Interstate 14 (I-14): Open Texas Miles, Planned Corridor and Safety Data

How long is I-14?

The FHWA Route Log gives I-14 24.91 miles, all in Texas, and Interstate Guide uses the same figure. Wikipedia gives 25.1 miles and TxDOT calls it about 25. The Route Log records no stretch where I-14 doubles up with a second Interstate, so its row needs no correction for shared miles. It does run on US 190 the entire way, and its exit numbers come from US 190's mileposts.

The planned system is far longer. TxDOT projects the Texas part alone at more than 1,000 miles once its branches and the eastern route to Louisiana are built to Interstate standards.

Where I-14 starts and ends

The western end sits near Copperas Cove at the US 190 and Business US 190 interchange, which Wikipedia lists as exit 276 and labels a temporary terminus. From there I-14 heads east past the Army's Fort Hood (named Fort Cavazos from 2023 to 2025) through Killeen, Harker Heights and Nolanville. It finishes at I-35 in Belton, exit 302 on the US 190 mileposts. Drivers coming up I-35 northbound reach it by a flyover at I-35 exit 293B.

The open road lies in two counties, Coryell and Bell. The FHWA Route Log names no major cities for it.

Interstate junctions along I-14

I-35 at Belton is the only Interstate that I-14 meets, and it is also where the signed route stops. Everything else along the way is a state highway or local road: Wikipedia's exit list has SH 201 toward Fort Hood (exit 280A), SH 195 in Killeen (exit 283) and Loop 121 in Belton (exit 300).

Fatal crashes on I-14

FARS records 35 deaths in 31 fatal crashes on I-14 between 2020 and 2024, roughly 7 a year. Bell County had 28 of them and Coryell County the other 7. The worst year was 2022 with 12 deaths. The count was 8 in 2020, 4 in 2021 and 8 in 2023, then fell to 3 in 2024, a figure from NHTSA's preliminary file.

This page ranks Interstates by deaths per 100 route miles only when a route has at least 100 miles. At under 25 miles, I-14 is too short to rank among those 56, so the rate boxes read n/a. On a road this short, a few crashes can move any rate a long way from one year to the next.

Counties with the most I-14 crash deaths

Bridges on I-14

Five bridges carry the I-14 main line in the 2025 National Bridge Inventory. Four rate Good, one rates Fair and none rates Poor. Their median year built is 1976, decades before the US 190 freeway took the I-14 number.

I-14 has been widened in stages since 2018. Interstate Guide describes three phases: Harker Heights to Belton from April 2018 to spring 2019, Indian Trail to FM 2410 from September 2019, and FM 2410 to I-35 from October 2020, with work still going in 2023, per Interstate Guide's last update.

Tolls on I-14

FHWA's January 2023 toll inventory lists nothing on I-14, and the TxDOT, Wikipedia and Interstate Guide pages describe no priced lanes added since. Driving the full 25 miles from Copperas Cove to Belton costs nothing.

How I-14 got its number, and the corridor still to come

The idea began as the 14th Amendment Highway, a concept Interstate Guide traces to Georgia, and the eastern extension is also called the Gulf Coast Strategic Highway. SAFETEA-LU, signed August 10, 2005, called for a study of the concept but did not create an Interstate. In December 2015 the FAST Act named the Central Texas Corridor as future I-14: US 190 from I-10 near Iraan east to SH 63 in Jasper, then on to the Sabine River bridge at the Louisiana line.

AASHTO's route numbering committee turned down TxDOT's first request on May 24, 2016. Wikipedia says FHWA and AASHTO approved it later, and the Texas Transportation Commission made the number official in January 2017. The first signs went up on April 22, 2017, at a ceremony on the Central Texas College campus in Killeen.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed November 15, 2021, added more highways to the corridor and made I-14 a five-state system. In West Texas, Wikipedia describes two branches meeting at Brady: I-14N from the Midland-Odessa area through San Angelo, and I-14S from I-10 in Pecos County, near Fort Stockton per Interstate Guide. East of Belton the plan follows US 190 through Temple, Bryan, College Station, Huntsville, Livingston, Woodville and Jasper to Burr's Ferry on the Sabine. TxDOT also lists I-214, a loop around Bryan and College Station.

Past Texas, Wikipedia's route description follows LA 8 and LA 28 through Leesville and Alexandria to the Natchez-Vidalia bridge, then follows US 84 across Mississippi from Natchez through Brookhaven to Laurel and I-59/I-20 toward Alabama, with a branch south past Hattiesburg to the port at Gulfport. In Alabama it runs by Montgomery to Phenix City, and in Georgia through Columbus and Macon to Augusta. None of those states has a signed I-14 mile yet.

Near-term work stays in Central Texas. Wikipedia reports that widening of the Copperas Cove bypass to four lanes began in February 2026 with completion expected in early 2029, and a 2023 local report said construction of an extension to Temple could start by 2027. TxDOT is developing an I-14 extension from Belton through Temple to Rogers and held public meetings on its first segment, along I-35 from Belton to Temple, in August 2026. A US 190 relief route around Rogers is under construction and now expected to finish in summer 2027. TxDOT's Bryan District began a study in 2022 of a 125-mile corridor along US 190 from Rogers to Huntsville across 11 counties. It expects that study to take about seven years in three phases. A third round of open houses ran in summer 2026, with comments taken through October 12. TxDOT says funding and a timeline for later phases have not been set and that going from feasibility to construction can take more than 20 years.

I-14 traffic and road conditions

The open I-14 lies entirely in Texas, so DriveTexas is the one map to check for closures, crashes and lane work between Copperas Cove and Belton. Widening on the Copperas Cove bypass is scheduled to last into 2029, so expect work zones west of Killeen.

I-14 questions