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Interstate 45 or I -45 is an Interstate Highway in the United States, located entirely in the state of Texas. I-45 connects the coastal city of Galveston via Houston to Dallas. The southern part runs through highly urbanized area, actually from Galveston to Conroe the highway runs more than 150 kilometers through urban area. However, between Houston and Dallas, I-45 passes through a relatively sparsely populated area with no significant cities. I-45 is 459 kilometers long.

Travel directions

The Gulf Freeway.

I-45 at Richland.

I-45 at Dallas.

Galveston – Houston

I-45 begins in Galveston, a small town on Galveston Island off the coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico. I-45 here is a continuation of SH 87, which forms the main road through Galveston. The Galveston Causeway takes 2×4 lanes across Galveston Bay to the mainland. I-45 then passes La Marque and Texas City, where a large oil refinery dominates the horizon. This area is not yet fully intertwined with the Houston metropolitan area. At La Marque, FM 1764 joins, a short feeder to I-45 from Texas City.

The first Houston suburb along I-45 is Dickinson. The highway has 2×4 lanes here. At Webster, NASA Road 1 gives direct access to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. I-45 then has 2×4 lanes with a reversible lane. Not much later, the first impressive stack node follows, with the Beltway 8. I-45 then passes through South Houston as the Gulf Freeway and passes close to William P. Hobby Airport, one of Houston’s two commercial airports. In South Houston, a complex interchange follows with Interstate 610, after which I-45 still has 2×4+1 lanes. The highway widens from the University of Houston, where the Spur 5inserts and a braiding and parallel structure follows.

According to topschoolsintheusa, I-45 then forms the western bypass of Downtown Houston and runs on 2×3 lane overpasses. Around Downtown Houston, one intersects both Interstate 69 and Interstate 10. The merger with I-10 on the north side of downtown is spectacular, with numerous carriageways and elevated overpasses for I-10 ‘s HOV lane. I-45 has 2×4 lanes north of it and a reversible lane. Then follows a stack of I-610 with I-45 running at the top level, after which I-45 runs through the northern suburbs of Houston.

In the north of the city follows a large stack interchange with Beltway 8, followed by a long route through the northern suburbs of Houston. I-45 here has 2×5 lanes and an alternate lane, with connections to FM 1960 and FM 2920. At the northern suburb Spring one crosses SH 99 and joins the parallel Hardy Toll Road. I-45 then has 2×5 lanes through the edge city The Woodlands, where there is a lot of employment. Various connections have been designed as a junction, especially the flyovers to SH 242, after which I-45 still has 2×4 lanes.

Houston – Dallas

Just north of Houston, I-45 passes through the city of Conroe, which is now a distant suburb of Houston. The passage through Conroe has 2×4 lanes and Loop 336 is crossed twice. North of Conroe, the highway narrows in stages to 2×3 lanes at Willis and 2×2 lanes at Huntsville, where SH 19 branches off. I-45 passes through densely wooded area here.

The rural route between Houston and Dallas has 2×2 lanes and does not pass through larger towns. The highway passes through flat terrain with forest thinning to the north as the East Texas forest merges into the North Texas prairies. There are several small towns on the route where major east-west connections are crossed, such as US 190 at Madisonville, US 79 at Buffalo and US 84 at Fairfield. The real prairies don’t begin until Corsicana, a small town 50 miles south of Dallas. US 287 from Southeast Texas merges here, after which I-45 has 2×3 lanes. I-45 crosses the prairies, where the highway also includes frontage roadsknows. At the town of Ennis, US 287 exits again towards Fort Worth. It then takes another 30 kilometers to reach the southern suburbs of Dallas.

Dallas

On the south side of Dallas, there is a lot of logistics activity along I-45. At Hutchins, a large stack interchange follows Interstate 20, marking the entry into Dallas. However, I-45 has no more than 2×3 lanes in Dallas. The area around I-45 is not really dense until just before the center of Dallas. Just south of Downtown Dallas, US 175 merges, then I-45 terminates at the interchange with Interstate 30, after which Interstate 345 links to US 75.