Info about the Heartland Expressway

The Heartland Expressway is a federal high priority corridor which connects Denver, and the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor to Rapid City and the Theodore Roosevelt Expressway.

The Heartland Expressway provides an essential economic development tool for rural areas in Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming while facilitating domestic and international trade from Saskatchewan to the southern Texas border.

Enhancing the Interstate Highway Network

The Interstate Highway System helps connect major metropolitan areas throughout the United States. This improves the country’s economic efficiency and enhances Homeland Security. This is not the case in the Great Plains.

• The entire Colorado Front Range is not connected to the numerous metro markets in Oklahoma, Texas, and bordering Mexico
• Rapid City is not connected to Denver or Bismarck
• Colorado Springs and Pueblo are not directly connected to eastbound I-70
• The Colorado Front Range, Texas, New Mexico, Rapid City, and Bismarck are poorly connected to Canadian markets in Saskatchewan, and Alberta
• I-25 is the only north-south four-lane highway serving the Great Plains in the approximately 900 mile stretch between Kansas City and Salt Lake City. This has contributed to the severe congestion in Colorado and creates Homeland Security issues

Heartland Expressway Benefits

The Heartland Expressway provides many benefits of national, regional, and local significance. Among the most significant national benefits:

• Connects metropolitan cities and regional trade centers
• Part of a significant NAFTA corridor
• Provides alternative  truck routes to congested I-25
• Provides safer travel
• Enhances delivery capacity to Colorado Front Range Markets
• Develops a significant tourism corridor
• Provides enhanced freight corridor for the oil, gas, and wind industries

Benefits of National Significance

This international corridor is strategically located to increase economic efficiency by connecting metropolitan cities and regional trade centers through the Great Plains from Canada to Mexico.

These connections are significant as there are very few north-south highway corridors in the Central United States.

Provides a direct NAFTA Trade Route from Canada to Tex-Mex Ports.

This route will provide better accessibility between the Canadian markets of Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, and the Tex-Mex ports at Laredo, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, and El Paso, as well as all points in between, particularly Denver.

• Reduce Congestion and Enhance Delivery Reliability in Urban Areas – The Heartland Expressway and the Great Plains Trade Corridor will provide a bypass around the congested Interstate 25 areas in Colorado and the congested Interstate 35 corridor in Texas.
• Also Provide Relief to the Overstressed TEX-Mex Ports- by providing improved access to underutilized ports on the interior of Texas. These routes also enhance delivery reliability by allowing cargo to access alternative routes to the congested Colorado and Texas markets. (See Urban Benefits)

• Enhance Mobility of Great Plains Military Bases – There are numerous military bases throughout the Great Plains, particularly in the Colorado Springs area.  While it is often difficult to move north-south in this region on a normal day, one can imagine the difficulty the military may have deploying if there was a major catastrophe.  Unlike other areas of the country where there are dozens of secondary roads, there are very few alternatives along the Colorado Front Range.  The Great Plains Trade Corridor can thus provide a high volume alternative to assist in deploying ground-based military or moving citizens during a national crisis.

• Develop Significant Tourism Corridor – The Ports to Plains Alliance Corridor will develop one of the most significant tourism corridors in the United States.  Dozens of national parks, national monuments and state parks are located along this corridor.

• Provides Safer Travel – Four-lane highways are much safer, statistically, than two-lane roads.

• Ties Interstate Highways Together- The Heartland Expressway provides greater access between Interstate Highways and tie Interstates 25, 70, 76, 80, and 90 together. The Ports to Plains Alliance Corridor will provide better access between Interstates 10, 20, 25, 27, 40, 70, 80, 90, and 94.

Benefit to Urban Areas

The Heartland Expressway and the Ports to Plains Alliance Corridor provide numerous benefits to urban areas in the Great Plains.

In addition to improving access to other metropolitan areas and regional trade centers, the proposed expressways will help reduce congestion on Interstates 25 and 35 while enhancing the delivery capacity to Front Range markets.

The Heartland Expressway also enables traffic traveling between the Ports-to-Plains Corridor and Cheyenne and point beyond  to avoid Denver and the congested areas of Interstate 25.

The Heartland Expressway enhances the delivery capacity of cargo to and from Colorado Front Range markets and airports by creating an alternative north-south truck route to channel cargo to major east-west routes such as Interstates 70, 76, and 80, and Highways 14, 24, 34, and 86.  This enables traffic to move north and south without having to use congested Interstate 25 and spreads east-west traffic on several different routes.

• Provide Alternative Corridor to Interstate 35 - The increased North to South trade, NAFTA has stimulated has led to an enormous increase in traffic along the Interstate 35 Corridor. This has led to air quality concerns and traffic congestion in Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio, Texas.