The American Transportation Research Institute has released its annual list highlighting the most congested bottlenecks for trucks in America.
The 15th list of its kind has found the interchange of Interstate 294 and Interstates 290/88 in Chicago as the most congested freight bottleneck in the country.
The remaining Top 10 bottlenecks include:
2. Fort Lee, NJ: I-95 at SR 4
3. Atlanta: I-285 at I-85 (North)
4. Houston: I-45 at I-69/US 59
5. Atlanta: I-75 at I-285 (North)
6. Atlanta: I-20 at I-285 (West)
7. Nashville: I-24/I-40 at I-440 (East)
8. Houston: I-10 at I-69/US 59
9. Cincinnati: I-71 at I-75
10. McDonough, GA: I-75
“Congestion delays inflicted on truckers are the equivalent of 436,000 drivers sitting idle for an entire year,” said ATRI President and COO Rebecca Brewster. “While these congestion metrics are getting worse, the good news is that states do not need to accept the status quo. Illinois has been home to the country’s top bottleneck before, but following a sustained effort to expand capacity, its previous #1 bottleneck at the Jane Byrne Interchange no longer ranks in the top 25. This data gives policymakers a road map to reduce chokepoints, lower emissions, and drive economic growth.”
The 2026 Top Truck Bottleneck List measures the level of truck-involved congestion at more than 325 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.
The full report can be viewed on the ATRI’s website here.
