Interstate 35 (I-35) is an interstate highway running north-south in the central United States. It stretches from Laredo, Texas at the Mexican border to Duluth, Minnesota at Minnesota State Highway 61 (London Road). Many interstates used to have splits or spurs indicated with suffixed numbers, 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.

Length

Major cities along the route

• Laredo, Texas
• San Antonio, Texas
• Austin, Texas
• Dallas, Texas (I-35E)
• Fort Worth, Texas (I-35W)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
• Wichita, Kansas
• Kansas City, Missouri
• Des Moines, Iowa
• Minneapolis, Minnesota (I-35W)
• Saint Paul, Minnesota (I-35E)
• 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, Missouri - I-435, I-635
• Des Moines, Iowa - I-235
• Duluth, Minnesota - I-535

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.

Notes

• When I-35 ends at Laredo, Texas, Mexico Highway 85 begins at Nuevo Laredo, on the other side of the Rio Grande.

• 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-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. 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.

• 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 mi/h (56 km/h) (although many drivers are able to maintain the speed limit of 55 mi/h (88 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.

• 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.

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