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The Capital Beltway, designated as Interstate 495 ( I-495) for its entire length, is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the Washington metropolitan area. The Ring road encircles Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and its inner suburbs in adjacent Maryland and Virginia. It also passes through the capital, near the western end of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the Potomac River; Prince George's and Montgomery counties in Maryland and Fairfax County; and the independent city of Alexandria in Virginia.
The route is the basis of the phrase "inside the Beltway", used when referring to issues dealing with U.S. federal government and politics. Its southern and eastern half runs concurrently with I-95. It was constructed in 1964. The Cabin John Parkway, a short connector between I-495 and the Clara Barton Parkway near the Potomac River along the Maryland–Virginia border, is considered an Interstate highway spur (I-495X) by the Maryland State Highway Administration (MDSHA).
Most beltway interchanges provide access to Washington, with I-95 and I-295 from the south, I-66 from the west, and U.S. Route 50 (US 50) from the west and the east are among the most frequently used. More scenic routes from the beltway into DC are offered by the George Washington Memorial Parkway along the Virginia side of the Potomac River, the Clara Barton Parkway along the Maryland side of the river, and the Baltimore–Washington Parkway (B–W Parkway), approaching Washington DC from the northeast.
Initially, the entire beltway was simply I-495, and I-95 was planned to serve Downtown from the south and north, intersecting the beltway in Virginia and Maryland. The Virginia segment from Springfield to the D.C. border was completed—however, environmental litigation stopped the completion of the Maryland segment, and the built portion of I-95 inside the beltway from the south northward into Downtown was redesignated I-395 in 1977. The small built portion from the north was converted into a park-and-ride lot. I-95 was then rerouted (and so signed) along the eastern side of the beltway, with the I-495 designation left only along the western side, leaving both routes as bypasses of Washington, D.C. In 1989, the I-495 designation was also returned to the eastern portion, with the highway cosigned as I-95 and I-495 along this route.
Heading eastward, the beltway's (I-95/I-495) local–express lane configuration ends before it interchanges with various local highways, including MD 5 and MD 4 on either side of Andrews Air Force Base, which the beltway travels near its northern edge. (Both MD 5 and MD 4 extend westward into DC and southeastward into Southern Maryland.) Past the MD 4 interchange, the beltway turns north through Glenarden, interchanging with MD 202.
The beltway then interchanges with US 50/unsigned I-595, a major highway from Downtown eastward to Annapolis and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Both US 50 and MD 450 (which interchanges with the beltway slightly northward) provide access to New Carrollton serving Washington Metro's Orange Line, MARC Train's Penn Line, and Amtrak's Northeast Corridor railroad line and the New Carrollton area.
Turning northwest, the beltway then enters Greenbelt Park, intersecting the B–W Parkway on the northeastern edge of the park. Just after the B–W Parkway, I-95/I-495 passes an interchange with MD 201, which connects to the southern terminus of the B–W Parkway at US 50 near the DC line. Now turned fully west, the beltway runs through the northern edge of College Park, interchanging with the access roadway for Greenbelt station serving Washington Metro's Green Line and MARC Train's Camden Line in Greenbelt, then US 1.
Beyond the US 1 interchange, I-95 separates from I-495 at the College Park Interchange. I-495 continues west, alone, on the Capital Beltway, while I-95 turns northeast toward Baltimore. The interchange includes access to a park-and-ride lot, paved initially as part of I-95's route within the beltway.
Squeezing past Argyle Local Park and Sligo Creek Golf Course, the beltway interchanges with MD 97 northwest of Silver Spring, then follows an alignment formerly known as Rock Creek Parkway.Not the extant parkway in Rock Creek Park within DC. The route twists along the alignment, through and around Rock Creek Park, then interchanges with MD 185 near the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Turning northwest, I-495 soon encounters the southern terminus of I-270, which extends northwestward to meet I-70 in Frederick.
I-270 and I-495 split at a highly complex Y junction, with two separate high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) connections to I-270's HOV lanes and separate ramps to and from MD 355 (formerly US 240). The old Rock Creek Parkway alignment follows I-270 north, while I-495 turns west and enters the only other six-lane segment of the beltway still in existence; significant levels of traffic exit onto I-270 north, leaving the six-lane segment west of the split adequate.
Interchanging with Old Georgetown Road (MD 187), I-495 soon meets the I-270 Spur, the other side of the I-270/I-495 triangle. I-495 joins I-270 Spur at a converging Y junction; Inner Loop traffic exits from itself at the southern terminus of I-270 Spur, while Outer Loop traffic crosses the spur and enters it from the right. The two carriageways of I-495 temporarily widen to five lanes each until the MD 190 and Cabin John Parkway interchanges. (MD 190 provides access to the northwestern portion of Washington, D.C., and to the Potomac and Great Falls areas of Montgomery County, while the Cabin John Parkway extends to the Clara Barton Parkway along the Potomac River.)
After these interchanges, the beltway then narrows to eight lanes again. Turning sharply to the west, I-495 meets the Clara Barton Parkway along the north side of the Potomac River; this parkway provides a scenic route eastward into the western part of Washington, D.C., and westward toward the Potomac River's Great Falls. After this interchange, the Beltway soon crosses the Mather Gorge into Virginia over the 10-lane American Legion Memorial Bridge.
Now running south, the beltway interchanges with SR 7 (Leesburg Pike) east of Tysons; passing Dunn Loring to the east, I-495 soon reaches the complex interchange with I-66, which extends westward to I-81 in the Shenandoah Valley near Strasburg and eastward to Arlington and Downtown. In a similar design as the I-270/I-495 interchange, dedicated HOV connections exist between I-495 and I-66, with directional ramps providing the remaining connections. There is no access between the Outer Loop and eastbound I-66 at this interchange. Instead, Outer Loop traffic must use the eastbound Dulles Access Road exit to the north in order to reach I-66 east.If a driver gets onto westbound I-66 at the Leesburg Pike (SR 7) entrance, the only choice for getting to northbound I-495 is to take I-66 west to the Nutley Street exit and then get on I-66 east. A similar situation occurs for going from the Dulles Access Road at Chain Bridge Road (SR 123) to southbound I-495, where it is assumed that the driver will know to continue along SR 7 or SR 123 directly to the beltway. There are multiple ramps from I-66 east to the Inner Loop, with one ramp exiting from the left side of I-66 east and the other exiting from the right. The Dulles Access Road leads to Dulles International Airport, which then changes over to the Dulles Greenway and ends at Leesburg.
South of the I-66 interchange, the beltway crosses under US 29 and SR 237 with no access, then encounters a large braided interchange between I-495, US 50, and two local roads; the direct interchange between I-495 and US 50 is a full cloverleaf, while the braided local interchanges between I-495, US 50, and the local roads are modified single-point urban interchanges. The entire complex is bounded on the northeast side by Fairview Lake and on the southwest side by an office complex.
Continuing due south, the route then interchanges with Gallows Road, then skirts the eastern edge of Mill Creek Park before interchanging with SR 236 southwest of Annandale Community Park. Running along the eastern edge of Wakefield Park, the Beltway turns southeast and interchanges with SR 620 before turning east near Flag Run Park and entering Springfield, meeting the Springfield Interchange with I-95 southeast of the Shirley Industrial Complex.
I-95 joins the beltway within the Springfield Interchange. I-495 also meets the southern terminus of I-395 within the same massive interchange complex.
Running due east away from the interchange, crossing to the south of Backlick Stream Valley Park, the beltway (now I-95/I-495) interchanges with SR 613 east of the Springfield Interchange. Continuing east, the beltway encounters a diamond interchange with a connector road linking to Eisenhower Avenue, which parallels the beltway for a short distance. Skirting the northern edges of Loftridge Park and Burgundy Park parks, the two routes enter Alexandria and soon reach SR 241, a direct route into the city, currently under major reconstruction. Within the interchange, the beltway nears the western approach to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
Continuing east, the two routes encounter US 1, a major north–south highway providing access to Alexandria, Arlington, and Downtown, as well as various points south in Fairfax County. Finally, beyond this complex interchange, I-95 and I-495 together cross Alexandria's Jones Point Park and exit Virginia via the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
Originally designated I-495, in 1977, the eastern portion of the beltway was redesignated I-95 when a proposed alignment of I-95 from New York Avenue in Washington, D.C., through Prince George's County, Maryland, to I-495 was canceled. Motorists never fully adjusted to the two halves of the beltway having different numbers. According to Ron Shaffer of The Washington Post,
In 1989, the I-495 designation was restored to the eastern portion, making it a dual I-95/I-495.
Traveling clockwise, the beltway is designated as the "Inner Loop"; traveling counterclockwise, it is designated as the "Outer Loop". This parlance too has led to its own confusion, with unfamiliar motorists imagining two separate, distinct highway alignments, one some distance inside the other. At entrance ramps to the beltway and on the on-highway signage, "Inner Loop" and "Outer Loop" shields are posted in conjunction with the route marker shields, although the terms are not emphasized in signage.
The beltway was originally envisioned as primarily a bypass for long-distance eastern seaboard traffic to avoid driving directly through Washington, D.C. However, the explosive growth both of housing and business in the Washington, D.C., suburbs following the beltway's completion quickly made the beltway the area's "main street" for local traffic as well. Numerous large shopping malls, community colleges, sports and concert stadiums, and corporate employment centers were purposely built adjacent to the beltway, and these added greatly to the traffic, as has the passenger growth of regional airports accessed by the beltway. The formerly more affordable price of housing in Southern Maryland versus Northern Virginia, also led tens of thousands of commuters to live in Southern Maryland and commute on the beltway to Virginia. The newer Fairfax County Parkway in the 1990s helped ease some traffic on the Virginia beltway; however, various proposals to build another complete outer beltway in the outer suburbs has not gotten off the ground because local governments in Maryland object to building additional Potomac River crossings as well as destroying protected "open space" and creating Urban sprawl.
Originally, travelers from southbound I-95 to the Inner Loop had to traverse the one-lane cloverleaf ramp in the southwest quadrant of the interchange; after exiting the ramp, traffic then had to weave through Inner Loop traffic headed for US 1. This unsafe condition was rectified by November 1986, when the flyover from southbound I-95 to the Inner Loop was constructed for I-95 southbound through traffic; the existing one-lane cloverleaf ramp was retained for access to the new collector–distributor lane on the Inner Loop within the US 1 interchange, to segregate through traffic from southbound I-95 and local traffic for US 1. The stump end of the interchange was also modified into its present configuration, and the park and ride was built.
Two intersections on the Capital Beltway are ranked in the top 20 on a study of the "worst bottlenecks in the nation". They are the I-495 at I-270 interchange in Montgomery County, Maryland, ranked third overall, which receives 760,425 cars daily, and the College Park Interchange in Prince George's County, Maryland, ranked 11th, with 340,125 cars. The Springfield Interchange, where I-395, I-95, and I-495 meet, was previously ranked fifth worst in the nation, but recent improvements have taken it off the top 20. Local commuters refer to the Springfield Interchange as "The Mixing Bowl". although this designation is reserved by highway officials for the even more complicated interchange complex adjacent to the Pentagon on the original Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway (currently better-known as I-395) at SR 27 in Arlington.
In April 2005, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) signed an agreement with two private companies to build high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes on the stretch of the beltway between Springfield and Georgetown Pike. Construction began in 2008. Maryland officials are considering such lanes on their segment of the beltway, as well as other major commuter highways in the state. Locals who disapprove of these projects have nicknamed them "Lexus Lanes" because of the potential high price for using the lanes in exchange for bypassing congestion. These new lanes are one stage of a controversial project to widen the beltway, with the second stage involving widening the beltway to 12 lanes; opponents have called for various alternatives to this project (as well as the controversial Intercounty Connector project) which would divert many vehicles off the northern beltway. The MDOT SHA's Purple Line light rail transit line, under construction , is just one example.
The beltway has been continuously modified since it opened. The American Legion Bridge was expanded by two lanes. HOV lanes were added between River Road and the I-270 Spur in Montgomery County. The interchange between I-95 and the beltway in Prince George's County was originally designed to be a cloverleaf to allow I-95 to extend southward toward the District of Columbia. After I-95 was realigned onto the beltway, a flyover ramp was built to allow I-95 through traffic to have two high-speed lanes. The interchange between US 50 and I-95/I-495 in Prince George's County was upgraded from a simple cloverleaf to a hybrid turbine interchange. In the beltway's original configuration, I-295 and Indian Head Highway had separate interchanges. As a result, north–south traffic between I-295 and Indian Head Highway was forced to merge onto a congested section of the beltway for approximately . As a congestion relief measure, I-295 was extended over the beltway and continued parallel to it so that the two highways were directly connected independent of the beltway. However, these interchanges were redesigned and rebuilt to accommodate the expansion of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and the construction of dedicated ramps to National Harbor.
In January 2018, Maryland State Democratic Senator Joanne C. Benson of Prince George's County proposed legislation (Senate Bill 55) to increase the speed limit of the Maryland section of the beltway from in a bid to reduce traffic congestion on the beltway.
The Woodrow Wilson Bridge underwent reconstruction in a major project that began in 1999; it now provides express and local lanes for both the Inner and Outer loops. The new Woodrow Wilson Bridge is higher and wider than the original 1961 span, which was demolished in 2006. The Outer Loop span opened in June 2006, and the Inner Loop span opened in May 2008.
Also, in association with the Wilson Bridge project, the Telegraph Road and US 1 interchanges (exits 176 and 177) in Alexandria, Virginia, were rebuilt. The I-295 and MD 210 interchanges (exits 2 and 3) in Maryland were rebuilt as well. These improvements lasted through 2013.
The Branch Avenue (MD 5) Interchange was also improved.
Drivers of vehicles with fewer than three occupants are required to pay a toll to use the lanes. Tolls change dynamically, with higher tolls charged during periods of heaviest congestion. Drivers using the HOT lanes are required to carry an E-ZPass transponder to allow electronic toll collection, eliminating the need for tollbooths. Tolls are waived for buses, carpools of at least three people, motorcycles, and emergency vehicles with an E-ZPass Flex transponder set to the "HOV ON" configuration. If more than a specified number of carpools or busses use the lanes, Virginia must pay the tolls for the excess vehicles.
At the north and south terminal of the HOT lanes, motorists are able to transition directly between the HOT lanes and the I-495 general purpose lanes. However, elsewhere along the corridor, access to and from the HOT lanes is only permitted from cross roads. Some cross roads provide access to both HOT lanes and general purpose lanes; others have access only to one system or the other. Many HOT lane access points serve traffic in only one direction of I-495, which is intended to complement typical commuting patterns. HOT lane interchanges are as follows:
| Near American Legion Memorial Bridge | South (future northern terminus; to be open by 2026) |
| George Washington Memorial Parkway | South (to be open by 2026) |
| Near Old Dominion Drive | South (current northern terminus) |
| Dulles Toll Road (eastbound) | South |
| Dulles Toll Road (westbound) | North (to be open by 2026) |
| Jones Branch Drive | North and south |
| Westpark Drive | North and south |
| Leesburg Pike | South |
| Interstate 66 (eastbound) | North and south |
| Interstate 66 (westbound) | South |
| Lee Highway | South |
| Gallows Road | North |
| Braddock Road | North |
| Springfield Interchange | North (southern terminus) |
In 2004, Transurban joined the Fluor Corporation team to serve as concessionaire and long-term operator of the HOT lanes. After a competitive procurement, the team was selected to deliver and operate the new HOT lanes. After a series of public meetings and environmental studies, the project was approved and funded in 2007. Construction began in mid-2008. The express lanes were opened for public access on November 17, 2012.
In March 2022, VDOT and Transurban commenced on a two and a half mile northern extension of the I-495 HOT lanes from VA 267 to just south of the American Legion Memorial Bridge (4-4 to 4-2-2-4 configuration). A new flyover is to be constructed to connect eastbound VA 267 with the northbound HOT Lanes, and an exit and entry ramp are to be constructed to enable access from the HOT lanes to the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The collector distributor lane on southbound I 495 from the parkway to VA 193 (Georgetown Pike) will reconstructed, and the underpasses at VA 267 and Scott Run, and the overpasses at Lewinsville Road, Old Dominion Drive, VA 193, and the parkway will be rebuilt as well. VA 193 will be widened within the vicinity of its interchange with the Beltway. The express lanes are expected to be opened to the public in late 2025, and the project itself is expected to be completed on 2026.
In August 2022, the FHWA approved the proposed project. In October 2022, environmental and historic preservation groups filed suit against the state, citing deficiencies in the environmental review process and the projected impacts on Plummers Island. In November 2022, the Maryland Department of Transportation announced that it would not award a contract for construction of the proposed toll lane project until after Governor Hogan has left office in January 2023. Decisions on the project will be made by the administration of newly elected governor Wes Moore and the Board of Public Works.
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