Interstate 35 (I-35): Route, Map and Highway Data

How long is I-35?

A trip on I-35 from Laredo to Duluth covers about 1,568 miles. The FHWA Route Log shows a smaller number, 1,494.50 miles as of January 2026, because of how it books miles that I-35 shares with other routes.

The differences run in both directions. Texas shows 407.23 miles for I-35 proper because the Dallas route's 97 miles are booked to I-35E; a motorist crossing the state covers about 504 miles via Dallas or 493 via Fort Worth. Iowa and Missouri come in a little low because the stretches I-35 shares with I-80 in Des Moines and with I-70 and other routes in Kansas City are booked to those routes. Minnesota runs the other way: its Route Log row of 301.45 miles includes both Twin Cities branches, so it sits about 42 miles above the roughly 260 miles of a single trip through the state. Our I-35 freight analysis counts both Texas branches together, about 590 miles.

Where I-35 splits into I-35E and I-35W

I-35 divides into lettered branches that rejoin it, and it does so twice. In Texas the road splits north of Hillsboro: I-35E runs 96.96 miles through Dallas and I-35W runs 85.45 miles through Fort Worth, and the two meet again in Denton.

In Minnesota the split runs from Burnsville to Columbus, near Forest Lake. I-35E takes 39.34 miles through St. Paul and I-35W takes 41.78 through Minneapolis. The I-35W bridge over the Mississippi in Minneapolis is the one that collapsed on August 1, 2007.

Where I-35 starts and ends

The southern end is in Laredo, Texas, close to the Mexican border. The northern end is in Duluth, Minnesota, at Minnesota 61 and 26th Avenue East near the shore of Lake Superior.

Heading north the route passes San Antonio, Austin, Waco and the Dallas-Fort Worth branches, then Oklahoma City, Wichita on the Kansas Turnpike, Kansas City, Des Moines and the Twin Cities.

Interstate junctions along I-35

I-35 meets 12 other main Interstates, plus the I-69W branch in Laredo, listed from Laredo north. I-20 and I-30 each appear twice because both cross the Dallas and Fort Worth branches separately. Kansas has none on the I-35 mainline; I-70 and I-29 connect in Missouri, inside the Kansas City area.

Fatal crashes on I-35

Crashes on I-35 and its two branches killed 937 people from 2020 to 2024. Of those, 110 were on I-35E and 63 on I-35W. Across the whole route that is 11.0 deaths per 100 route miles each year, a little above the Interstate average of 9.5.

The average hides a sharp divide at the Red River. Texas accounts for 631 deaths, two of every three, at a rate of 21.3, and all five counties with the most deaths are in Texas: Dallas, Travis, Tarrant, Bexar and Denton. North of Oklahoma the rate falls to roughly 3 to 5 in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota, about a quarter of the Texas figure or less.

Counties with the most I-35 crash deaths

Bridges on I-35

The 2025 National Bridge Inventory lists 1,866 bridges on the main line of I-35 and its two branches. Texas has 1,011 of them. Just nine rate Poor, five of them in Minnesota, and half the bridges were built in 1970 or earlier.

In Austin, TxDOT's Capital Express Central project is rebuilding the downtown stretch that opened in 1962. The plan lowers the main lanes, removes the upper decks added in 1973 and 1974, and adds two non-tolled managed lanes in each direction.

Tolls on I-35

The longest tolled section of I-35 is the Kansas Turnpike, which carries the route from the Oklahoma line to Emporia. The 236 miles FHWA lists is the full turnpike, which also carries I-335, I-470 and I-70. The other entries are optional managed lanes on the branches: the LBJ and IH-35E Express lanes in Dallas, the North Tarrant Express on I-35W in Fort Worth, and the Twin Cities E-ZPass express lanes, which FHWA still lists under their old MnPASS name.

I-35 auxiliary routes

Six three-digit routes branch from I-35. I-135 between Wichita and Salina was once part of a western I-35 branch in Kansas and was renumbered in 1976. In Kansas, I-335 is the turnpike between Emporia and Topeka. The Oklahoma I-335, the Kickapoo Turnpike near Oklahoma City, shares the number but does not meet I-35. In the north, I-535 crosses the St. Louis River from Duluth to Superior, Wisconsin.

How I-35 was built

Oklahoma finished its section in 1971 and Iowa in 1975. The extension into downtown Duluth opened in stages from 1987 and was finished in October 1992.

In Kansas City, the Christopher S. Bond Bridge replaced the old Paseo Bridge over the Missouri River in December 2010, after construction began in 2008.

I-35 traffic and road conditions

For conditions right now, from construction lane closures in Austin to winter closures in Iowa and Minnesota, go to the state traveler site for the stretch you are on. They are listed from Texas north.

I-35 questions