The two directions of MD 564 come together as Lanham Severn Road, a two-lane undivided road heading northeast paralleling Amtrak's Northeast Corridor railroad line and MARC's Penn Line at a distance.

At Chestnut Avenue, which is unsigned MD 564A, the state highway assumes that street's name and turns south to cross the Amtrak Northeast Corridor just north of its junction with CSX's Popes Creek Subdivision railroad line.

The remainder of the highway was built as a gravel road from Seabrook to its original eastern terminus at MD 197 (now Chestnut Street) in Bowie in 1934.

[7][8] The route was expanded to a divided highway on either side of the MD 193 intersection in 1985 when Glenn Dale Boulevard was completed across the Amtrak Northeast Corridor.

[13] MD 564's modern bridge across the Amtrak Northeast Corridor, which is perpendicular to the railroad, was completed in 1994.