Interstate 195 (I-195) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the US state of Maryland. The highway runs from I-95 in Arbutus east to Maryland Route 170 (MD 170) near the Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI Airport) in Linthicum. I-195, which is also known as Metropolitan Boulevard, is the main connection between the airport terminal and highways leading to Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Annapolis, including I-95, MD 295, and I-97. The interchange with MD 170, which forms part of the Airport Loop, provides access to various airport-related services. I-195 also links I-95 with Catonsville and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), via a westward continuation of Metropolitan Boulevard that is part of MD 166.
I-195 was constructed in three sections. The first section was a connection between MD 295 and the airport. This segment was built as Maryland Route 46 (MD 46) and completed in 1951 shortly after the opening of the airport, which was originally named Friendship International Airport. The second segment was completed at the opposite end of the highway in the mid-1970s, connecting U.S. Route 1 (US 1) and I-95 with MD 166 and UMBC. The first two segments were connected when the portion between MD 295 and US 1 was constructed in the late 1980s. The whole length of the highway was completed and was marked as I-195 in 1990. In 2015, the eastern terminus was cut back from the airport to MD 170, with the former section between those two points becoming MD 995A.
Route description
I-195 begins at the western edge of its interchange with I-95. The freeway continues west as MD 166, which has a partial interchange for UMBC Boulevard, which leads to the UMBC campus, before ending next to a park-and-ride facility at Rolling Road, on which MD 166 continues north toward Catonsville. The I-95 interchange is a combination interchange that has flyover ramps from northbound I-95 to westbound I-195 and from southbound I-95 to eastbound I-195. I-195 heads southeast as a four-lane freeway with a speed limit of across CSX Transportation's Baltimore Terminal Subdivision railroad line and meets US 1 at a four-ramp partial cloverleaf interchange. The highway crosses over I-895 (Harbor Tunnel Thruway) with no access and curves south on a viaduct to cross the Patapsco River, where the freeway passes from Baltimore County to Anne Arundel County, and Amtrak's Northeast Corridor railroad line, which also carries MARC Train's Penn Line. I-195 parallels the railroad south to its combination interchange with MD 295 (Baltimore–Washington Parkway), which contains a flyover ramp from southbound MD 295 to eastbound I-195.
I-195 curves southeast and passes under the BWI Trail ahead of its partial cloverleaf interchange with MD 170 (Aviation Boulevard), also known as the Airport Loop. The Airport Loop provides access to long-term parking lots, the consolidated rental car facility, hotels, cargo and general aviation facilities, and BWI Rail Station serving Amtrak and MARC Train. The circumferential highway also provides indirect access to I-97 for traffic heading to Annapolis or the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. At this interchange, I-195 ends and the roadway continues toward the entrance to BWI Airport.
Like all Interstates, I-195 is a part of the National Highway System for its entire length.
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.