| Interstate 94 | |
|---|---|
| Route information | |
| Length: | 1,585.20 mi[1] (2,551.13 km) |
| Existed: | 1956 – present |
| Major junctions | |
| West end: | I-90 in Billings, MT |
| I-29 in Fargo, ND I-35W in Minneapolis, MN I-35E in St. Paul, MN I-39 in Madison, WI I-90 in Madison, WI I-43 in Milwaukee, WI I-55 in Chicago, IL I-80 in South Holland, IL I-65 in Gary, IN I-69 in Marshall, MI I-75 in Detroit, MI |
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| East end: | Highway 402 at Canadian border on Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, MI |
| Highway system | |
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Main route of the Interstate Highway System |
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Interstate 94 (I-94) is the northernmost east–west Interstate Highway, (but I-96 is the highest-numbered) connecting the Great Lakes and Intermountain regions of the United States. I-94's western terminus is in Billings, Montana at a junction with Interstate 90; its eastern terminus is the U.S. side of the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, Michigan, at the Sarnia, Ontario, Canada border, where together with Interstate 69 it meets Highway 402. It is currently the longest non-primary Interstate (Interstate that does not end with a 0 or 5), but may be surpassed by Interstate 69 in the future.
Contents |
| mi | km | |
|---|---|---|
| MT | 249 | 401 |
| ND | 352 | 567 |
| MN | 259 | 418 |
| WI | 348 | 560 |
| IL | 77 | 124 |
| IN | 46 | 74 |
| MI | 275 | 443 |
| Total[2] | 1604 | 2581 |
Interstate 94 is the only purely east–west interstate to form a direct connection into a foreign country (Canada). No such interstate currently ends at the U.S.-Mexico border, although I-905 in California will when upgrades are completed. At Port Huron, I-94 crosses the Blue Water Bridge into Sarnia, Ontario, and becomes Highway 402, which can be used by motorists going to Toronto. I-94's concurrency at that crossing, I-69, is posted east–west in eastern Michigan, but changes to north–south near Lansing and remains north–south in the remainder of Michigan and throughout Indiana.
Interstate 94 crosses paths with Interstate 90 several times: at its western terminus; in central Wisconsin; in Chicago, IL; and in Lake Station, IN.
I-94 begins at Billings and travels northeastward toward Glendive before exiting the state to the east.
The route enters at Beach and passes through the Badlands near Medora (near the Theodore Roosevelt National Park (South Unit)). A public rest area about seven miles (11 km) east of Medora provides a scenic view and the Painted Canyon Trail provides an opportunity to hike through some of the scenery. I-94 then travels east past Bismarck on the way to Fargo, where it leaves the state and crosses into Minnesota.
I-94 travels in a northwest-southeast trajectory past Moorhead and St. Cloud on the way to the Twin Cities, and eastward out of the state. Leaving Fargo, ND and entering Moorhead, MN, I-94 crosses the Red River. In Minneapolis it crosses the Mississippi River, and leaving Minnesota between Lakeland, MN and Hudson, WI, I-94 crosses the St. Croix River.
From September 2007 to October 2008, between northbound I-35W and MN-280 in the Twin Cities, the highway was not up to Interstate Highway standards because the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) added a temporary extra lane to help relieve traffic congestion caused by the collapse of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge.
Interstate 94 enters Wisconsin east of the Twin Cities at the town of Hudson. It passes Eau Claire before turning southeastward and joining with Interstate 90 in Tomah and Interstate 39 in Portage. I-94 branches off eastward in Madison and travels east to Milwaukee before turning south and heading to Chicago, entering Illinois at Pleasant Prairie.
In the state of Illinois, I-94 runs south from Wisconsin to Indiana via downtown Chicago. It is tolled on the Tri-State Tollway to the I-94/I-294 split; it then runs east to the Edens Expressway, where it turns south through the city of Chicago. At Interstate 80, I-94 runs east to Indiana on the Kingery Expressway.
In the state of Indiana, I-94 runs east from Illinois concurrent with I-80. It crosses Interstate 90 (Indiana Toll Road), where I-80 joins I-90 east towards Ohio. I-94 continues northeast, paralleling the Lake Michigan shoreline into Michigan. The 55 mph speed limit used to continue to east of exit 26, now it ends a mile east of I-80/I-90, where the speed limit goes up to 70 mph. on EB I-94. source: http://archive.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/08/speed-limit-to-be-raised-on-i-94-in-porter-county-ind.html
I-94 runs north along Lake Michigan to St. Joseph before heading east toward Detroit. It turns northeast to Port Huron where it meets I-69 and ends at the Blue Water Bridge, where it becomes Ontario Highway 402.
The first section of I-94 completed with Interstate funds (under the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956) was a 12-mile (19 km) section between Jamestown and Valley City, North Dakota in 1958.
North of Chicago, I-94 has been widened from six to eight lanes from Illinois Route 22 (Half Day Road) to just south of the Wisconsin state line at Illinois Route 173 and 95th Street to 159th Street.
In 2005, the I-94 bridge over the Crow River near St. Michael, Minnesota, about 35 miles (56 km) northwest of Minneapolis, is being rebuilt. In 2006, a project to widen I-94 east of downtown St. Paul between Minnesota State Highway 120 and McKnight Road from four to six lanes was completed.
The new Marquette Interchange in downtown Milwaukee was completed in August 2008 at a cost of $810 million.
The interchange at 95th Ave. N in Maple Grove, Minnesota was rebuilt with a new, wider bridge that replaced the two-lane bridge there, which was demolished in July, 2006.
In Detroit, Interstate 94 was routed over the existing Edsel Ford Freeway, and remained signed as such until the late 1980s when Michigan deemphasized proper names on Interstate guide signs. Its interchange with the Lodge Freeway, built in 1953, is significant as the first full-speed freeway-to-freeway interchange built in the United States.[3]
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Main Interstate Highways (major interstates highlighted) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 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 | H-1 | H-2 | H-3 | ||||||||||
| Unsigned | A-1 | A-2 | A-3 | A-4 | PRI-1 | PRI-2 | PRI-3 | ||||||||||||
| Lists | Primary | Main - Intrastate - Suffixed - Temporary - Future - Gaps | |||||||||||||||||
| Auxiliary | Main - Future - Unsigned | ||||||||||||||||||
| Other | Standards - Business - Bypassed - Tolled | ||||||||||||||||||
| Browse numbered routes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ← US 93 | MT | I-115 → | ||
| ← ND 91 | ND | ND 97 → | ||
| ← MN 93 | MN | MN 95 → | ||
| ← WIS 93 | WI | WIS 94 → | ||
| ← IL 93 | IL | IL 94 → | ||
| ← M-93 | MI | M-94 → | ||