Interstate 90

The longest route within the Interstate Highway System, I-90 serves major northern cities such as Seattle, Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo and Boston. Regional cities along the transcontinental route from the Pacific Northwest to the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains include include Spokane, Billings, Sheridan, Rapid City and Sioux Falls. The freeway traverses several mountain passes along the northern tier and can be closed during extreme storms during the Winter months.

I-94 overlaps with I-90 east across southern Wisconsin. Combining at a rural exchange outside the city of Tomah, I-90/94 lead 63 miles east to Wisconsin Dells and I-39 south of Portage. I-39 joins the two routes southeast 29 miles to the capital city of Madison, where Interstate 94 branches east toward Milwaukee. I-39/90 remain paired southward to Janesville and Rockford, Illinois.

East from Rockford, Illinois to Boston, Massachusetts the majority of Interstate 90 follows toll roads. Some sections of these toll roads predated the 1956 Interstate Highway Act. Tolled sections of I-90 in Illinois include the Jane Addams (Northwest) Tollway; between Beloit, Wisconsin and O’Hare International Airport (ORD) and the Chicago Skyway, between I-94 and the Indiana State Line. Interstate 90 combines with I-80 across northern Indiana along the Indiana East/West Tollway. This toll road connects the Chicago area with Hammond, Gary and South Bend.

Entering Ohio west of Toledo, I-80/90 continue east along the Ohio Turnpike to Elyria. They separate there with I-80 staying on the toll road south of Cleveland and I-90 winding northeast through Sheffield and Avon toward Downtown Cleveland. I-90 straddles the south shore of Lake Erie from Cleveland to Ashtabula and Erie, Pennsylvania.

Crossing into New York, I-90 transitions onto the Erie Section of the New York Thruway system. The toll road extends northeast to Buffalo, where I-90 becomes a toll free route through the urban area. East from I-290 and Buffalo, Interstate 90 follows the New York Thruway mainline by Rochester and to Syracuse, Utica and Schenectady.

I-90 loops east from the Thruway mainline through Albany, reconnecting with the toll road on the Berkshire Section linking I-87 with the Massachusetts State line. The remainder of I-90 lines the tolled Massachusetts Turnpike (Mass Pike) spanning the width of the Bay State. The Mass Pike connects Springfield, Worcester and Boston.

Interstate 90 in the Seattle metropolitan area is part of High Priority Corridor 35: FAST Corridor.

East from Seattle to Billings, Interstate 90 replaced U.S. 10. From Billings southeast to Buffalo, Wyoming, I-90 parallels U.S. 87, then follows U.S. 14 from Buffalo east to Wall, South Dakota. I-90 replaced U.S. 16 from Wall east all the way to Tomah, Wisconsin. From Tomah southeast to Chicago, Interstate 90 more or less follows U.S. 14 again, but it picks up U.S. 20 at Rockford. I-90 and U.S. 20 remain parallel to each other from Chicago east to Boston, with some proximity to U.S. 6 in Ohio.

Major Projects

Snoqualmie Pass

A partnership between the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and several conservation groups to invest in wildlife corridors and protected habitats for species native to the Cascade Mountains resulted from the project to expand capacity along Interstate 90 between Hyak and Eaton. These wildlife structures allow for continuous range for a variety of animals that may migrate over the freeway. For more information on the wildlife overpasses, visit Interstate 90 Wildlife Bridges.¹⁰

Work on the three phase project commenced in Spring 2009 on Phase I, Hyak to Keechelus. Wrapping up in Fall 2018 2019, $453 million in construction involved adding a new lane per direction, bridge and culvert replacement, pavement replacement and improving sharp curves. Phase II ran between Summer 2015 and Fall 2018 2019 at a cost of $110 million. It improved a two mile stretch of I-90 from Keechelus Dam to the Stampede Pass interchange.

Work on Phase III, costing $335 million and scheduled for construction between Summer 2001 and Fall 2025 Summer 2022 to Fall 2028, improves the easternmost six miles of the project area with widening, pavement replacement and truck climbing lanes. Phase IV follows from Summer 2026 to Fall 2029. The $206 million project adds an additional lane per direction, replaces the concrete pavement, adds wildlife crossings and a chain-up area, and straightens portions of the roadway.

Rapid City Area

Several modifications were made to Interstate 90 from Rapid City east to Box Elder. Road work finished in 2009 realigned a portion of the freeway near Blackhawk, consolidating a split interchange with Sturgis Road (old U.S. 14/SD 79) and removing an S-curve along the mainline. Further southeast, the directional T interchange joining I-90 and I-190 was redesigned into a trumpet interchange, removing left exit ramps along westbound. Additionally the exchange provides enough separation from the adjacent SPUI (Exit 58) at Haines Avenue.

Further east at Exit 60, the wye interchange from I-90 west to U.S. 16 west was eliminated and replaced with a SPUI at Business Loop I-90 (E North Street). A third area SPUI replaced the diamond interchange at Exit 61 with U.S. 16 Truck and SD 79 south as well.

The parclo interchange at Exit 66 closed on October 1, 2003. This closure coincided with the Summer 2003 opening of a new parclo interchange at Exit 67 with nearby Liberty Boulevard. Liberty Boulevard, which links I-90 to the Ellsworth A.F.B. main gate, and the new exchange were constructed after successful lobbying by local officials. The move was made to address concerns about commercial development in the “accident-potential zone” to the south of the Ellsworth runway.²

Jane Addams (Northwest) Tollway

I-39 and I-90 combine along the Jane Addams Memorial [Northwest] Tollway between the Illinois-Wisconsin State Line and east side of Rockford. A portion of this stretch, from Rockton Road south to the split with I-39, was expanded to six overall lanes with advance work commencing in 2007. Widening was finished from Rockton Road / Exit 3 to the South Beloit Toll Plaza in 2008 and along eastbound from the toll plaza to U.S. 20 Business (State Street). Completion of the project by November 24, 2009 focused on the westbound lanes from the South Beloit Toll Plaza north to Rockton Road and along both roadways south from State Street to Newburg Road.²¹

The Cherry Valley Interchange project, which started in 2008, involved reconstructing the connection between Interstate 90 (Jane Addams Memorial Tollway) and I-39 in Rockford. The project was completed on November 13, 2010.²⁰

This $89 million project was made possible as a result of Illinois Tollway’s $6.3 billion Congestion-Relief Program – Open Roads for a Faster Future announced in 2005. The work redesigned the interchange with new ramps, including a high speed connection from I-39 north to I-90 west. The original trumpet interchange at Cherry Valley opened in 1972 with the U.S. 20 bypass.²⁰

Chicago Skyway

The Chicago Skyway is a steel cantilever bridge that connects the Dan Ryan Expressway (I-94) with the Indiana Toll Road (Interstate 90) in Illinois. Dominating the southeastern skyline of Chicago, the 7.8 mile long Skyway was constructed in the 1950s and opened in April 1958 to cross over steel mills, railroads, homes and the Calumet River. The bridge did not carry as much traffic as initially anticipated, but the growth of casinos in Northwestern Indiana increased traffic counts. In 1999, city of Chicago administrators determined that the Chicago Skyway was never officially incorporated into the Interstate Highway System.⁶ This may have been due to the fact that the Skyway was not up to current Interstate standards. As a result of this analysis, all Interstate 90 reassurance shields were amended to include a “TO” banner.

The elevated roadway underwent a reconstruction project between 1999 and November 2004.⁵ Prior to the completion of this project, the road was falling apart. With completion of the new Skyway deck, ramps, and three continuous lanes of travel, the Skyway was improved to meet Interstate standards.

Following reconstruction of the Chicago Skyway, the Chicago City Council voted to lease the bridge to a private company, the Skyway Concession Company, LLC (SCC). Infusing the city of Chicago with $1.83 billion from SCC, the 99 year agreement started in January 2005. In exchange, SCC collects toll proceeds and provides for administration, toll collection, maintenance and operations of the Skyway. The City of Chicago continues to provide police to patrol the freeway. This arrangement was the first of its kind in the country.

Indiana Toll Road

Through Indiana, Interstate 90 follows the Indiana Toll Road in its entirety. Authorized for construction in 1951, the Toll Road was constructed and fully open to traffic by 1956, the same year in which the Interstate Highway System was authorized by the federal government. The Toll Road was later added to the Interstate Highway System. In 2006, the state of Indiana approved leasing and privatizing the Indiana Toll Road. A bid for this lease came in at $3.85 billion by the same Spanish-Australian consortium that leased the Chicago Skyway from the city of Chicago. The project was awarded to ITR Concession Company LLC (ITRCC) for a term of 75 years.

Governor Mitch Daniels negotiated the lease, and the state House of Representatives approved the lease on February 1, 2006. The Senate approved the lease as part of the governor’s “Major Moves” program. By the middle of March 2006, Major Moves was law. ITRCC assumed operations on June 29, 2006. Funds generated by this lease were used for various transportation projects around the state^12,13,14, including construction of new Interstate 69 between Evansville and Bloomington.

ITRR filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 22, 2014 on more than $6 billion in debt. IFM Investors announced on March 11, 2015 they they entered a $5.725 billion purchase and sale agreement of ITRR and the remaining 66 years of the lease. The Australian based group closed on their purchase of ITRR on May 27, 2015. IFM planned on investing $260 million in capital improvements through 2020 for the Indiana Toll Road.¹¹

Cleveland Innerbelt

The Innerbelt Project replaced the Innerbelt Bridge built in 1959 across the Cuyahoga River and rebuilt I-90 from I-71 (Medina Freeway) north to I-77 (Willow Freeway). Named the George V. Voinovich Bridge, the new westbound bridge was constructed between May 2011 and November 2013 at a cost of $293 million. The $273 million project to replace the eastbound span was awarded to TGR and designer URS Corporation in the Fall of 2013. Construction culminated on September 24, 2016, when eastbound traffic shifted to the second span. Subsequent work opened all five westbound lanes for I-90 across the George V. Voinovich Bridge by mid October and the remaining eastbound lanes on October 24, 2016. Work on the weekend of October 28, 2016 restriped I-77 north at I-490 to three through lanes and the ramp from I-77 north to I-490 east to a single lane.²⁹

Boston and the “Big Dig”

As part of the $24.3 billion “Big Dig” project in Boston, the Massachusetts Turnpike Extension lengthened Interstate 90 east 3.5 miles from the 1965 terminus at I-93 to Logan International Airport (BOS). Fully opened on January 18, 2003, the extension of I-90 shifted the end northeast to Route 1A in East Boston.

Built as part of the Turnpike Extension, the Ted Williams Tunnel below Boston Harbor arcs I-90 northeast between the Seaport District and the Airport Way loop to Logan Airport’s passenger terminal. The 8,500 foot long tunnel was constructed at a cost of $1.3 billion from December 1991 to December 15, 1995.^22,23

West of the Ted Williams Tunnel and Seaport District is the Fort Point Channel Tunnel. The one mile long tunnel takes I-90 below Fort Point Channel between Interstate 93 (Central Artery and the Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr. Tunnel) and D Street by the Massachusetts Convention Center. The Fort Point Channel Tunnel opened to complete I-90 on January 18, 2003.

Idaho

Wallace, Idaho

One of the last sections of Interstate 90 to open to through traffic was the section bypassing the city of Wallace, Idaho. Wallace was also home to the final traffic signal to be bypassed by the transcontinental freeway. To avoid having the freeway pass directly through the town as originally planned, residents and city officials added Wallace to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. As a result, the freeway was rerouted northward onto a viaduct parallel to the South Fork Coeur d’Alene River. Upon completion of the elevated roadway on September 12, 1991, old U.S. 10 through Wallace became Business Loop I-90 and the last traffic signal of I-90 was retired shortly thereafter.^3,4

Montana

Construction for Interstate 90 over Homestate Pass began in 1964 at a cost of $6.4 million. The route was complete between Whitehall and Butte in 1966 for $18.5 million.²⁶ The final two lane segment of I-90 across the state was expanded to four lanes on May 13, 1987. The 20 mile long section, known as “Springdale West”, was rebuilt under a $12 million contract started in Fall 1985.²⁷

Wyoming

For a history of the completion of I-90 in Wyoming, visit Interstate 90 @ AARoads.

Illinois

Chicago

In Illinois, the sections of Interstate 90 were built in the 1950s and 1960s. The Northwest Tollway, which brings Interstate 90 southeast from Wisconsin to Rockford, Elgin and Chicago near O’Hare International Airport (ORD) was constructed starting in 1956 and was completed by 1958.¹⁵ The construction of the 76 mile long Northwest Tollway and the other original tollways in Illinois was funded by a bond issuance in the amount of $415 million by the state tollway commission, which was created in 1953.¹⁸ The Northwest Tollway merges into the Kennedy Expressway near O’Hare International Airport.

The Kennedy Expressway, which connects O’Hare International Airport (ORD) with the Chicago Loop (Interstate 290 / Eisenhower Expressway), opened to traffic on November 5, 1960. Originally named the Northwest Expressway, it was renamed the John F. Kennedy Expressway on November 29, 1963, one week to the minute after the famous U.S. President was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. This 16 mile long expressway was constructed at a cost of $237 million.

The Kennedy Expressway from ORD Airport to the Northwest Tollway is designated as Interstate 190 and was formerly Illinois Route 594 until 1978. The Kennedy Expressway southeast from the Northwest Tollway to the Edens Expressway is a part of Interstate 90 and was designated as Illinois Route 194 prior to 1978.

The Kennedy Expressway southeast from the Edens Expressway (I-94) to the Jane Byrne Circle Interchange with I-290 (Eisenhower Expressway) was originally just I-94. I-90 was rerouted from the Eisenhower Expressway onto the Edens Expressway alongside I-94 in 1978. On February 1, 1970, new rapid transit rail service went into operation in the Kennedy Expressway median, shortly after commuter rail service began on the Dan Ryan Expressway segment of I-90/94.^{15, 16}

The Dan Ryan Expressway, which continues the limited access route from I-290 (Eisenhower Expressway) south to Interstate 57, opened on December 15, 1962. It was designated as I-90/94 from Downtown to the Skyway and as I-90 from the Chicago Skyway to the split with I-57. However, I-90 and I-94 were swapped shortly thereafter, with I-94 following the entire length of the Dan Ryan and I-90 branching southeast along the Chicago Skyway.

Planned as the “South Expressway,” the expressway was named in memory of Dan Ryan, who was the president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners and had died in 1961, just before the road opened. Dan Ryan was a known expressway proponent in Chicagoland and was responsible for the construction of several urban freeways. The Dan Ryan Rapid Transit line follows the median of the Dan Ryan Expressway; the rail line opened to commuters on September 28, 1969. Similar rail lines have since been placed in median and other right of way locations along other urban freeways throughout the country, but Chicago is considered to be a pioneer in the implementation of this concept.^{15, 17}

The Chicago Skyway opened in June 1958.¹⁵ It was not constructed using proceeds from the Illinois State Tollway Commission original bond issuance; it was instead funded by the city of Chicago separately.¹⁸

Interstate 90 followed the Eisenhower (Congress) Expressway and Eisenhower Extension rather than the Kennedy Expressway and Northwest Tollway from the 1960s until 1978. For more on this route, see Interstate 290 Illinois.

Ohio

Ohio Turnpike

Interstate 90 follows the Ohio Turnpike from the Indiana Toll Road east to Elyria near the Cleveland metropolitan area. The act that created the Ohio Turnpike Commission was passed in 1949, and construction began on the toll road in October 1952. The Turnpike was built in 38 months and the 241 mile long route fully opened on October 1, 1955. For more information, visit the official Ohio Turnpike History page.

Cleveland

Photo Guides

Sources:

1. Mileage update provided by Gary S. Peterson.
2. “Exit 66 now road to nowhere.” The Rapid City Journal, October 2, 2003.
3. “It’s Red Lights Out In Idaho Town.” Chicago Tribune, September 15, 1991.
4. The Evolution of Interstate 90 between Seattle and Missoula, by Erick Johnson, Eastern Washington University
5. “How a road changed everything: The skyway was a construction feat 50 years ago: ‘It was something to watch that road being built. Why, you would think the whole world was coming to an end.'” Chicago Tribune, November 24, 2004
6. Chicago Skyway no longer an Interstate, post on Misc.Transport.Road, August 20, 1999, by Rich Carlson
7. New York Thruway Factbook http://www.thruway.state.ny.us/factbook/
8. About the Massachusetts Turnpike, the Main Street of Massachusetts http://www.massturnpike.com/aboutus/index.html
9. Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life in 1997 by Tom Lewis, Viking Penguin/Penguin Books, page 199.
10. Personal Email from Jen Watkins, “Interstate 90 Info,” 03/10/05, and I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition
11. “Lease sale closes on Indiana Toll Road for $5.72B” WLFI, May 28, 2015.
12. “Toll Road plan clears senate: Chambers’ leaders say differences remain”. Indianapolis Star, by Theodore Kim, March 3, 2006.
13. “Toll Road bill signed, Daniels moves quickly.” Indianapolis Star, by Theodore Kim, March 16, 2006.
14. “A tale of 2 projects — and political implications.” Indianapolis Star, by John Ketzenberger, March 21, 2006.
15. Encyclopedia of Chicago: Expressways by Dennis McClendon of the Chicago Historical Society
16. Chicago Timeline: 1960 Northwest Expressway Completed; November 29, 1963 Renamed The John F. Kennedy Expressway http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/timeline/kennedyx.html, Chicago Public Library, updated August 1997
17. Chicago Timeline: 1962 Dan Ryan Expressway Opened http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/timeline/danryanx.html, Chicago Public Library, updated March 2006
18. Encyclopedia of Chicago: Tollways by David M. Young of the Chicago Historical Society
19. “Dead Man’s Curve could be worse – in fact, it was” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 22, 2001.
20. “I-90/39 Ramp Project.” WIFR.com, July 23, 2010.
21. “Jane Addams Memorial Tollway – Newburg Road to Rockton Road – Reconstruct & Widen>” Illinois Tollway, press release, November 24, 2009.
22. Ted Williams Tunnel (I-90), BostonRoads.com.
23. Tunnels & Bridges – The Big Dig – Highway Division, massDOT.
24. “Thruway connector’s name spurs question“, Getting There (timesunion.com), March 25, 2010.
25. “Re: Massachusetts” online posting by PHLBOS, AARoads Forum, February 18, 2016.
26. “Timeline outlines Montana Department of Transportation history.” Montana Standard, June 16, 2013.
27. “I-90 now four lanes all across Montana.” The Spokesman-Review, May 14, 1987.
28. “State’s big move to all-electronic tolling begins Friday as toll plazas shut down.” MassLive, October 24, 2016.
29. “Inner Belt Bridge is completely open today.” The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), October 24, 2016.

Page updated February 1, 2024.