Interstate 35
Encyclopedia : I : IN : INT : Interstate 35
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). In both cases, the exit numbers follow I-35E, but everything else gives the two routes equal status. The unique situation occurs because, in both cases, the two branches serve twin cities and are thus equally important and in need of equal distinctions (that is, none of the cities wanted to seem less important by having a three-digit interstate running through them).
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.
Contents
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 | |
Major cities
Bolded cities are officially-designated control cities for signs, per AASHTO.- Laredo, Texas
- San Antonio, Texas
- Austin, Texas
- Waco, Texas
- Dallas, Texas (along Interstate 35E)
- Fort Worth, Texas (along Interstate 35W)
- Denton, Texas
- Norman, Oklahoma
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Wichita, Kansas
- Kansas City, Kansas
- Kansas City, Missouri
- Des Moines, Iowa
- Ames, Iowa
- Mason City, Iowa
- Albert Lea, Minnesota
- St. Paul, Minnesota (along Interstate 35E)
- Minneapolis, Minnesota (along Interstate 35W)
- Duluth, Minnesota
Intersections with other Interstates (from South to North)
- Interstate 10 in San Antonio, Texas
- Interstate 37 in San Antonio, Texas
- Interstate 35 splits into I-35E and I-35W in Hillsboro, Texas
- Interstate 20 in Dallas and in Fort Worth, Texas
- Interstate 30 in Dallas and in Fort Worth, Texas
- Interstate 45 in Dallas, Texas (via I-30 in the downtown Mixmaster)
- I-35E and I-35W rejoin in Denton, Texas
- Interstate 40 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Interstate 44 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Interstate 70 in Kansas City, Missouri
- Interstate 29 in Kansas City, Missouri
- Interstate 80 in Des Moines, Iowa
- Interstate 90 in Albert Lea, Minnesota
- Interstate 35 splits into I-35E and I-35W in Burnsville, Minnesota
- Interstate 94 in Minneapolis and in Saint Paul, Minnesota
- I-35E and I-35W rejoin in Forest Lake, Minnesota
Spur routes
- Dallas, Texas - I-635
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - I-235
- Wichita, Kansas - I-235
- Spur to Wichita, Kansas and Salina, Kansas - I-135 (see below)
- Spur to Topeka, Kansas - I-335 (part of the Kansas Turnpike)
- Kansas City, Kansas - I-435, I-635
- Kansas City, Missouri - I-435
- Riverside, Missouri - I-635
- Des Moines, Iowa - I-235
- Duluth, Minnesota to Superior, Wisconsin - I-535
- Cancelled: Minneapolis, Minnesota - I-335
| [http://encycl.opentopia.com/ edit ] Auxiliary routes of Interstate 35
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Notes
- In Austin, Texas, elevated express lanes were constructed on either side of the original freeway. Prior to this expansion, this section included an at-grade railroad crossing, which is extremely unusual for a freeway.
- 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.
- 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.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
- 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).
- In Kansas, all of I-335 and I-35 between Emporia and the Oklahoma border are toll roads (the Kansas Turnpike).
- At Medford, Minnesota, the on/off ramps lead to roundabouts rather than standard cross intersections.Federal Highway Administration. [Focus: Accelerating Infrastructure Innovations.] URL accessed 02:47, 12 February 2006 (UTC). 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.
- 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.
- I-35 is part of the Avenue of the Saints between Clear Lake, Iowa, and St. Paul. A four-lane link has been completed between Clear Lake and Interstate 380 in Waterloo, Iowa.
Paseo Bridge Improvements
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 an 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 project is backed by $50 million in funding procured by Senator Kit Bond in the 2005 Transportation Bill.References
External links
- [Kansas City Star's "I-35 Odyssey, A Summer Travel Series"]
- [Highway History - A Look at the History of the Federal Highway Administration]
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| 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 | (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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