When was baltimore beltway built

The pace of construction picked up in as construction began on the following sections: A 1. This section included connecting ramps to the Glen Burnie Bypass, which also was under construction at this time. This intersection did not become a grade-separated interchange until the present-day EXIT 6 was built in Both sections were completed in , shortly after the Baltimore Beltway became eligible for Interstate funding under the Federal-state formula and received the I designation.

The four-level "stack" interchange carries far less traffic than was anticipated because I ends abruptly two miles east of this interchange; it was not completed in Baltimore and to I The MD 3 "mainline" - which formerly served as a continuation of the beltway - exited and entered the beltway in the median. This section included ramps to I John F.

Kennedy Memorial Highway , which was under construction at the time. When it opened, the beltway had only one section with more than four lanes: the 1. This short beltway segment through Tinomium has overlapping I and I designations. I and the Metro extension to Owings Mills carried by the trestle ahead were built during the mids. Photos by Jim K. Stub ramps for a proposed cloverleaf with the Northwest Expressway were built at this location in the early s, but with the cancellation of the expressway south of I, the interchange was reconfigured into its current "directional-T" setup in the s.

Because it was not included in the state's Interstate highway plans, the beltway extension received the MD designation. This alignment was to have had its terminus at Sollers Point Road and did not include an outer crossing of Baltimore Harbor. This 1.

Mainline stubs and part of an unused underpass hint at a northerly extension of MD 10 into Baltimore. Several segments of the highway were built over the next few years.

The landmark act that created the Interstate Highway System made available federal funds for the highway, which would become a part of that national network. When J. Millard Tawes succeeded McKeldin as Maryland governor in , work on I in its original form took on added urgency. Funk made a big push to complete the the highway sooner than initially planned.

When finished, the first version of I was shaped more like a horseshoe than a belt. The highway surrounded about three-fourths of the city of Baltimore in a clockwise formation between Maryland Route 2 on the west side and U. Route 40 on the east side. The dedication ceremony for the full length of this route took place near the Maryland Route interchange along the northwestern section of I Thousands of people attended this mid-afternoon event, and Tawes used the opportunity to emphasize how MDSRC had completed the work on I right on schedule.

This was done, and July 1, , was announced as the target date for the opening of the Beltway. This route ultimately became a full loop 15 years later when a The first metropolitan beltway in the country was Route around Boston, completed in The Baltimore Beltway was completed in as a 6-lane mile-long circumferential freeway bypass of the city, although it did not become a mile-long full circle until when the eastern portion was completed across the Outer Harbor.

The portion completed in ran from MD-2 Governor Ritchie Highway south of the city, around the south, west and north of the city, to US Pulaski Highway northeast of the city; and it passed through Anne Arundel and Baltimore Counties, entirely outside the city of Baltimore. The Beltway had 32 interchanges, including all the radial expressways and arterials which crossed it.

This mile-long section of the Baltimore Beltway, in conjunction with the Harbor Tunnel Thruway that was opened in , did comprise a complete freeway loop around and through the City of Baltimore, and it did provide a complete I bypass of the city. The Baltimore area had numerous radial arterials already in place, but there were no highways connecting the various suburban communities, places such as Linthicum, Catonsville, Pikesville, Towson, Parkville, Essex, and Dundalk.

These communities had grown up on the radial highways which head out of the city, and the Beltway was intended to link them together, as well as provide a freeway bypass of the city of Baltimore. The Baltimore Beltway project started as a county project funded by local taxpayers, but the state of Maryland took over the project in