Top 10 Longest Roads in the World

Hitting the road is one of the most desired weekend plan of our generation. It has various songs and movies dedicated to it. In addition, every time you do that with your friends or family, you make a bag full of memories. So here is a list of 10 longest roads in the world. We are sure the travel butterflies in you want to tick all of them off your list soon!

10) Interstate 80 (I-80) (USA)

Interstate 80 (I-80), also known as Christopher Columbus Highway in certain parts along its route, is a 4,666km long highway making it the 10th longest highway in the world. It is also the 2^nd longest interstate highway in the US. Interstate 80 begins at an interchange with U.S. Route 101 in San Francisco, California, and ends at New Jersey, where it stretches for 68km, called the Bergen-Passaic Expressway passing through 11 states in the US. The longest continuous stretch of the I-80 is in Nebraska, extending approximately 116km between Exit 318 in the Grand Island area and mile marker 390 near Lincoln, Nebraska. It is also the longest stretch in the entire Interstate Highway System in the US.

9) Interstate 90 (I-90) (USA)

Adding to the list of longest roads from the US, Interstate 90 (I-90) runs from Boston, Massachusetts, to Seattle, Washington is the 9^th longest road in the world. The highway is 4,860.2km long and is the longest Interstate Highway in the US. The interstate highway runs through two of the longest floating bridges, Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge and the Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge, spanning Lake Washington from Seattle to Mercer Island, truly a splendid view! The entire highway was completed in 1985 and incorporated existing roads for a major part of its route. The construction commencing in 1950s, the highway runs parallel to the US Route 20 for the most part and passes through 13 states.

8) US Route 6 (USA)

US Route 6, also known as Grand Army of the Republic Highway, stretches from Bishop, California, to Provincetown, Massachusetts. Stretching 5,158km, it is the 8^th longest highway in the world, the 2^nd longest highway and longest continuous highway in the US. The highway previously stretched from Bishop to Long Beach, California, and was considered as a transcontinental route until 1964, originally called Roosevelt Highway in the 1920s and 30s and then the Midland Trail Roadway, before it was officially designated by the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) who adopted the US numbering system for marking the Nation’s main Interstate highways.

7) US Route 20 (USA)

So yeah, US clearly dominates the list of longest roads more so in Massachusetts! US Route 20, stretching 5,415km in an east-west direction from Boston, Massachusetts, to Newport, Oregon, is not only the 7^th longest highway in the world but also the longest road in the US. The highway, commissioned in 1926 and extended in 1940, crosses 9 US states and is split into two by Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park. The original US Route 20 ended at the Yellowstone National Park prior to its extension in 1940. The highway’s western section intersects with US 101, while its eastern section runs parallel to the easternmost 138-mile (222km) stretch of Interstate 90 known as Massachusetts Turnpike.

6) China National Highway 010 (China)

Breaking the chain of US roads, China National Highway 010, also known as Tongsan Expressway, is 5,700km long, ranks as the 6^th longest highway in the world. It is also the longest China National Highway. The highway extends from Tongjiang City in eastern Heilongjiang Province to Sanya in Hainan Province and is one of the five north-south highways and the seventh east-west highway in China. It passes through provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong. It has a missing link, caused by the Qiongzhou Strait at Hai’an in Guangdong, where cars are ferried across by trains to Haikou in Hainan, before ending in Sanya. So it is not a typical road!

5) Golden Quadrilateral Highway Network (India)

The one we were waiting for, this Indian road ranks 5^th in the list! Consisting of a network of highways, it connects the four major Indian cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. Planning work for the 5,846km long highway was completed in 1999, construction commenced in 2001 and the highway completed in January 2012. The highway features 4 to 6 lanes along the entire route. The highway was constructed with an investment of INR 600bn ($9.2bn). It is maintained by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) under the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways. It was constructed in 4 sections, each awarded to different contractors to complete it in 2012.

4) Trans-Canada Highway (Canada)

The Trans-Canada Highway, with an overall length of approximately 7,821km, is the 4^th longest highway in the world and the 2^nd longest national highway. The highway’s construction commenced in 1950, inaugurated in 1962, with paving and other construction works continued until 1971. Total investment reached around $1bn, lesser than the Indian Golden Quadrilateral. It extends east-west from Victoria in British Columbia to St. John’s City in Newfoundland and Labrador passing through all 10 Canadian provinces and links all major cities in the country. You could call it the backbone!

3) Trans-Siberian Highway

The 11,000km long Trans-Siberian Highway is the world’s 3^rd longest highway. Stretching from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok in Russia with the section of the route spanning the Asian Highway Network is called the AH6. The highway comprises of 7 federal highways along the stretch, coinciding with European route E30 and passing through Kazakhstan. The longest section of the entire highway is the Russian route M58 or the Amur Highway, a federal highway in Russia, which stretches up to 2,100km from Chita to Khabarovsk.

2) Highway 1 (Australia)

It’s a cliché that it is named 1 and yet Highway 1 in Australia, the world’s 2^nd longest highway is the longest national highway. It covers 14,500km, consisting of interconnected highways. Highway 1, inscribed as a national highway in 1955 consisting of both single and multilane roads, touches all the existing states in Australia, except Brisbane and Darwin, which are not directly connected sharing the majority of its route with the Australian National Highway. Originally proposed in 1955, Highway 1 was realigned in 1959, 1974 and 1998 and carries more than a million people a day. That is too much of pressure indeed!

1) Pan American Highway (USA)

Establishing its dominance in the list, The Pan American Highway, encompassing the entire US interstate highway system, covering a length of approximately 48,000km is the world’s longest highway, over 3 times the 2^nd longest road in the world! Comprising of interconnecting highways, it connects more than 20 countries in the Americas. It has a 100km gap halfway, known as the Darién Gap, located between Panama and Colombia. The highway project, conceived in 1923, stretches from Buenos Aries in South America to Edmonton in North America. The first portion of the highway was completed in 1950 by Mexico. While the sections through the smaller Central American countries were constructed with assistance from the US, Mexico single-handedly built and financed the portions of the highway extending through the country,
So get your cars out of your garage and plan a road trip to any of these roads. We are sure that apart from being the longest, they would also be the best to ride! Drive safe and let us know your experience in the comments section!

 

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