The College Park Interchange is the informal name for the northern interchange between I-95 and I-495 in College Park, Maryland. The interchange was partially opened, along with the connecting segment of I-95, in 1971, completing I-95 between the Baltimore and Capital beltways. As originally planned, it was designed with the idea that mainline I-95 through traffic would continue straight through the interchange and south into Washington, D.C., as the Northeast Freeway, joining the North Central Freeway within DC and running south toward the central business district. When the DC government canceled its segment of I-95 in 1977, I-95 was rerouted onto the eastern half of the Capital Beltway, which lost its designation as I-495 (this was restored in 1989, forming a concurrency of I-95 and I-495 on the eastern half). As a result of this rerouting, the interchange was placed under considerable pressure to cater for a traffic flow that it was not designed to handle.
