Known as Batts Neck Road, the state highway runs 1.02 miles (1.64 km) as a north–south highway between junctions with MD 8 in Normans on Kent Island.

The state highway was assigned after MD 8 was relocated by the early 1970s.

The state highway heads north as a narrow two-lane undivided road past residences in a forested area and intersects Batts Neck Road, an east–west county highway that provides access to the namesake peninsula.

MD 802 continues north to Matapeake Farm Lane, where the highway widens and turns west to its northern junction with MD 8 between Normans and Matapeake.

[3][4] This highway became a western extension of MD 17, which originally ran from Claiborne to Easton, in 1939.