I-20

About I-20

Also known as Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway.

From Kent, TX (I-10) to Florence, SC (I-95)

Interstate 20 is a major east-west route across the southern tier of the United States, running about 1,535 miles from a junction with I-10 at Kent in West Texas to a junction with I-95 near Florence, South Carolina. It crosses six states: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. The route links a string of mid-size and large metropolitan areas rather than tracing a coastline, threading the Deep South interior.

From its western end in the high plains and oil country of West Texas, I-20 passes through Midland, Odessa, and Abilene before reaching the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where it forms a southern corridor through the metroplex. East of Texas it serves Shreveport, crosses the lower Mississippi River at Vicksburg, and runs through Jackson, Mississippi, before climbing into Alabama at Birmingham.

In its eastern half I-20 connects Atlanta, where it crosses several other Interstates, with Augusta on the Georgia-South Carolina line and Columbia, the South Carolina capital. The route ends in the Pee Dee region at I-95. Along the way it carries heavy freight and regional commuter traffic and shares long concurrencies with other Interstates, most notably I-59 across eastern Mississippi and Alabama.

State-by-state mileage

State	Miles
Texas	636.1
Louisiana	189.8
Mississippi	154.6
Alabama	214.9
Georgia	202.6
South Carolina	141.5
Total	1,539.5

History

I-20 was among the routes laid out when the Interstate numbering plan was approved in 1957, and it was built in segments over the following decades as a primary southern cross-country corridor. Its general path follows older US highway corridors, including US 80, across much of the South.

The western terminus was extended over time to meet I-10 at Kent, Texas, giving the route a clean connection to the Gulf Coast Interstate while keeping I-20 itself an interior route. Urban sections through Dallas, Atlanta, and other cities were widened and rebuilt as traffic grew.

Major cities and places

Notable features

• Mississippi River crossing at Vicksburg

Did you know

• Crosses six states between West Texas and the South Carolina coast plain.
• Shares a long concurrency with I-59 through eastern Mississippi and Alabama.
• Passes south of downtown Dallas and Atlanta rather than through their cores.
• Western terminus at I-10 in the West Texas community of Kent has no nearby city.