Interstate 24 (I-24): Route, Miles, Crash Record and Bridges

How long is I-24?

FHWA's Route Log credits I-24 with 314.57 miles as of January 2026. Tennessee has 178.37 of them, Kentucky 93.37, Illinois 38.73 and Georgia 4.10.

Wikipedia and Interstate Guide both put I-24 at 316.36 miles. They agree with the federal table in Illinois, Kentucky and Georgia, so the whole gap sits in Tennessee, where they show 180.16 miles. The Route Log notes that I-24 shares 2.70 miles with I-40 and 2.60 miles with I-65 in Nashville. The I-40 miles are booked to I-40, while I-24's own Tennessee row already includes the stretch shared with I-65. The crash rates further down use 181.07 Tennessee miles, which puts the I-40 overlap back in.

Where I-24 starts and ends

The western end is at exit 44 of I-57 in southern Williamson County, Illinois, near Pulleys Mill. The eastern end is the interchange Chattanooga drivers call the 75/24 Split, in East Ridge, where I-24 meets I-75 and US 74.

Eastbound, the route passes Metropolis, crosses the Ohio into Paducah and heads past Calvert City, Eddyville and Hopkinsville into Tennessee near Clarksville. From there it goes through Nashville, La Vergne, Smyrna, Murfreesboro and Manchester, climbs Monteagle Mountain on the Cumberland Plateau and comes down past Jasper toward Chattanooga. The short Georgia piece runs along Raccoon Mountain in Dade County, and its exits keep Tennessee's numbers.

Interstate junctions along I-24

I-24 meets six other main Interstates, listed here from Illinois east. It starts at I-57 and picks up I-69 in Kentucky for the run from Calvert City to Eddyville. In Nashville it shares pavement first with I-65 and then with I-40 near downtown. The last two crossings are both near the eastern end: I-59 ends at I-24 near Wildwood, Georgia, and I-75 takes over at the split in East Ridge.

Fatal crashes on I-24

From 2020 to 2024, 240 people died in 204 fatal crashes on the I-24 main line, roughly 48 a year. That comes to 15.1 deaths per 100 route miles a year against a network average of 9.5, and it ranks I-24 8th of the 56 routes long enough to rank. The yearly count dropped from 55 in 2021 to 40 in 2022 and climbed back to 50 by 2024.

Tennessee had 203 of the deaths, about 85 percent, and its rate of 22.4 is more than three times Kentucky's 7.3, where 34 people died. Illinois recorded one death in five years for a rate of 0.5, and Georgia had 2 on a stretch too short to rate. The five deadliest counties on the route are all in Tennessee: Davidson with 49, Rutherford with 46, Hamilton with 27, Montgomery with 22 and Coffee with 21.

Counties with the most I-24 crash deaths

Bridges on I-24

I-24's main line rides on 285 bridges, according to the 2025 National Bridge Inventory, and half of them date from 1971 or earlier. Of those, 88 rate Good, 184 Fair and 13 Poor, under 5 percent. Every Poor bridge is in Tennessee, which also has the most bridges at 155; Kentucky's 83, Illinois' 39 and Georgia's 8 include none rated Poor.

The Ohio River bridge between Metropolis and Paducah opened in October 1974. Defective welds left cracks in its tie girders, and the bridge closed on August 3, 1979. It stayed shut to all traffic until October 1980 and to trucks until the summer of 1981.

Tolls on I-24

FHWA's toll inventory for January 1, 2023, has no entry for I-24. A trip from Illinois to Chattanooga costs nothing in tolls.

Tolls are coming to the Nashville to Murfreesboro stretch. TDOT named it the first of four Choice Lanes projects in December 2023. In August 2026 the state's Transportation Modernization Board picked DriveTN to build and run the I-24 Southeast Choice Lanes: two priced lanes each way along about 26 miles, under a 50-year contract. The existing lanes stay free, and tolls will rise and fall with congestion to keep traffic in the new lanes moving at 45 mph or better. TDOT reached commercial close in September 2026 and expects financial close in 2027.

I-24 auxiliary routes

I-124 is the only three-digit route numbered off I-24. It is an unsigned designation on US 27 in Chattanooga that used to be signed as a spur into downtown and has carried no I-124 shields since the late 1980s. Wikipedia describes it as roughly 2 miles long, far shorter than the 11.19 miles in FHWA's auxiliary route table.

Building I-24 and the work since

The 1955 Interstate plan included only Nashville to Chattanooga. The I-24 number was approved on August 14, 1957, and the first section opened in Chattanooga on December 23, 1958. Sources disagree on when the northwest extension to Illinois was approved: Interstate Guide says October 1957, and Wikipedia points to a 1963 agreement among governors and a 1964 federal authorization.

In Chattanooga, engineers first proposed a line across Moccasin Bend, which the Bureau of Public Roads turned down in 1958 as too expensive. The freeway was built on a narrow causeway between the Tennessee River and the north end of Lookout Mountain, and builders moved the river channel to fit it. The Ridge Cut through Missionary Ridge was dedicated on December 1, 1965.

Crews built the Monteagle Mountain section from 1962 to 1968. Grades there reach 6 percent, with runaway truck ramps on the way down, a 55 mph limit and 45 mph for trucks on the downgrades. Tennessee rebuilt the eastbound descent from 1985 to 1989 to ease the grade. Wikipedia counts the climb among the most hazardous stretches of Interstate in the country.

The Nashville to Chattanooga stretch was finished on December 16, 1971, and Tennessee's last gap, from SR 49 to I-65 in Nashville, opened on January 5, 1978. Illinois opened its first section on January 15, 1974, and its last on January 24, 1976. Kentucky opened its first section on October 18, 1974, and closed the final gap on May 23, 1980, with 23 miles from the Western Kentucky Parkway, now I-69, to US 68 east of Cadiz.

Southeast of Nashville, TDOT's I-24 SMART Corridor covers 28 miles from I-440 at exit 53 to US 231 at exit 81 in Murfreesboro. Its second phase, begun in March 2022, added overhead gantries that post variable speed limits and lane control signals, and a later phase is planned for ramp meters and more cameras. At the eastern end, the first phase of the 75/24 Split rebuild was finished in 2021, and a second phase, which widened I-24 from Germantown Road to Spring Creek Road, was finished in spring 2026.

I-24 traffic and road conditions

One wreck or truck fire on I-24 can back traffic up for miles, so look at the state traveler site before you leave. Tennessee's SmartWay covers most of the route, and the Illinois, Kentucky and Georgia sites cover the rest, listed here from west to east.

I-24 questions