Map of six-laned interstates in the US?

[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)

I-90 is now all six or more lanes from Chicago's south side all the way to the I-39 split ('Cascade Interchange') near Portage, WI.

Mike

[ilpt4u]

I don't know why there is a red blob on I-57 south of the I-24 split/looks to be near about Ullin. I-57 is presently only 4 lane from just south of the Marion Main St/Old IL 13 exit all the way to the Cairo bridge

57 is now continuously 6-laned from the Marion Main exit up to just north of the West Frankfort/IL 149 exit now, and construction is in progress up to the Benton/IL 14 exit

South of Marion, the old Westminster Dr overpass has been demolished and the new, wider one is being built, to accommodate the 6-laning down the 24 split that is due

Pretty sure 57 widening to 6 lane is now fully funded between the 64 and 24 splits, roughly 50 miles when said and done

[JayhawkCO]

It also doesn't have Denver to Colorado Springs (currently) ahs Denver to Fort Collins (soon). If you include express lanes, there's more to color in between the Eisenhower Tunnel and Denver too.

[jakeroot]

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.

That is the Hudson River, definitely. It's just part of his base map.

[Road Hog]

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).

Wondered about that too. Assumed some field scout saw it was 3-lane and assumed it was the same both sides. This section isn't that long removed from old 66 either.

[Flint1979]

I can't tell but that map doesn't look like it takes into account the four lane stretch of I-75 in Michigan between MM 111 and 115.

[jakeroot]

As someone who deals with GIS data as part of their daily work-flow, I feel obliged to point out that government data is often not perfect. Even if the data were released in 2020, the chance of things having been missed, or data not having been correctly recorded or inputted, is very high.

That said, your inputs here will allow Adam to go and update his dataset, so don't let me stop anyone from pointing out inaccuracies .

[ran4sh]

I can't tell exactly where the map depicts the end of I-85's six-lane section in Georgia, but in recent years it has been widened to such as far as the SR 53 exit (mile 129), with ongoing construction to the US 129/SR 11 exit (mile 137).

[XamotCGC]

(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 notice a small gap on I 65 in Kentucky.

[Occidental Tourist]

I-15 in California is also six lanes (1) starting just outside Baker, California and traveling to a point 17 miles northeast of there, and (2) for a distance of approx. 8 miles starting at Mountain Pass and traveling to the California Port of Entry 7 miles south of the Nevada State line.

The entirety of I-215 in California is six lanes.

[sprjus4]

^ Side question, what's up with the random four lane "gaps"  on I-15 between Baker and the California / Nevada line, or to phrase that question differently: what's up with the long 6 lane sections?

Why do those few long sections exist, but then there's still 4 lane gaps in between? Shouldn't the entire segment between Baker and Nevada be at 6 lanes fully throughout? It could reasonably be done with a few smaller projects widening 10-15 miles at a time. The peak traffic volumes along I-15 north of CA-58 / I-40 certainly justify 6 lanes going all the way to Las Vegas.

[RoadWarrior56]

That map is probably several years out of date.  The gap in Kentucky on I-65 has been filled for several years.  There are also now fewer gaps on I-75 in KY than shown on that map.

[JayhawkCO]

If we actually want to get a map, everyone can take a state or three and we can plot it on travelmapping. Post the highway and beginning and ending mile markers for the six lane stretch.

[froggie]

A few things:

• Jake touched upon this upthread (thank you), but this was intended to be a "quick and dirty" using existing GIS datasets to get a map out there in a timely manner.  I'm limited by both the age of the dataset and its input.
• This particular dataset is based on data submitted to FHWA by the respective states.  As most of us have probably seen, each state interprets FHWA requirements a little differently than others.  What one state (or AARoads user) may interpret as a "through lane", another may not.
• I've found more recent (and likely more comprehensive) data than what I originally used, but it's broken up on a state-by-state level on a REST server.  Trying to compile this would A) probably bog down my laptop, B) kill my bandwidth, and C) take orders of magnitude longer in time.
• Jayhawk has an interesting idea that I wouldn't mind assisting with, but we'd have to be careful about the coordination.  There are also scenarios where lanes begin/end in between interchanges instead of at an interchange, and this wouldn't be able to be handled within TM's existing architecture and route lists.

[JayhawkCO]

For the latter point, my thought was to go with the closest exit. Not exact, but close enough for government work. I can't imagine there's a six lane stretch that starts more than 2-3 miles from an exit.

[JayhawkCO]

I think these should be how we should proceed. froggie is going to make a user called '6lane' on travel mapping. Anyone that wants to participate should post their data here. Data (to make it easy) should be formatted like it is on travelmapping.com, so:

State_Abbreviation I-XX Beginning_Exit Ending_Exit, i.e. CO I-25 100 200 or something like that.

Some formalities:
The six-lane length needs to go at least two exits, i.e. if a highway gains a lane from an onramp and then that lane becomes exit only for the next exit, that doesn't count.
I'm going to say yes to including express lanes (looking at you I-70 in Colorado), but no to C/D lanes as those, in my opinion, aren't part of that highway yet.

Any other edge cases?

[hotdogPi]

Will this skew the global stats?

[JayhawkCO]

Will this skew the global stats?

Not too worried about the butterfly effect. Should be pretty marginal. Maaaaaybe 10,000 miles worth? I have 70,000 logged myself.

[JayhawkCO]

I'll at least get us rolling.

CO I-25 138 243
CO I-70 232 243
CO I-70 244 286
CO I-76 8 12
CO I-225 1 12

There's also a stretch from the Silverthorne/CO9 North exit to the tunnels, but that doesn't follow my rule about needing to go to two exits.

[Great Lakes Roads]

Here's Indiana:

IN I-65 0 16
IN I-65 50 68
IN I-65 90 110
IN I-65 110 112
IN I-65 112 123
IN I-65 129 146
IN I-65 168 178
IN I-65 240 259
IN I-69 114 125
IN I-69 156 163
IN I-69 200 226
IN I-69 302 316
IN I-70 66 80
IN I-70 83 104
IN I-90 10 21
IN I-94 0 45
IN I-465 0 25
IN I-465 25 53

[froggie]

Some formalities:
The six-lane length needs to go at least two exits, i.e. if a highway gains a lane from an onramp and then that lane becomes exit only for the next exit, that doesn't count.
I'm going to say yes to including express lanes (looking at you I-70 in Colorado), but no to C/D lanes as those, in my opinion, aren't part of that highway yet.

I would include single-exit segments if they are at least 2 miles in length...since the minimum standard for passing lanes is 1 mile, this seems reasonable to me.  Agree that normal auxiliary lanes between interchanges should not count.

[JayhawkCO]

Some formalities:
The six-lane length needs to go at least two exits, i.e. if a highway gains a lane from an onramp and then that lane becomes exit only for the next exit, that doesn't count.
I'm going to say yes to including express lanes (looking at you I-70 in Colorado), but no to C/D lanes as those, in my opinion, aren't part of that highway yet.

I would include single-exit segments if they are at least 2 miles in length...since the minimum standard for passing lanes is 1 mile, this seems reasonable to me.  Agree that normal auxiliary lanes between interchanges should not count.

So, for instance, would you count the segment on CO I-70 from the tunnels down to Silverthorne?

[froggie]

If we had a usable point at the west end of the tunnels, yes I would, as that segment is several miles in length.

(EDIT):  I've submitted an initial file on GitHub to TravelMapping.  I included the Colorado and Indiana routes listed upthread by Jayhawk and GLR respectively and have thus far completed MN, VT (easy, we have none), NH, and ME, and have started on VA (I-64 only so far).

[JayhawkCO]

If we had a usable point at the west end of the tunnels, yes I would, as that segment is several miles in length.

We could do a point request on TM for it.

[mgk920]

^ Side question, what's up with the random four lane "gaps"  on I-15 between Baker and the California / Nevada line, or to phrase that question differently: what's up with the long 6 lane sections?

Why do those few long sections exist, but then there's still 4 lane gaps in between? Shouldn't the entire segment between Baker and Nevada be at 6 lanes fully throughout? It could reasonably be done with a few smaller projects widening 10-15 miles at a time. The peak traffic volumes along I-15 north of CA-58 / I-40 certainly justify 6 lanes going all the way to Las Vegas.

The six lane sections of I-15 in the Mojave Desert are mostly 4 'real' lanes with a climbing/descending lane in each direction on heavy grades for larger vehicles (like big-rig trucks).  The famous 'Avoid overheating, turn off air conditioner' signs are on these sections.  During certain times of the year, a breakdown in this area can be a real life-threatening emergency due to the weather.

Mike