Map of six-laned interstates in the US?

[westerninterloper]

I'm wondering if anyone has seen or made a map of interstates and other freeways in the US that have six lanes?

[Techknow]

I think you got to be more specific. Like does the freeway have to max out at 6 lanes, or can it only be 6-lanes and never drop lanes until it begins/ends? General purpose lanes only or do express/HOV lanes count?

Most Interstate freeways in the Bay Area have 8 or 10 lanes (nevermind their traffic levels.) and can max out at 12 at freeway interchanges, freeways with 6 lanes include I-380, CA-85, CA-237, and the recently built US-101 portion through what was known as the Marin-Sonoma Narrows from Novato to Petaluma.

EDIT: Just drove on I-380 West and it has 8 lanes. And all the other 3 freeways I mentioned have HOV lanes, so yeah if we only count general purpose lanes, there's very few whole freeways that actually met this criteria in the SF Bay Area. Although I just remembered I-280 from US 101 in SF to its terminus is 6 lanes.

[wriddle082]

I think you got to be more specific. Like does the freeway have to max out at 6 lanes, or can it only be 6-lanes and never drop lanes until it begins/ends? General purpose lanes only or do express/HOV lanes count?

Most Interstate freeways in the Bay Area have 8 or 10 lanes (nevermind their traffic levels.) and can max out at 12 at freeway interchanges, freeways with 6 lanes include I-380, CA-85, CA-237, and the recently built US-101 portion through what was known as the Marin-Sonoma Narrows from Novato to Petaluma.

Probably anything with greater than four continuous general purpose lanes.

And to that end, I would NOT count anything with four general purpose lanes and two HOV/HOT lanes, unless movements between all of the lanes in one direction are continuously unrestricted.

[JREwing78]

In most rural areas, a designation of "at least" 6 lanes would be useful to indicate which routes are higher traffic volume. I would not include C/D lanes in that figure.

I would also like some indication of a 4-lane highway that's controlled access (no stoplights, interchanges at major junctions, limited side road access, few to no driveways, higher speed limit) v.s. an uncontrolled access 4-lane (stoplights, driveways, lower speed limits), much like Wisconsin does with its maps. Many of the 4-lane highways out east are barely any improvement over a rural 2-lane, where others are comparable to freeways in travel time and general safety.

[tdindy88]

I'm wondering if anyone has seen or made a map of interstates and other freeways in the US that have six lanes?

Not sure what state you're from, but if your highway shield avatar means anything I have made such a map for Indiana.


Heavy blue is highways with six lanes or more, light blue areas are currently being expanded to six lanes. And the map just covers freeways. And no worry about HOV lanes, we ain't got any.

[jeffandnicole]

Don't know if I'll have time to map it out, but I believe NJ easily has more 6+ lanes of freeway than it does total mileage of interstate highway. The GSP alone has about 145 +/- miles of non-interstate 6+ lanes of freeway, AC Expressway 35 +/- miles and NJ Tpk 15 miles or so.

[froggie]

(click on the map for larger view options)

Whipped this up quick from an existing FHWA dataset.  It shows ca. 2020 6+ through lanes on the Interstate system, based on data submitted to FHWA from the respective states.

[epzik8]

(click on the map for larger view options)

Whipped this up quick from an existing FHWA dataset.  It shows ca. 2020 6+ through lanes on the Interstate system, based on data submitted to FHWA from the respective states.

I'll never understand the gap on I-70 just west of Baltimore.

[brad2971]

(click on the map for larger view options)

Whipped this up quick from an existing FHWA dataset.  It shows ca. 2020 6+ through lanes on the Interstate system, based on data submitted to FHWA from the respective states.

Strangely, it does not reflect the 11 miles of I-29 in the Sioux Falls area (from Exits 73-84A-B) that has been six lanes since the end of 2017.

[3467]

Thanks Froggie. I can add Illinois and Iowa to the Indiana update.
Iowa. 6 lane from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City. The 6 lane at Iowa City is being extended a little West and about 10 miles East.
The New 74 Bridge is done and most of 74 is now 6 plus or will be.
Illinois The 90 Tollway is to Wisconsin and it's fully lighted.
80 is being widened in Joliet area
57 south of 64
And more of 55 around Springfield
Finally more of  80 and 39 north of 88 are looking for funding.

[wriddle082]

(click on the map for larger view options)

Whipped this up quick from an existing FHWA dataset.  It shows ca. 2020 6+ through lanes on the Interstate system, based on data submitted to FHWA from the respective states.

You're the man!

I do have a few updates:

All of rural 95 in FL is six lanes (I see a gap near Melbourne, it's been filled).
The only section of 75 in FL that is currently not six lanes is Alligator Alley (I see a gap N of Tampa, it's been filled).
The gap in 85 in NC just NE of Charlotte is now filled.
The two gaps on 75 in KY just above the southernmost six lane section are now filled.  So it's complete from US 25E in Corbin the rest of the way north to OH.

[Tom958]

All of I-35 and 35E between Waco and Dallas is 6+, too.

[vdeane]

I see that it's missing the widened sections of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  It also shows a chunk of I-88 erroneously (it looks like those are the sections with a WB climbing lane, but there's no EB climbing lane there, so it's only five lanes).  Also the border stations on I-81 and I-87, which while technically accurate, isn't in the spirit of what we're looking for.

[westerninterloper]

(click on the map for larger view options)

Whipped this up quick from an existing FHWA dataset.  It shows ca. 2020 6+ through lanes on the Interstate system, based on data submitted to FHWA from the respective states.

This is what I was looking for -- thank you so much for whipping it up!

[Big John]

I believe I-39/90 from Madison to the Illinois state line  is now included

[dantheman]

(click on the map for larger view options)

Whipped this up quick from an existing FHWA dataset.  It shows ca. 2020 6+ through lanes on the Interstate system, based on data submitted to FHWA from the respective states.

Major respect for the data/software skills involved in putting this together. Curious - what is the dark blue-looking line south of Albany, NY supposed to be? I'm not sure if that's intended to be I-87 (which is only four lanes, unless something has changed in the last couple of years) or the Hudson River.

[michravera]

Thanks Froggie. I can add Illinois and Iowa to the Indiana update.
Iowa. 6 lane from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City. The 6 lane at Iowa City is being extended a little West and about 10 miles East.
The New 74 Bridge is done and most of 74 is now 6 plus or will be.
Illinois The 90 Tollway is to Wisconsin and it's fully lighted.
80 is being widened in Joliet area
57 south of 64
And more of 55 around Springfield
Finally more of  80 and 39 north of 88 are looking for funding.

Of course, the interstate map misses the six-plus lane portions of US-101, CASR-99, CASR-58, CASR-41, US-50, CASR-60 (as well as, perhaps, many others).

[sprjus4]

Thanks Froggie. I can add Illinois and Iowa to the Indiana update.
Iowa. 6 lane from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City. The 6 lane at Iowa City is being extended a little West and about 10 miles East.
The New 74 Bridge is done and most of 74 is now 6 plus or will be.
Illinois The 90 Tollway is to Wisconsin and it's fully lighted.
80 is being widened in Joliet area
57 south of 64
And more of 55 around Springfield
Finally more of  80 and 39 north of 88 are looking for funding.

Of course, the interstate map misses the six-plus lane portions of US-101, CASR-99, CASR-58, CASR-41, US-50, CASR-60 (as well as, perhaps, many others).

Agreed for freeways in general, which I do also agree is a more important metric given several freeways contribute to regional and long-distance travel, although the map is specified to be interstate highways only.

[3467]

In Illinois we put the Interstate label on most of our freeways or at least tried. The only 6 lanes I can think of are Elgin Ohare and Route 53. And if course LSD
There aren't many arterial Parts of IL 50 64 and 83 . There are a lot of 6 plus one says especially downtown Chicago.And Springfield Bloomington.

[michravera]

Thanks Froggie. I can add Illinois and Iowa to the Indiana update.
Iowa. 6 lane from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City. The 6 lane at Iowa City is being extended a little West and about 10 miles East.
The New 74 Bridge is done and most of 74 is now 6 plus or will be.
Illinois The 90 Tollway is to Wisconsin and it's fully lighted.
80 is being widened in Joliet area
57 south of 64
And more of 55 around Springfield
Finally more of  80 and 39 north of 88 are looking for funding.

Of course, the interstate map misses the six-plus lane portions of US-101, CASR-99, CASR-58, CASR-41, US-50, CASR-60 (as well as, perhaps, many others).

Agreed for freeways in general, which I do also agree is a more important metric given several freeways contribute to regional and long-distance travel, although the map is specified to be interstate highways only.

Yeah, Some irony was, for instance, CASR-99, until "basically all" of the freeway gaps were closed in the late 1990s, had six-lane sections in areas where it wasn't freeway (through Turlock, for instance) that were bypassed by 4-lane freeways.
 

[ozarkman417]

Not sure how the section with climbing lanes on I-44 between Waynesville and Rolla made its way onto the map. The total number of lanes on this section does not exceed five (three on the uphill side, two on the downhill side).

[westerninterloper]

Thanks again for the map - I'd been looking for one for years, but finally got smart and asked here.

I live in Toledo, which is well served by 6-lane highways to the north, east, and south. West of Toledo the population is among the lowest density in Ohio, and the Turnpike is even removing tolls from those rural counties. No six lanes to Chicago.

I drove last week from Toledo to Cape Cod and back, and the two best stretches of drive were on I-495 around the southwest edge of Boston to the Massachusetts Turnpike; I read in another thread this section was completed in the 1980s, so it had a very wide median, with three wide lanes in each direction. That made even a workday morning drive around Boston easy.

The other stretch is the Ohio Turnpike from the PA border to Toledo. Even though this stretch was constructed in the 1950s, it has the very long curves I associate with highways designed in the 1970s and after, like I-495 in MA, or I-275 in MI.

We traveled east on I-80 to NYC, then up the historic Merritt Parkway, then cut to I-95 to Providence, then I-195 to Cape Cod, also a nice broad road.

On the return, we took the Turnpike, Thruway, Turnpike route through Albany, Buffalo and Cleveland back to Toledo. I wrongly anticipated most of the Thruway would be six lanes, like the OH Turnpike. I'd driven from Cleveland to Syracuse once, but had thought it would have been expanded beyond four lanes by now, especially as a toll road.

The map helps me see there  isn't an E-W interstate across the (upper) Appalachians that has six lanes. The Thruway was very nice; I also tend to take I-68 when I can to DC from Ohio, again because the later design.

So I'm probably spoiled living in Toledo, where the landscape offers few barriers to building out roads, and public transportation isn't even a joke it's so bad.

[JREwing78]

Illinois The 90 Tollway is to Wisconsin and it's fully lighted.

I-90 is at least 6 lanes from the N I-39 interchange near Portage all the way into Chicago (except for right at the S I-39 interchange in Rockford)

[Big John]

Illinois The 90 Tollway is to Wisconsin and it's fully lighted.

I-90 is at least 6 lanes from the N I-39 interchange near Portage all the way into Chicago (except for right at the S I-39 interchange in Rockford)

The map isn't showing that section.

[mgk920]

Illinois The 90 Tollway is to Wisconsin and it's fully lighted.

I-90 is at least 6 lanes from the N I-39 interchange near Portage all the way into Chicago (except for right at the S I-39 interchange in Rockford)

The map isn't showing that section.

The data set might not yet show the I-39/90 upgrades in Wisconsin.  The last I checked, the I-90 tollway in Illinois is only lighted on the part east of I-39 near Rockford, but it is also all six lanes now.  IDOT is in the early stages of a six laning project on I-57 in the mid-to-far downstate area, as well.

Mike