Top 10 Truck Bottlenecks

The American Transportation Research Institute released its 12th annual list highlighting the most congested bottlenecks for trucks in America.

For the fifth year in a row, the intersection of Interstate 95 and State Route 4 in Fort Lee, New Jersey, is once again the No. 1 freight bottleneck in the country.

2023 Top 10 Truck Bottlenecks

1. Fort Lee, New Jersey: Intersection of I-95 and SR 4
2. Chicago: I-294 at I-290/I-88
3. Houston: I-45 at I-69/US 59
4. Atlanta: I-285 at I-85 (North)
5. Atlanta: I-20 at I-285 (West)
6. Chicago: I-290 at I-90/I-94
7. Los Angeles: SR 60 at SR 57
8. Los Angeles: I-710 at I-105
9. Nashville: I-24/I-40 at I-440 (East)
10. San Bernardino, California: I-10 at I-15

The 2023 Top Truck Bottleneck List measures the level of truck-involved congestion at over 300 locations on the national highway system. The analysis, based on an extensive database of freight truck GPS data, uses several customized software applications and analysis methods, along with terabytes of data from trucking operations to produce a congestion impact ranking for each location. ATRI’s truck GPS data is also used to support numerous state and federal freight mobility initiatives.

The bottleneck locations detailed in this latest ATRI list represent the top 100 congested locations, although ATRI continuously monitors more than 300 freight-critical locations.

ATRI’s analysis, which utilized data from 2022, found traffic conditions continue to deteriorate from recent years as more Americans returned to work post-pandemic. Consequently, supply chain bottlenecks occurred throughout the country.

“The past year-plus has shone a spotlight on our supply chains, and how congestion and other pressures can hurt the American economy and consumers,” said American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear. “ATRI’s bottleneck report highlights the areas of our transportation network in need of investment so we can get goods and people moving. The cost of doing nothing is felt in needless delays, wasted fuel and time.”

Fast Facts

• Average rush hour truck speeds were 36.3 mph, down more than 6% from the previous year.
• Among the top-10 locations, average rush hour truck speeds were less than 30 mph.
• Texas had more bottlenecks than any other state, with 13 on the top 100, including nine in the Houston metropolitan area.
• 30 states have at least one top-100 bottleneck