Mills. The new interchange opened on June 11.
thumb|right|360px|Baltimore–Washington Parkway 1954–1999: 40th anniversary ([[Heritage Documentation Programs#Historic American Engineering Record|Historic American Engineering Record)]]
Dedications
In 1983, the NPS-maintained section of the Baltimore–Washington Parkway was named in honor of Gladys Noon Spellman, a congresswoman who represented Maryland's 5th congressional district from January 3, 1975, to January 3, 1981, after a bill introduced into the United States Senate by Senator Paul Sarbanes was signed into law. Gladys Noon Spellman was an educator in Prince George's County and chairperson of the National Mental Health Study Center before becoming the first woman to serve on the county's Board of Commissioners. She suffered a heart attack that ended her congressional career on October 31, 1980, leaving her in a coma until her death on June 19, 1988. On May 9, 1991, the Baltimore–Washington Parkway was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Incidents
In 1989, an overpass being built at MD 198 over the B–W Parkway just east of Laurel collapsed during rush hour, injuring fourteen 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 roadway. 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 the next day. On August 24, 2007, both directions of the parkway were closed when chunks of concrete fell from the overpass at MD 193 (Greenbelt Road) onto the northbound lanes.
Renovation
thumb|right|Southbound on the parkway past I-695 in Linthicum
MD 295 is planned to be widened to six lanes between MD 100 and I-195, and a new interchange is planned to be constructed at Hanover Road. The type of interchange has not yet been decided upon with choices including a diamond interchange, a single-point urban interchange, and a modified cloverleaf interchange. Planning for the $24 million project concluded in 2012.
In September 2017, Governor Larry Hogan announced a plan to widen the Baltimore–Washington Parkway by four lanes, adding express toll lanes to the median, as part of a $9 billion proposal to widen roads in Maryland. The project would be a public-private partnership with private companies responsible for constructing, operating, and maintaining the lanes. As part of the proposal, the portion of the parkway owned by the National Park Service would be transferred to the Maryland Transportation Authority.
In 2019, portions of the National Park Service segment of the Baltimore–Washington Parkway experienced significant pavement deterioration, including several potholes. In March 2019, the speed limit was reduced on the section of the parkway between MD 197 and MD 32 due to poor road conditions. After pressure from Governor Hogan and the state's congressional delegation, the National Park Service announced that emergency pothole repairs would take place from MD 197 to MD 198 on the weekend of March 30–31, 2019, with a complete repave to begin in April 2019, several months ahead of schedule. Repaving of the section between MD 198 and MD 175 occurred later in the year.