CORRIDORS OF THE FUTURE
Fact Sheet

CORRIDOR: Interstate 69 (I-69) Texas to Michigan

Submitted by:

Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department on behalf of the Interstate 69 Steering Committee - including Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Michigan.

Corridors of the Future funding:

• $800,000 in Transportation, Community, and System Preservation (TCSP) for an I-69 innovative financing study.

Project Description:

This 2,680-mile international and interstate trade corridor extends from Mexico to Canada. From the Mexican border to Indianapolis, Indiana, the proposed corridor would be built on a new location for about 1,660 miles.

This application includes freight and passenger movement through a portion of the country that is experiencing both demographic and freight movement growth. The current infrastructure from Texas to Michigan already handles a very large flow of goods and this corridor has the potential to shift cargo patterns to relieve existing and projected congestion along existing routes (e.g., I-40, I-65, I-81). This corridor has already been identified by Congress as a high priority corridor, is one of the farthest along in clearly defining its project list, and has the political support of all the states involved.

Status:

Many of the states have done some development work, and there are 32 separate segments, all of which are in varying stages of development from acquisition of right-of-way to environmental review and design. Texas has identified its portion as part of the TransTexas Corridor and Indiana has undertaken environmental clearance work.

Corridor Statistics:

The entire I-69 corridor from Michigan to Texas consists of current existing interstate highway segments and potential future highway segments. The length of the current existing segments is approximately 360 miles with 110 miles traversing through urban areas. Currently, the average daily traffic throughout the existing highway segments is about 31,000 with a maximum over 100,000. Average daily truck traffic on the existing highway is approximately 6,500 with a maximum over 8,500. Among the current existing 110 mile urban segments, 12 percent is currently under heavy congestion.

Without any further improvement to the corridor (no future widening of existing roadway and no new segments are constructed to lengthen the existing highway), the projected 2035 average daily traffic on the current existing highway will be over 90,000 which includes over 19,000 trucks. By 2035, 84 percent urban segments will be under heavy congestion. Congestion for non-urban segments will increase from the current under 1 percent to over 70 percent.

Press Release: U.S. Department of Transportation Names Six Interstate Routes as "Corridors of the Future" to Help Fight Traffic Congestion, I-95, I-70, I-15, I-5, I-10, and I-69 selected, 9/10/07

FHWA Press Room