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Interstate 45 (I-45) is an interstate highway located entirely within the U.S. state of Texas. While most interstate routes ending in five are cross-country north-south routes, I-45 is comparatively short, never leaving Texas. It connects the cities of Dallas and Houston, continuing southeast from Houston to Galveston over the Galveston Causeway to the Gulf of Mexico. Interstate 45 is the only intrastate Interstate Highway ending in 5, and the 2nd longest intrastate Interstate Highway after I-87, and it is also the shortest primary Interstate highway (i.e. one ending in 5 or 0). I-45 replaced US 75 over its entire length, although portions of US 75 remained parallel to I-45 until its elimination south of downtown Dallas in 1987. At the south end of I-45, State Highway 87 (formerly part of US 75) continues into downtown Galveston. The north end is at Interstate 30 in downtown Dallas, where US 75 used the Good-Latimer Expressway. A short continuation, known by traffic reporters as the I-45 overhead,〔Tony Hartzel, ''The Dallas Morning News'', Road names honor Texas leaders, July 7, 2002〕 signed as part of US 75, and officially Interstate 345, continues north to the merge with the current end of US 75. Traffic can use Spur 366 to connect to Interstate 35E at the north end of I-345. The portion of I-45 between downtown Houston and Galveston is known to Houston residents as the Gulf Freeway. The short elevated section of I-45 which forms the southern boundary of downtown Houston is known as the Pierce Elevated, after the surface street next to which the freeway runs, while north of Interstate 10 it is known as the North Freeway. I-45 and I-345 in the Dallas area, north of the interchanges with Interstate 20 and State Highway 310 (old US 75), is the Julius Schepps Freeway. The Gulf Freeway and North Freeway both include reversible high-occupancy vehicle lanes for buses and other high-occupancy vehicles to and from downtown Houston. ==Route description== In addition to the official control cities of Galveston, Houston, and Dallas,〔American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, List of Control Cities for Use in Guide Signs on Interstate Highways, 2001〕 I-45 serves a number of other communities, including La Marque, League City, Spring, The Woodlands, Conroe, Willis, Huntsville, Madisonville, Centerville, Buffalo, Fairfield, Corsicana, and Ennis. U.S. Highway 190 joins I-45 for from Huntsville, Texas to Madisonville, Texas. U.S. Highway 287 joins I-45 for from Corsicana, Texas to Ennis, Texas. US 287 signs are only posted (with I-45) from the northern end of Business Loop 45 in Corsicana to the Ellis County line. Interstate 45 gained notoriety during Hurricane Rita in 2005. Thousands of Houston area evacuees jammed the roadway trying to leave. As a result, the freeway became a parking lot. Gas stations ran dry and hundreds of people's cars simply ran empty, their occupants having to spend the night along the shoulder. Four-hour drives suddenly became 24-hour drives. Even though the Texas Department of Transportation started contraflow lane reversal at FM 1488, it did not alleviate the traffic jam deep into the city, as that starting point was even north of The Woodlands, which is close to Conroe, the northern terminus of the greater Houston area. At just , I-45 is the shortest of the primary interstates (ending in 0 or 5), and the only primary interstate to be entirely inside of one state. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Interstate 45」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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