Widest highway in the world is in Texas and has whopping 26 lanes

The Katy Freeway, boasting a jaw-dropping 26 lanes, is the widest highway in the world, found deep in the heart of Houston, Texas.

This stretch of Interstate 10 runs through Houston and has become both a marvel of modern road engineering and a nightmare for daily commuters.

To outsiders, it looks more like an airport runway complex than a freeway, with lanes spreading so wide you can barely see across.

But there’s a reason it ended up this big, and it says a lot about Houston’s relationship with cars.

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Houston is one of the most car-dependent cities in the US

The Katy Freeway wasn’t always such a giant.

Originally built in the 1960s, it was expanded in the early 2000s to deal with Houston’s booming population and chronic congestion.

By 2008, the rebuild had ballooned into a $2.8 billion project, widening the freeway to a record-setting 26 lanes in its broadest section near Beltway 8.

That number includes the main lanes, frontage roads – also called feeders – and managed toll lanes running down the middle.

Depending on how you count it, some argue it’s ‘only’ 20 lanes, but even the most conservative tally still makes it the widest highway in the world.

So why so many lanes?

Houston is one of the most car-dependent cities in the United States, with sprawling suburbs and relatively little public transit.

The idea behind the Katy Freeway expansion was simple: add more lanes to fit more cars.

But here’s the twist: traffic studies later showed that even with all that space, congestion soon returned.

Perhaps Houston should have adopted China’s genius solution to traffic jams, given that the country is no stranger to record-breaking congestion.

It’s fitting that the widest highway in the world is in Texas

Reddit threads about the freeway are full of colorful commentary.

“This must be what the road to Hell looks like,” one user quipped

“I spent about four months of my life on that highway,” admitted another.

But one of the most popular comments says it all:

“Highway construction projects always stop exactly one lane before congestion is solved forever.”

Today, the Katy Freeway stands as both a record-breaker and a cautionary tale.

It proves just how far a city will go to tackle traffic and avoid massive traffic jams, like the one earlier this year during the July 4 weekend.

In a way, this is why China went to great lengths to build a highway by cutting a mountain in half.

Whether you see the highway as a commuter’s lifeline or a big mistake, one thing’s for sure: nothing says Texas quite like building the widest highway in the world.

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