Interstate 97 (I-97): Annapolis to Baltimore Route, Exits and Safety Data

How long is I-97?

FHWA's Route Log, current to January 2026, books 17.62 miles to I-97, every one of them in Maryland. Wikipedia and Interstate Guide print the same number, and I-97 has no overlap note in the Route Log, so nothing needs reconciling.

That total puts I-97 at the bottom of our index. I-42 in North Carolina is next at 21.55 miles, then I-14 in Texas at 24.91. Wikipedia calls I-97 the shortest completed two-digit mainline Interstate and the third shortest overall, behind the unfinished I-87 in North Carolina and I-42 in Arkansas. The Route Log counts that Raleigh piece at 13.09 miles but folds it into I-87's 346.74-mile total with the New York road.

Where I-97 starts and ends

The southern end is a semi-directional T interchange with US 50 and US 301 (John Hanson Highway) in Parole, near Annapolis. Wikipedia notes that unsigned I-595 runs along US 50 there, and the ramps are exit 21 on US 50 and US 301. Up north, I-97 meets the Baltimore Beltway at exit 17 in Ferndale and ends just past it in Brooklyn Park, where the lanes keep going as a spur of I-895 toward the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel.

On the way north the road serves Crownsville, Millersville, Severna Park and Glen Burnie. It crosses the Severn River inside the Severn Run Natural Environment Area. Drivers headed for BWI airport use the MD 176 exit going north or the MD 162 ramps going south.

Interstate junctions along I-97

I-97 crosses no other two-digit Interstate, so this page has no junction list. The only signed Interstate it meets is I-695, the Baltimore Beltway, a three-digit branch of I-95, at exit 17. Going north, the first numbered exit is MD 178 at exit 5 in Crownsville, a southbound exit and northbound entrance only. Exit 7 in Millersville is where MD 32 ends and MD 3 turns south, and exit 14 is MD 100. Two more ramps work one way: MD 176 (Dorsey Road, exit 15) has no southbound exit, and MD 162 (Aviation Boulevard) is a southbound exit and entrance without a number. MD 648 at exit 16 in Ferndale is the last stop before the Beltway.

Fatal crashes on I-97

FARS counts 13 fatal crashes on the I-97 main line from 2020 to 2024, and 14 people died in them, close to 3 a year. One of those crashes killed two people. Our death rate needs a route of at least 100 miles, and I-97 is far too short to rank, so it stays out of the comparison of 56 routes and its rate boxes read n/a.

All 14 deaths happened in Anne Arundel County, the only county the road enters. With so few deaths the yearly totals jump around: 1 in 2020, 3 in 2021, 6 in 2022, none in 2023 and 4 in 2024. The 2024 count comes from NHTSA's preliminary file.

Counties with the most I-97 crash deaths

Bridges on I-97

The 2025 National Bridge Inventory lists 18 bridges carrying I-97's main line. None of them rates Poor. Four are Good and the other 14 are Fair, and their median year built is 1987, the year Wikipedia gives for the opening of the first stretch between US 50 and Millersville Road.

Tolls on I-97

I-97 has no toll facilities in FHWA's inventory dated January 1, 2023. Nothing on the Wikipedia or Interstate Guide pages for I-97 points to tolled or express lanes opening after that date, and the CBS Baltimore report on the planned widening describes a third travel lane each way and says nothing about tolls. A trip from US 50 to the Beltway costs nothing in tolls.

I-97 history: from Crain Highway to a six-lane Interstate

The corridor predates the Interstate system by decades. Wikipedia says work on the road that became the Robert Crain Highway was underway by 1919, and it became MD 3 in 1927 and US 301 in 1939. Between 1954 and 1957 the state built the Glen Burnie Bypass as a four-lane freeway, and that bypass is now the northern part of I-97.

The Interstate number traces to a 1968 change in federal law. The Howard-Cramer amendment let states make small additions to the system if they added no cost, and Maryland used it to get Interstate mileage for the Baltimore to Annapolis corridor, much of it moved from canceled Interstates in Baltimore and the Washington area. A 1973 state corridor study picked a western route along MD 3 and MD 178 over extending the Arundel Expressway along MD 2. AASHTO approved I-97 north of US 50 on November 15, 1975, according to Interstate Guide, and Wikipedia says it rescinded that plan in June 1981 and approved it again in June 1982.

Construction began in March 1985. The first section, from US 50 and US 301 to Millersville Road, opened in December 1987, and the freeway through Millersville followed in April 1989. New northbound lanes opened in February 1991, and that October MD 3 was cut back to end at Millersville. Rebuilding the older Glen Burnie stretch took most of the 1990s. The piece from MD 648 to the Beltway ramps was widened to six lanes between 1993 and 1995, and the middle section from MD 174 to MD 176 was done in July 1997. Wikipedia lists the 2002 to 2005 rebuild of the MD 174 interchange as the last major project.

In July 2026 extreme heat broke the concrete across all three northbound lanes, WTOP reported, and a smaller section failed in the southbound lanes nearby. A State Highway Administration spokesperson warned of an extended closure because concrete patches need time to cure.

In October 2025, MDOT, the State Highway Administration and Anne Arundel County announced a $113.8 million project to add a third lane in each direction on about seven miles between MD 32 in Millersville and US 50 in Annapolis, with the county putting in more than $10 million. CBS Baltimore reported that more than 100,000 vehicles use the stretch daily, that MDOT expects 135,000 by 2045 and that design-build construction should start in 2028. Wikipedia gives an earlier start of around 2027.

I-97 traffic and road conditions

Maryland posts incidents and lane closures for I-97 on CHART, its statewide traffic site, linked below. Look there before driving between Annapolis and the Beltway, and again once the widening work near Millersville gets going.

I-97 questions