Interstate 695 in Maryland

Interstate 695 or I -695 is an Interstate Highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The highway forms a complete ring road around the city of Baltimore and is 83 kilometers long.

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Travel directions

The start/end point of I-695 on the south side of Baltimore.

The Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The confluence of I-83 and I-695 on the north side of Baltimore.

The start and end point of the road is south of Baltimore on the turnpike section. The highway then heads west, intersecting SR-10, a short highway to the suburb of Glen Burnie and Severna Park. The highway then has 2×3 lanes, and Interstate 97 ends at the ring road. There is also a connecting highway here to Interstate 895, a toll road that runs along downtown. Further on one really crosses the I-895, but there are no connecting roads from the east. Not far afterwards, SR-295 crosses the Washington-Baltimore Parkway, one of the highways between the two cities. Shortly thereafter, one crosses I-895, and then follows Interstate 95, the highway from Washington to Baltimore. Thus, there are 5 interchanges within 10 kilometres.

The highway then has 4+3 lanes, and runs north, along the west side of the Baltimore metropolitan area. In Woodlawn, one crosses Interstate 70 via a symmetrical 4-level stack interchange. The I-695 then has 2×4 lanes and is very busy. Interstate 795 turns off at the suburb of Pikesville, Baltimore’s northwest approach road. There will also be 2×4 lanes available afterwards. At the suburb of Towson, one crosses Interstate 83, which has a short-lived double numbering with I-695. This double numbering has 2×5 lanes and is also very busy.

After Towson, the road turns southeast to go along the east side of Baltimore. Here the highway has 2×3 lanes and various connections have been built as cloverleaf. At Rossville, it again crosses Interstate 95, which runs to Philadelphia and New York. The highway then runs in 2×3 lanes through the suburb of Essex, which has a population of 40,000. This is followed by Dundalk with 62,000 inhabitants. This area is one of the few suburban areas with row houses in the US. The road then becomes a toll road as the Francis Scott Key Bridge crosses the Patapsco River estuary. Then the road returns to its starting point.

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History

The I-695 project began in 1949 as a County Highway, but was taken over by the state in 1953 and then incorporated into the Interstate Highway program, speeding up construction. The first sections were constructed on the south side of Baltimore in 1951. The first parts opened in 1955. In 1962, much of the beltway was opened, providing the first bypass via an Interstate Highway along Baltimore. In the early 1970s, some short stretches opened on the southeast and south sides of Baltimore, but the final link, the Francis Scott Key Bridge, did not open to traffic until March 23, 1977, completing the entire beltway.

A different route was originally planned in southeast Baltimore, around the suburbs of Essex and Dundalk. To this end, State Route 702 has partly been expanded as a highway to Middle River, where I-695 should have run a little further outside Baltimore. An interchange was also planned in Dundalk with the Windlass Freeway, which was to connect to I-95. This was never built, but construction preparations have been carried out in Chesaco Park.

Opening history

Traffic intensities

I-695 is a busy highway, with 68,000 to 134,000 vehicles on the south side, increasing to 206,000 vehicles on the west side of Baltimore. The road is also busy on the north side with 188,000 vehicles per day. The double numbering with the I-83 has 228,000 vehicles. The east side of Baltimore is also busy with around 160,000 vehicles per day in 2×3 lanes. The toll road section is the quietest with 35,000 vehicles per day. Most congestion occurs on the west side of Baltimore.