Interstate 35

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Interstate 35
Primary route of the Interstate Highway System
Length: 1568 mi (2523 km)
Formed: 1956 (completed 1982)[1]
South end: US 83 BS 35 in Laredo, TX
Major
junctions:		 I-10 in San Antonio, TX
I-20 in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
I-30 in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
I-40 in Oklahoma City, OK
I-70 in Kansas City, MO
I-80 near Des Moines, IA
I-90 near Albert Lea, MN
I-94 in Saint Paul, Minnesota
North end: MN 61 in Duluth, MN

Interstate 35 (abbreviated I-35 or IH-35) is an interstate highway running north-south in the central United States. It stretches from Laredo, Texas on the U.S.-Mexico border to Duluth, Minnesota at Minnesota State Highway 61 (London Road) and 26th Avenue East. Many interstates used to have splits or spurs indicated with suffixed letters (N/S/E/W), but I-35 is the only one that still has such divisions. In two stretches, the highway splits into Interstate 35E (Dallas and St. Paul) and Interstate 35W (Fort Worth and Minneapolis).

Interstate 35 never directly crosses either international border (stopping short in each direction), but the surface streets into which each terminus feeds complete the crossing. I-35's southern terminus is a traffic signal in Laredo, Texas, just short of the United States-Mexico border. Travelers going south can take one of two toll bridges across the Rio Grande and the Mexican border--straight ahead or via Business Spur Interstate 35 through downtown Laredo.

Contents

[edit] Length

Miles km state
505 813 Texas
235 378 Oklahoma
234 377 Kansas
114 183 Missouri
218 351 Iowa
259 416 Minnesota
1565 2518 Total
Interstate 35 ends at this traffic signal in Laredo, Texas
Enlarge
Interstate 35 ends at this traffic signal in Laredo, Texas
Interstate 35's northern terminus is at this intersection with London Road in Duluth, Minnesota
Enlarge
Interstate 35's northern terminus is at this intersection with London Road in Duluth, Minnesota

[edit] Major cities

Bolded cities are officially-designated control cities for signs, per AASHTO.

[edit] Intersections with other Interstates

Interstate 35 intersects with the following interstates, from south to north:

[edit] Freeway designations

  • In San Antonio, I-35 is called the Pan Am Expressway.
  • In Austin, it is called the Interregional Highway.[2]
  • In Waco, it is called the Jack Kultgen Freeway.
  • In Dallas, I-35E is called the R.L. Thornton Freeway from the south end of the Metroplex to downtown Dallas, where I-30 picks up the name heading east. I-35E continues north as the Stemmons Freeway.
  • Part of the Kansas Turnpike runs on I-35.
  • In Urbandale, Iowa, part of I-35 is called Rider Corner.

[edit] Spur routes

While numbered as loop routes for I-94, routes I-494 and I-694 in Minneapolis/St. Paul serve as loops for I-35 as well.

 Auxiliary routes of Interstate 35
I-35E Minnesota - Texas
I-35W Minnesota - Texas
I-135 Kansas
I-235 Kansas - Oklahoma - Iowa
I-335 Kansas
I-435 Missouri-Kansas
I-535 Minnesota-Wisconsin
I-635 Kansas-Missouri - Texas
past/
future		 I-335: Minnesota

[edit] History

Some sections of I-35 in Oklahoma City were already built in 1953, before the Interstate system was created.[3] Through Norman, Oklahoma, the interstate opened in June 1959. In Moore, it opened in two parts: the northern half, connecting Moore to Oklahoma City, opened in January 1960. The southern half, linking it to Norman, was opened to traffic in June 1967.[4]

I-35 through Oklahoma largely parallels U.S. Route 77. This is in large part due to efforts of the towns of Wynnewood, Paoli, and Wayne, which fought to keep I-35 as close as possible to U.S. 77. This was successful due to a threat from Governor Henry Bellmon to build a toll road rather than I-35, and legislation preventing state funds for the interstate from being spent if it were more than 1 mile from the U.S. route.[5]

I-35 was completed in Oklahoma in 1971, when parts of the interstate running through Carter Co. and Murray Co. were opened to traffic.[3]

The final segment of I-35 (as originally planned) to open was in north central Iowa, between Mason City and US 20 near Iowa Falls. This segment was delayed due to some controversy. Originally, I-35 was to follow the alignment of US 69 from Des Moines all the way to the Minnesota border. However, Mason City's business community lobbied for the route to be moved closer to their city. On September 1, 1965, the alignment was changed to instead parallel US 65 through northern Iowa, which brought the highway much closer to Mason City. This, however, created a long diagonal section through Wright and Franklin counties. Local farmers objected to their farms being bisected into triangular pieces, and resulting litigation delayed I-35 for several years. A November 1972 ruling rejected a lawsuit filed by the farmers, and the final segment of I-35 was allowed to proceed, eventually opening in 1975.

On September 1, 2005, MoDOT reopened the Paseo Bridge over the Missouri River in Kansas City, Missouri after completing a six-month rehabilitation project ahead of schedule. However, the rehab project is only a short-term fix; MoDOT is in the planning process of devising a six- to eight-lane crossing for the interstate, either by building a duplicate bridge to house one direction of traffic or a new bridge or bridges. The $245 million project includes $50 million in funding procured by Senator Kit Bond in the 2005 Transportation Bill. Project plans include significant updates to sections of the freeway and nearby interchanges beyond the bridge itself.

[edit] Notes

Interstate 35 in Goldsby, Oklahoma at milemarker 102.
Enlarge
Interstate 35 in Goldsby, Oklahoma at milemarker 102.
  • I-35 splits up into I-35W and I-35E in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area. The official mile markers follow I-35E through Dallas -- I-35W, which is 85 miles in length, carries its own mileage from Hillsboro to Denton, as though it were an x35 loop.
  • The proposed Trans-Texas Corridor toll-road project includes one proposal (TTC-35) to primarily parallel I-35 from the Mexico border up to the Oklahoma border.[6] There are major disagreements as to what impact this parallel route would have on I-35 in terms of traffic, maintenance, and commerce.
  • I-135, which branches off in Wichita, Kansas, is 95 miles (153 km) long. It carried the designation I-35W until the 1980s, despite never rejoining the main line of I-35. It terminates in Salina, Kansas at the intersection with Interstate 70 (though the controlled-access freeway continues north as US 81).
  • At Medford, Minnesota, the on/off ramps lead to roundabouts rather than standard cross intersections.[7] This is the first site in the state linked to a major highway to use roundabouts.
  • Interstate 335 was planned as an additional bypass of the Twin Cities; that road was never built. It would have connected I-35W north of downtown Minneapolis westward to I-94 to ease congestion on the Lowry Hill Tunnel on I-94 (but studies later showed that the new freeway would actually have put more traffic in the tunnel). The eastern terminus of I-335 was to be where the Johnson St exit is now on I-35W north of downtown Minneapolis, and the interchange design there is unusual for a surface street, indicating that I-335 did get off the ground slightly before being killed in the 1970s.
  • I-35 splits again into I-35W and I-35E in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Minnesota area. At one sharp turn in I-35W near the junction with I-94, it is advised to slow to 35 mph (55 km/h) (although many drivers are able to maintain the speed limit of 55 mph (90 km/h)). Additionally, it is not possible to go from westbound I-94 to northbound I-35W or from southbound I-35W to eastbound I-94 without resorting to surface streets.
  • On I-35E in Minnesota between Minnesota State Highway 5 and Interstate 94, in both directions, trucks weighing more than 9,000 lbs (4,082 kg) are banned from the freeway, and the speed limit drops to 45 mph (70 km/h) but it is rarely obeyed. This section was not completed until the late 1980s (although the route was cleared and graded earlier) due to opposition from the historic Crocus Hill neighborhood which sits only a few hundred feet from the alignment. The four-lane alignment, "parkway" design was a compromise. The truck bypass for this secton is signed on I-494 and I-694 to the east of Saint Paul.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Gyure, Joseph. Interstate 35 dramatically changed Waco's face. Waco Tribune-Herald, reprinted in Waco History Project, accessed January 10, 2006.
  2. ^ Bear, Jacci Howard. Are Interstate Highway 35 and Interregional Highway 35 the Same Road?. About.com. URL accessed 7 December 2006.
  3. ^ a b Cockerell, Penny. "50 Years: As the intersection of Interstates 35, 40, and 44, Oklahoma is at America's crossroads." The Daily Oklahoman 29 June 2006: 2A.
  4. ^ Medley, Robert. "Higways[sic] continue to drive economy." The Daily Oklahoman 29 June 2006: 1D.
  5. ^ McNichol, Dan. The Roads that Built America: The Incredible Story of the U.S. Interstate System. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2006. ISBN 1-4027-3468-9
  6. ^ Trans-Texas Corridor Study Site, I-35 Corridor Section: http://www.keeptexasmoving.com/projects/ttc35/
  7. ^ Federal Highway Administration. Focus: Accelerating Infrastructure Innovations. URL accessed 02:47, 12 February 2006 (UTC).

[edit] External links

Browse numbered routes
< IA 32 IA IA 36 >
← 34 Kansas 36 →
< SH-34 OK SH-36 >
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edit
Main Interstate Highways (multiples of 5 in pink)		 Interstate Highway marker
4 5 8 10 12 15 16 17 19 20 22 24 25 26 27 29 30
35 37 39 40 43 44 45 49 55 57 59 64 65 66 66 (W) 68
69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 (W) 76 (E) 77 78 79 80 81 82
83 84 (W) 84 (E) 85 86 (W) 86 (E) 87 88 (W) 88 (E) 89 90
91 93 94 95 96 97 99 (238) H-1 H-2 H-3
Unsigned  A-1 A-2 A-3 A-4 PRI-1 PRI-2 PRI-3
Lists  Main - Auxiliary - Suffixed - Business - Proposed - Unsigned
Gaps - Intrastate - Interstate standards - Replaced
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