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Top 10 Truck Bottlenecks

The American Transportation Research Institute released its annual list highlighting the most congested bottlenecks for trucks in the U.S. Fort Lee, New Jersey, topped the list for the third year in a row.

February 24, 2021
Top 10 Truck Bottlenecks

The most congested bottleneck for trucks in the U.S. is the intersection of I-95 and SR 4 in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

Map: ATRI

2 min to read


The American Transportation Research Institute released its annual list highlighting the most congested bottlenecks for trucks in the U.S. Topping the list for the third year in a row is the intersection of Interstate 95 and State Route 4 in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

The  most congested bottlenecks in 2020 were:

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  1. Fort Lee, New Jersey: I-95 at SR 4

  2. Cincinnati: I-71 at I-75

  3. Atlanta: I-285 at I-85 (North)

  4. Atlanta: I-20 at I-285 (West)

  5. Houston: I-45 at I-69/US 59

  6. Chicago: I-290 at I-90/I-94

  7. Chattanooga, Tennessee: I-75 at I-24

  8. St. Louis: I-64/I-55 at I-44

  9. Rye, New York: I-95 at I-287

  10. San Bernardino, California: I-10 at I-15

ATRI’s analysis, which utilized data from 2020, found that while there were COVID-related impacts on traffic across the country as car drivers stayed at home, the year was not without severe congestion. Average truck speeds at a fourth of the bottlenecks on ATRI’s list were 45 MPH or less, reflecting both a return to pre-pandemic freight demand throughout the year and the impact of numerous roadway construction projects in 2020.

The 2021 Top Truck Bottleneck List measures the level of truck-involved congestion at over 300 locations on the national highway system. The analysis, based on truck GPS data from over 1 million freight trucks 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.

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ATRI’s truck GPS data is also used to support the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Freight Mobility Initiative. 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.

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