US Interstate Highway System

The 78,000 kilometer US highway grid that freight, commuting and national logistics were rebuilt around.

Overview

Authorized in 1956 with 90 percent federal funding through the highway trust fund, the system standardized American road freight. Trucks move roughly 70 percent of US freight by value, distribution centers cluster at interchanges, and just-in-time replenishment runs on the assumption of the network's reliability. The build carved cities apart, and the displacement it caused is now being partially undone with removal projects in several downtowns. The northeast I-95 spine and the transcontinental I-80 and I-10 carry truck volumes that make the network, in tonne-kilometers, one of the largest freight machines ever built.