Interstate 795 (I-795), also known as the Northwest Expressway, is a nine-mile (14 km)
freeway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...
linking
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
's northwestern suburbs of
Pikesville
Pikesville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. Pikesville is just northwest of the Baltimore city limits. It is the northwestern suburb closest to Baltimore.
The population was 30,764 at the 2010 cens ...
,
Owings Mills
Owings Mills is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Baltimore. Per the 2020 census, the population was 35,674. Owings Mills is home to the northern terminus of ...
and
Reisterstown, Maryland to the Baltimore Beltway (
Interstate 695). The route bypasses
Maryland Route 140 (MD 140, Reisterstown Road), carrying part of
MTA Maryland's
Baltimore Metro SubwayLink in its median for a four-mile stretch, and provides direct access to the former
Owings Mills Mall
Owings Mills Mall was a shopping mall in Owings Mills, Maryland, United States that hosted 155 stores and eateries, in the Baltimore County, Maryland, community of Owings Mills. It was owned and managed by General Growth Properties (now Brookfi ...
. It never connects to its parent,
I-95, except via I-695.
Route description
I-795 begins in Pikesville at a directional T interchange with I-695 (Baltimore Beltway), which heads south toward
Glen Burnie and east toward
Towson. I-695 provides access to I-95 in the directions of
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
and
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
to highways into Baltimore. Immediately to the east of the interchange is the
Old Court station
Old Court station is a Metro SubwayLink station in Lochearn, Maryland
Lochearn is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, located immediately to the west of the City of Baltimore. Per ...
of MTA Maryland's Baltimore Metro SubwayLink, which passes through the interchange and settles into the median of the six-lane freeway as they cross
Gwynns Falls. I-795 parallels and has two crossings of
CSX Transportation
CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...
's
Hanover Subdivision
The Hanover Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Maryland and Pennsylvania. The line runs from Baltimore, Maryland, west to Hagerstown, Maryland, along several former Western Maryland Railwa ...
as the freeway and transit line head northwest. The subway line ends just north of its and the highway's second crossing of Gwynns Falls at the terminal
Owings Mills station.
Immediately to the northwest of the subway terminus is I-795's interchange with Owings Mills Boulevard (
unsigned MD 940), which is a partial cloverleaf interchange with flyover ramps from northbound I-795 to southbound Owings Mills Boulevard and from the southbound boulevard to the southbound Interstate. The interchange also features direct ramps with
Metro Centre at Owings Mills
Metro Centre at Owings Mills, previously Owings Mills Town Center, is a partially-completed $220 million transit-oriented development in Owings Mills, Maryland aimed at creating a downtown meeting place on the land between the Owings Mills Metr ...
to and from the direction of Baltimore and direct ramps with the subway station to and from the direction of Reisterstown. I-795 continues northwest as a four-lane freeway. The highway has a partial cloverleaf interchange with Franklin Boulevard before reaching its northern terminus at MD 140 on the edge of Reisterstown. The terminus consists of direct ramps with MD 140 to and from the direction of Westminster and an intersection with MD 140 (Westminster Pike) and MD 795, an unnamed and unsigned connector between the intersection and an intersection with
MD 30 and
MD 128 on the north side of Reisterstown.
History
The Northwest Expressway was one of the first freeways planned for construction in the state of Maryland. The first four-mile (6 km) section to the Owings Mills exit was completed in 1985; the remaining five miles (8 km) were completed in 1987.
The original plan was for the highway to run into the City of Baltimore along a similar route to that of the Metro SubwayLink. Plans to extend the highway beyond its current configuration have not been sought out by highway officials in Maryland. This alignment would most likely have terminated at the northern terminus of
Wabash Avenue (at Patterson Avenue), which parallels the elevated section of the Metro SubwayLink.
Exit list
See also
*
References
External links
MDRoads: I-795Steve Anderson's DCRoads.net: Northwest Expressway (I-795)
{{3di, 95
95-7 Maryland
95-7
7 Maryland
Roads in Baltimore County, Maryland