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National Highway System (NHS)

The National Highway System (NHS) is approximately 160,000 miles of roadway important to the nation's economy, defense, and mobility. The NHS includes the following subsystems of roadways.

• NHS Interstate: The Eisenhower Interstate System of highways retains its separate identity within the NHS.
• NHS Routes: These highways are secondary to the NHS Interstate, but still remain important to the national economy, defense and mobility.
• NHS Intermodal Connectors: These highways provide access between major intermodal facilities and the other subsystems making up the National Highway System. 

The NHS encourages transportation planners to focus on a limited number of high-priority routes and to concentrate on improving them with federal-aid funds. At the same time, states can incorporate design and construction improvements that address their traffic needs safely and efficiently.

A Wisconsin statewide NHS map (1.3 MB) is available on the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) web site. PDFs of urban area NHS maps and planned routes are available on the WisDOT FTP server.

You will need the Adobe Reader (provided free of charge) to view PDF files. For more information about getting your free copy of the Adobe Reader, visit WisDOT's Software information page.

All external hyperlinks are provided for your information and for the benefit of the general public. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation does not testify to, sponsor or endorse the accuracy of the information provided on externally linked pages.

Questions about the content of this page:
Bureau of Planning and Economic Development, bop.dtim@dot.wi.gov
Last modified: April 26, 2012