Interstate 97

Interstate 97
I-97 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by MDSHA
Length	17.62 mi[1][2] (28.36 km)
Existed	1987[3]–present
NHS	Entire route
Major junctions
South end	US 50 / US 301 in Parole
Major intersections	MD 3 / MD 32 in Millersville MD 100 in Glen Burnie
North end	I-695 / I-895A in Brooklyn Park
Location
Country	United States
State	Maryland
Counties	Anne Arundel
Highway system
Interstate Highway System Main Auxiliary Suffixed Business Future Maryland highway system Interstate US State Scenic Byways
← I-95 → MD 97

Interstate 97 (I-97) is a north-south Interstate Highway in the eastern United States. It runs entirely within Anne Arundel County, Maryland, for 17.62 miles (28.36 km) from U.S. Route 50/U.S. Route 301 (US 50/US 301) in Parole near Annapolis north to I-695 and I-895B in Brooklyn Park near Baltimore. The interstate is the primary highway between Baltimore and Annapolis. I‑97 connects Annapolis with Baltimore/Washington International Airport and links the northern Anne Arundel County communities of Crownsville, Millersville, Severna Park, Glen Burnie, and Ferndale. It is the second shortest primary Interstate Highway after I-87 in North Carolina.

I-97 was constructed along the corridor of Maryland Route 3 (MD 3) between Millersville and Ferndale and MD 178 between Parole and Millersville. From Millersville to south of Glen Burnie, the interstate closely follows the former course of MD 3, which was built in the late 1910s and early 1920s and expanded to a divided highway in the late 1950s. North of there, the highway follows the Glen Burnie Bypass, a freeway built in the mid-1950s. The segment of I-97 from Millersville to Crownsville originated as a two-lane portion of MD 32 in the early 1970s. The interstate was introduced in 1979 after the state of Maryland successfully obtained interstate mileage for a Baltimore–Annapolis freeway from the federal government. The state decided to build the highway along I-97's current corridor rather than along the MD 2 corridor, which has partial freeway access via MD 10.

Construction on I-97 began in the late 1980s with new construction from US 50/US 301 to Crownsville. The Crownsville–Millersville segment of MD 32 was expanded and incorporated into the interstate and the MD 3–MD 32 junction was upgraded. The portion of the MD 3 corridor from Millersville to south of Glen Burnie was upgraded on the spot to interstate highway standards in the early 1990s, after which MD 3 was truncated at Millersville. I-97's interchange with I-695 was rebuilt in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Glen Burnie Bypass was upgraded and expanded to six lanes in the mid-1990s. The complex process included reconstruction of several interchanges; the last interchange to be reconstructed was upgraded in the mid-2000s.