Baltimore-Washington Parkway Widening Feasibility Study

Baltimore-Washington Parkway Widening Feasibility StudyStudy BackgroundMaryland State Highway Administration to determine the feasibility of adding a thirdnorthbound and a third southbound lane for Maryland Route 295/Baltimore WashingtonParkway from the intersection with Interstate 695 to New York Avenue in the District ofColumbia. The FHWA shall prepare a report which must be submitted to the House andSenate Committees on Appropriations, not later than one year after the date ofenactment of this Act, on the feasibility of such a widening. The feasibility study shallinclude an assessment of the impact of the Base Realignment and Closure process ontraffic throughout the Maryland Route 295 corridor between Baltimore, MD andWashington, DC.1.3LegislativePurposesandSignificanceoftheParkwayThe B-W Parkway is part of a system of four parkways that welcomes visitors and integrates a contextsensitivedesign to convey to citizens the importance of Washington, DC. There is the GeorgeWashington Memorial Parkway (GWMP) in Virginia running along the Potomac River shoreline from theCapital Beltway into Alexandria to George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon. There is the GWMP’sparallel companion Parkway, the Clara Barton Parkway, which runs along the Potomac River in Marylandfrom the MacArthur Boulevard to Chain Bridge. There is also the Suitland Parkway, extending from theeastern boundary of the District of Columbia to Andrews Air Force Base. Lastly, there is the Rock Creekand Potomac Parkway in the District of Columbia itself that runs from the Lincoln Memorial to just southof the National Zoo.The concept of the B-W Parkway was first proposed as an element of a planned regional system ofparkways providing access to the core of the National Capital Region in 1935, when the NPS issued theRegulations and Procedures to Govern the Acquisition of Rights-of-way for Parkways on February 8,1935, by the Secretary of the Interior 1 . This was the first document to define a parkway characterizedby the type of roadway as one that limits access only to non-commercial and recreational traffic.Unfortunately, due to various reasons, including economic and political, the plans for the B-W Parkwaystalled until the early 1940s. Over the previous decades, travel on U.S. Route 1 between Baltimore,Maryland, and Washington, DC, grew dramatically resulting in a very crowded, unsafe, and undesirabletravel experience. Pressures to relieve the traffic conditions on U.S. Route 1 pushed the Maryland StateRoad Commission to release an initial plan in 1941 for a toll road between Baltimore, and Washington,DC, which conflicted with the proposed parkway plans 2 . However, the plans for a State toll road lostsupport with time, mainly due to Federal restrictions on tolling roads that go through federally ownedlands, but the renewed interest in the B-W Parkway stressed the importance of planning a facility with avehicular as well as aesthetic and recreational value.1 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Multiple PropertyDocumentation Form, Section E - Statement of Historic Context, p22 Historic American Engineering Record, Baltimore-Washington Parkway, HAER No. MD-129, p 5017 November 2012