The National Highway System is an approximately 160,000-mile system of roads in the United States identified to be of national significance. The NHS includes a mix of roadway facilities, from Interstate highways to some locally-controlled roads and streets. More specifically, the NHS includes all interstates and most other freeway facilities and major highways. It also includes other routes serving military facilities and major transportation terminals.

NHS is a designation on top of other designations. Interstate routes, for example, are still “Interstates” but they are also part of the NHS. Many of the NHS components are state or local routes, and they remain such while also being designated as being part of the NHS.

In the central Ohio area, besides the Interstate system, other major components of the NHS include parts of US routes 23 and 33, and parts of Ohio routes 13, 16, 36, 79, 104, 161, 315, 317 and 739. Other parts of the system include mostly smaller, local routes serving the following terminals: Buckeye intermodal center, Columbus Greyhound bus terminal, Marysville Conrail terminal, Norfolk-Southern Discovery Park, Port Columbus airport, and Rickenbacker airport. One defense-related route in the area serves the Defense Supply Center in the Whitehall area.

Information on the National Highway System is available from the Federal Highway Administration at: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/hep10/nhs . This site provides maps of the system in each state. The Ohio Department of Transportation also has on-line information on the NHS, by county. See the technical services website at: http://www.dot.state.oh.us/techservsite.

For a MORPC map of the central Ohio 7-county area NHS, click here: CENTRAL OHIO MAP .

The MORPC contact for information on the NHS is Ethan Ortman – eortman@morpc.org or 614-233-4153.