Interstate 74 (I-74): Both Segments, Mileage and Crash Data

How long is I-74?

Counting both roads, I-74 has 460.97 miles in FHWA's January 2026 Route Log. The Midwest road accounts for 391.30 of them: 5.43 in Iowa, 214.88 in Illinois, 151.26 in Indiana and 19.73 in Ohio. North Carolina's row is 69.67 miles. Illinois has the longest piece and Iowa the shortest.

Those state rows leave out pavement that I-74 shares with other Interstates, because the Route Log books each shared mile to one route only. In Illinois, 5.89 miles on I-55 at Bloomington-Normal and 9.39 miles on I-280 in the Quad Cities go to the other route. Indiana's row skips 20.60 miles on the I-465 beltway around Indianapolis, Ohio's skips 3.45 miles on I-275, and North Carolina's skips 25.75 miles on I-73. Adding them back gives 526.05 miles, the figure the crash rates below use.

Wikipedia lists 572.53 miles in all, with 220.34 in Illinois, 171.54 in Indiana and 155.01 in North Carolina. In the Midwest the two sources mostly agree: Wikipedia's Indiana figure comes within about a third of a mile of the Route Log row plus the I-465 miles, and its Illinois figure within half a mile of the row plus the I-55 miles, leaving out the I-280 stretch. North Carolina is different. Even with the I-73 stretch, the federal figure there is 95.42 miles, about 60 short of Wikipedia's. Part of the gap is newer road, since Wikipedia counts a Winston-Salem section it dates to September 2026, after this Route Log edition. Wikipedia's Mount Airy piece also starts at the Virginia line, so it takes in about four miles shared with I-77, and the Route Log notes no I-77 overlap.

Where I-74 starts and ends

Two highways carry the number. The Midwest road begins at I-80 in Davenport, Iowa; Interstate Guide places that trumpet interchange in Bettendorf. Within a few miles it crosses the Mississippi River on the I-74 Bridge into Illinois and runs with I-280 from Moline toward Colona. It angles southeast to Peoria, crosses the Illinois River to East Peoria, shares I-55 between Normal and Bloomington, and passes Champaign on the way to Indiana. In Indianapolis it uses I-465 to get around the city, then continues southeast past Shelbyville into Ohio. After a stretch on I-275 near Miamitown, it ends at I-75 just north of downtown Cincinnati, where US 27, US 52 and US 127 meet it. US 52 is signed with I-74 the whole way across Ohio.

The North Carolina road is in three parts. The first starts at the Virginia line, runs about four miles with I-77 near Pine Ridge, and continues to US 52 in Mount Airy. The longest part starts at US 52 in Rural Hall, swings around Winston-Salem's east side, passes High Point, joins I-73 at Randleman and stays with it to the Rockingham area, ending at US 74 Business near Hamlet. The third runs with US 74 from Maxton to Lumberton. US 52 between Mount Airy and Rural Hall, signed Future I-74, fills the northern gap. In the south, US 74 links Hamlet to Maxton, partly as an at-grade expressway and then on the Laurinburg bypass, which is signed Future I-74. Between the two roads, through Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia, the route has a gap.

Interstate junctions along I-74

The list reads east from Iowa and finishes the Midwest road at Cincinnati before turning to North Carolina. On the first road I-74 meets I-80 at its western end, I-55 at Bloomington-Normal, I-57 at Champaign, I-70 and I-65 while it rides the Indianapolis beltway, and I-75 at its eastern end. In North Carolina the order runs north to south: I-77 at the state line, I-40 at Winston-Salem, I-85 at Archdale, I-73 at Randleman and I-95 at Lumberton. I-74 also shares pavement with three-digit routes, I-280, I-465 and I-275, which the list leaves out.

Fatal crashes on I-74

Crashes on the I-74 main line killed 113 people from 2020 through 2024, about 23 a year. Deaths held at 20 or 21 a year through 2022, rose to 29 in 2023 and fell to 23 in 2024. Over 526.05 route miles, that works out to 4.3 deaths per 100 miles a year. The Interstate average is 9.5, and I-74 ranks 47th of 56 routes, among the lower rates on the system.

Illinois had the most deaths, 48, at a rate of 4.2. Indiana had 38 and a rate of 4.4. Ohio's short run into Cincinnati is the worst stretch per mile: 8 deaths on 23.18 route miles, a rate of 6.9, all of them in Hamilton County. North Carolina's road had 17 deaths and the lowest rate, 3.6. Iowa recorded 2 deaths on 5.43 miles, too little road for a rate. Shelby County, Indiana, leads the county list with 12 deaths. Vermilion County, Illinois, and Robeson County, North Carolina, had 9 each, Hamilton County 8 and Peoria County 7.

Counties with the most I-74 crash deaths

Bridges on I-74

I-74's main line crosses 397 bridges in the 2025 National Bridge Inventory. Of those, 146 rate Good, 236 Fair and 15 Poor, about 3.8 percent. Illinois holds 13 of the Poor ratings among its 189 bridges. Indiana's 106 bridges include none rated Poor, and North Carolina and Ohio have one each. Half the bridges were built in 1965 or earlier.

The route's best-known bridge is also its newest big one. For decades I-74 used the Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge over the Mississippi, twin suspension spans, the first opened in 1935 and the second added by 1959. Work on a replacement began in July 2017 at a cost of $1.2 billion. The Iowa-bound span opened on November 13, 2020, and the Illinois-bound span fully opened on December 2, 2021, according to Interstate Guide. The old spans came down in 2022.

Tolls on I-74

Neither I-74 has a toll facility in FHWA's January 2023 inventory, so driving Davenport to Cincinnati, or the North Carolina road end to end, is free. The Mississippi crossing at the Quad Cities was once a toll bridge: the Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge charged drivers until January 1, 1970.

I-74 auxiliary routes

I-474 is the only three-digit route numbered off I-74. It covers 14.88 miles in Illinois and serves Peoria.

How I-74 was built, and how it reached North Carolina

I-74 received its number on August 14, 1957. In Peoria, the Murray Baker Bridge over the Illinois River opened on December 12, 1958, as part of the Illini Expressway and cost $15.5 million. Indiana built the section west of Crawfordsville between January 28, 1964, and December 7, 1965, and finished its whole stretch in 1967. The road was complete through southwestern Ohio in 1974, the same year the I-74 number went onto the Quad Cities bridge.

Several stretches of the Midwest road have since been rebuilt. Peoria's Upgrade 74 project widened the city stretch to six and eight lanes between October 2002 and December 2006, for about $490 million to $500 million, figures Interstate Guide gives in different places. Indiana's $423 million Accelerate 465 program, finished in December 2012, rebuilt parts of the Indianapolis beltway that I-74 uses. In Champaign, IDOT is replacing the old I-57/I-74 cloverleaf for $251.8 million.

The North Carolina road comes from the 1991 federal transportation act, which set up High Priority Corridor 5 for a route tentatively called I-73. A 1995 compromise put the I-74 number on part of that corridor in North Carolina, and AASHTO approved I-74 east of I-81 at Wytheville, Virginia, in 1996. The first section built for I-74, 12.6 miles between Steeds and Ulah shared with I-73, was completed on August 27, 1996, and North Carolina began posting I-74 signs in 1997. The Maxton to Lumberton section opened on September 26, 2008. The Laurinburg bypass also carried I-74 signs in 2008, but lost the number after an FHWA ruling. The 7.2-mile Rockingham bypass opened on January 28, 2025.

Long-range plans still call for I-74 to reach the coast south of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and North Carolina and South Carolina agreed on a border crossing point on February 11, 2005. Plans also exist on paper for the gap east of Cincinnati, along Ohio's SR 32 and through West Virginia. Interstate Guide notes that only North Carolina has made progress on the extension.

I-74 traffic and road conditions

For a crash, closure or winter conditions on I-74 today, go to the state traveler sites linked below. Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio cover the Midwest road, and North Carolina's site covers the other one. The crash figures on this page are the 2020 to 2024 federal record and do not include anything that happened this week.

I-74 questions