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Interstate 595
John Hanson Highway
Route information
Maintained by MDSHA
Length:	19.97 mi[1] (32.14 km)
Major junctions
West end:	I-95 / I-495 / US 50 outside Washington, D.C.
	US 301 in Bowie, MD I-97 near Annapolis, MD
East end:	US 50 / US 301 / MD 2 / MD 70 in Annapolis, MD
Highway system
Interstate Highway System Main • Auxiliary • Business Maryland highway system Interstate • US • State • Scenic Byways • Turnpikes ← MD 591 MD 598 → ← MD 196 MD 197 →

Interstate 595 (I-595) is an unsigned number for a section of the John Hanson Highway (U.S. Route 50 and U.S. Route 301) from Interstate 495 (Capital Beltway) east of Washington, D.C. to Maryland Route 70 at Annapolis, Maryland.

US 50/I-595 has an HOV lane in each direction from west of the Beltway to east of US 301, a distance of 8 miles (13 km). Unlike other HOV lanes in the Washington metropolitan area, which are only restricted during rush hours, the HOV lanes on I-595 are restricted at all times.^[2]

I-595 is the longest unsigned stretch of Interstate Highway on the entire Interstate system, at 19.97 miles (32.14 km) long. It was left unsigned because motorists were already familiar with US 50.

  Route description

The existing US 50 freeway east from the Baltimore-Washington Parkway upgrades silently into I-595 within the Capital Beltway interchange. East of the interchange, I-595 is 10 lanes wide; beyond the MD 704 interchange, it narrows to eight lanes, with the innermost two being HOV lanes.

The frequency of the interchanges decreases as the development backs away from the highway, and US 50 passes over or under several routes before interchanging with Maryland Route 197 near Bowie, using a partial cloverleaf interchange. The highway approaches a residential development as it soon after interchanges with the next major route: US 301 and Maryland Route 3. Within this interchange, US 301 joins the freeway, creating a three-route concurrency, and the highway exits development again, traveling through mostly woodland.

Up to and slightly beyond the US 301/Maryland Route 3 interchange, I-595's road surface is concrete; the roadway beyond there is asphalt. Within the US 301 interchange, the HOV lanes that began at the Capital Beltway come to an end.

It interchanges with Maryland Route 424 in the country after turning northwest once more, approaching Annapolis. Before this, however, US 50 interchanges with the southern end of Interstate 97. Interstate 97 utilizes a directional-T interchange, but then, the two carriageways straddle US 50 as collector and distributor roads, before passing over the highway with another partial interchange and traveling south into Annapolis as a direct freeway spur, now signed as Maryland Route 665.

After the C/D roads leave, the route passes through the Annapolis urban area, and interchanges with Maryland Route 450. MD 450 is an older alignment of US 50, which parallels the John Hanson Highway between Annapolis and Washington. Shortly after this, it interchanges with Medical Parkway and Solomons Island Road. Solomons Island Road adds one more route to the multiplex: Maryland Route 2. The four route concurrency of I-595, US 50, US 301, and MD 2 continue until the next interchange only about a mile later: Maryland Route 70. Here, the John Hanson Highway designation ends, as does Interstate 595. US 50, US 301, and MD 2 continue along the freeway routing, no longer a part of the Interstate system. However, the physical roadbed was fully upgraded to Interstate standards to the western edge of the Severn River Bridge.^{[citation needed]}

  History

The John Hanson Highway, US 50's route between Washington, D.C., and Annapolis, was constructed in 1957, and ran from New York Avenue just outside Washington, D.C., to Maryland Route 2, the Ritchie Highway, north of Annapolis, connecting to the western approach to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The highway was four lanes throughout, and connected to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, I-495 and US 301 with full-cloverleaf interchanges.

Due to the increasing use of the highway and the dangerous conditions at the interchanges with the Capital Beltway and US 301, the highway was reconstructed to Interstate standards during 1990 to 1995 between the Capital Beltway and Maryland Route 70 in Annapolis, using funding released from the cancellation of Interstate Highway segments within Baltimore. Originally, it was intended to designate the reconstructed highway as Interstate 68, but with the completion of the National Freeway in far western Maryland in 1991, the Maryland State Highway Administration chose instead to designate that route as Interstate 68, leaving the John Hanson Highway to be designated as I-595.^{[citation needed]} In the 1980s, the John Hanson highway was planned to be designated as a part of Interstate 97 between the Capital Beltway and the current I-97 interchange and as Interstate 197 between I-97 and MD 70.^[3]

  Former proposed I-595

In the early 1980s, the same route number was proposed for a connector in Baltimore from Interstate 95 to what was then called Interstate 170, which was left stranded from the rest of the Interstate Highway System by the cancellation of Interstate 70 within the city limits of Baltimore. That connector was never built, and Interstate 170 has been redesignated as part of U.S. Route 40.

  Reasons for lack of signage

In January 2001, highway historian Scott Kozel contacted the Maryland State Highway Administration to ask why I-595 was not signed. They responded with: "We did not feel that either the posting in the field or the noting on a map would serve any useful purpose for the traveling public".^[2]

At times in 2011, the MD SHA has used the I-595 reference on the CHART website. This seems to be at the discretion of the operator at the time when referencing accidents and incidents on that highway. No official policy change has been mentioned regarding this.

  Exit list

Because I-595 is an unsigned route that is completely concurrent with US 50, the latter's exit numbers are used.

County	Location	Mile	km	Exit	Destinations	Notes
Prince George's	Landover	0.00	0.00	7	I-95 / I-495 (Capital Beltway) – Baltimore, Richmond, VA
		0.29	0.47	8	MD 704 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Highway) to MD 450 – Capitol Heights
	Bowie	6.68	10.75	11	MD 197 (Collington Road) – Bowie State University
		8.08	13.00	13	US 301 south / MD 3 north (Robert Crain Highway) – Crofton, Glen Burnie, Upper Marlboro	Begin US 301 concurrency
Anne Arundel		11.5	18.5	16	MD 424 (Davidsonville Road) – Davidsonville, Crofton
	Annapolis	16.28	26.20	21	I-97 north (Glen Burnie Bypass) / MD 665 east (Aris T. Allen Boulevard) – Baltimore, Annapolis	I-97 terminates at I-595
		18.0	29.0	22	MD 450 (Defense Highway) – Crofton
		18.45	29.69	23	MD 2 south (Solomons Island Road) – Edgewater	No eastbound off-ramp, MD 2 joins I-595
		19.72	31.74	24	MD 70 east (Rowe Boulevard) – Annapolis	US 50, US 301, and MD 2 continue east of MD 70
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

  See also

• Maryland Roads portal

  References

  External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Interstate 595 (Maryland)

• I-595 @ MDRoads.com
• Scott M. Kozel's Roads to the Future article on I-595
• U.S. 50 HOV Project from Md. State Highway Administration
• Map showing existing and proposed Baltimore interstates; I-595 would have combined I-170 with the unbuilt portion of I-70 south to I-95

Auxiliary routes of Interstate 95 Florida 195 295 395 595 7952 North Carolina 2952 795 Virginia 195 295 395 495 5951 8953 District of Columbia 295 395 495 695 Maryland 195 295 395 495 5955 695 795 895 Delaware 295 495 8951 Pennsylvania 1952 6954 8954 New Jersey 195 295 4951 6954 8954 New York 295 495 695 895 Connecticut - Rhode Island - Massachusetts 195 295 395 495 6954 8954 Maine 195 295 395 495 1Former 2Future 3Proposed 4Unbuilt 5Unsigned

Auxiliary routes of Interstate 97 Maryland 1971 2972 1Proposed 2Unbuilt