National Highway System in Puerto Rico

The National Highway System (NHS) is an outgrowth of efforts to identify post-Interstate transportation needs. The NHS is the first step in a continuing effort to combine the Nation's modal networks into a National Transportation System that will meet our nation's transportation demand in the 21st century.

To produce the NHS, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) worked in partnership with State and local transportation officials who joined with the Department of Defense and other federal departments as well as private sector to develop a method of addressing the intermodal transportation needs of the nation in the post-Interstate era. Congress passed legislation to designate the NHS in the "National Highway System Designation Act of 1995" on November 28, 1995.

The portion of the NHS within Puerto Rico consists of approximately 1,151 Km (715 miles) of freeways, tollways and principal arterial highways serving the metropolitan areas and including NHS Connector highways serving the principal air and sea ports and military installations.