Heartland Expressway

Heartland Expressway
High Priority Corridor 14
Heartland Expressway highlighted in red
Route information
Length	498 mi (801 km)
Existed	1988–present
Component highways	SH 71 from Limon, CO to the CO-NE line I-76 from Denver, CO to Brush, CO N-71 from the CO-NE line to Scottsbluff, NE US 26 from Guernsey, WY to Bayard, NE L-62A from Bayard, NE to Angora, NE US 385 from Angora, NE to Maverick Junction, SD SD 79 in South Dakota
Major junctions
South end	I-70 BL / US 24 / US 40 / US 287 in Limon, CO
Major intersections	I-76 at Brush, CO I-80 at Kimball, NE US 26 at Bayard, NE US 385 at Angora, NE US 20 at Chadron, NE US 18 at Oelrichs, SD US 18 / US 385 at Maverick Junction, SD
North end	I-90 / US 14 / US 16 Truck in Rapid City, SD
Location
Country	United States
States	Colorado Nebraska South Dakota Wyoming
Highway system
High-Priority Corridors

The Heartland Expressway (also known as the National Highway System High Priority Corridor 14) is a federally-designated High Priority Corridor between Limon, Colorado, and Rapid City, South Dakota in the US. The proposed four-lane corridor is currently^[when?] under construction, and when completed, will function as the central third of the Ports-to-Plains Alliance, connecting the Ports to Plains Corridor and Theodore Roosevelt Expressway via the Nebraska Panhandle. When completed, the highway will provide multi-lane, divided-highway access to cities including Alliance, Nebraska; Scottsbluff, Nebraska; and Brush, Colorado, bringing long-term economic development and reducing travel times in the region.^[1]

The proposed $500 million highway is part of a larger project that would create an international trade corridor from Canada to Mexico for the region's abundant energy and agricultural products, with local community leaders long promoting its completion. Up to $943 million in economic benefits is estimated for the region over a 38-year span as a result of the project, through increased traffic volume, travel time savings, improved connections among trade centers, better labor access, improved access to manufacturing centers, better connections between agricultural centers and markets, better access between raw materials and processors, better access for tourists to local fossil sites,^[2] and bring an estimated average of $2.5 million annual savings from accident reduction, 385-950 additional annual jobs, and $9.5 million to $24.8 million in annual earnings.