Roads are the oldest form of transportation, used by nomadic hunters moving in groups through animal tracks as early as 10,000 BC. Egypt developed the first stone-paved roadways between 2600 and 2200 BC.
We examine the top ten longest roads in the world, measured in kilometers. Today, the world’s highways total almost 66 million kilometers and serve various purposes. They are highways and are primarily used to convey people, commodities, and military and construction machinery across states, countries, and even continents. In this blog, we will investigate the 10 longest roads in the world in depth.
The world’s 10 longest roads
The best part of any road trip is the endless stretch of highway. Many people were forced to postpone their road trips because of the COVID-19 pandemic. You may go back on track and realize your dream, though, as the constraints are being relaxed and things are improving. And if you’re daring, we advise packing your bags and picking one of the world’s longest highways.
But first, check out the table displaying the world’s longest roads.
| S.No | Name of the Road | Country |
| 1 | Pan American Highway | Several |
| 2 | Highway 1 | Australia |
| 3 | Trans-Siberian Highway | Several |
| 4 | Trans-Canada Highway | Canada |
| 5 | Golden Quadrilateral Highway | India |
| 6 | China National Highway 010 | China |
| 7 | US Route 20 | USA |
| 8 | US Route 6 | USA |
| 9 | Interstate 90 (I-90) | USA |
| 10 | Interstate 80 (I-80) | USA |
Scroll down to get details on each of these roads, 10 Longest Roads in the World.
Ten Longest Roads in the World
I’m curious about the world’s longest stretches of metal-tarred roadways. Here is our ranking of the top 10 longest roads in the world, complete with maps.
Longest Road in the World 1: Pan-American Highway
The PanAm is a network of interconnected domestic and foreign roadways connecting all Pacific continental states, except for the 106 km long Darien Gap in the rainforest that separates southeast Panama from northwest Colombia. From its northern tip in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Ushuaia, Argentina, the Pan-American Highway is a network of routes that crosses the whole continent of America. With a de facto length of 48,000 km, the highway holds the record for the longest motorable road in the world in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Length in Kilometres
48,000 km, including spurs in North and South America.
Conception & History
In 1923, the Fifth International Conference of American States introduced the idea of the Pan-American Highway. Finally, the states ratified the Convention on July 29, 1937.
Route of Pan American Highway
The route in North America begins in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay and connects to Canada’s Yukon. The US Federal Highways Administration formally recognized all Interstates as Pan-American Highway annexes in 1966.
From Laredo, Texas, to Mexico City, it is the Mexican Federal Highway 85, followed by the CA-1 in Central America, Routes 1, 2, and 5 in Chile, as well as Routes 1 and 2 in Costa Rica, Columbia Highway 26, Ecuador Highway 35, Peru Highway 1, and Argentina National Route 9.
Areas Covered by Pan American Highway
Longest Road in the World 2: Highway 1, Australia
The second-largest motorable road in the world, Highway 1, is also the longest of the country’s interstates. Except for the Australian Capital Territory, it connects all Australian states and is 14,500 kilometres long. This highway, used by a million travellers every day, passes through major towns, coasts, tropical and temperate woods, swamps, deserts, and scrublands.
Length in Kilometres
14,500 kilometres
Conception & History
Following Australia’s adoption of the National Route Numbering System in 1955, Highway 1 was formally established and was composed of an existing network of highways, roads, and local tracks. The entire stretch of the highway is designated “National 1,” and the labels M1, A1, and B1 indicate how important and high-quality the routes are.
Route of Highway 1
Highway 1 is the parent of all other significant motorways and highways. The route connects the Queensland border with Yallah in New South Wales, Traralgon and Norsemen in Victoria and South Australia, and Norsemen and the Queensland border in the Northern Territory, passing through Darwin before returning to Queensland. It also travels to Tasmania’s capital, Hobart.
Areas Covered
All state capitals Australian Capital Region.
Longest Road in the World 3: Trans-Siberian Highway
The network of highways that connects the entire length of Russia, from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Sea of Japan in the east, is known as the Trans-Siberian highway. The highway is the third-longest motorable road in the world, with a total length of 11,000 km.
Length in Kilometres
11,000 kilometres
Conception & History
The Amur Carat Road, which connected Chita with Khabarovsk in the early 20th century, was difficult until 2010. The unpaved road was prone to mud, marsh, boulders, gravel, sand, washboards, potholes, and huge swaths of woodland. Some sections of the Trans-Siberian, including the road between St. Petersburg and Irkutsk, were built by inmates of Gulag prisons before the trains even existed. In 2010, the road construction was fully finished. By August 12th, 2015, the entire route had been paved.
Route of Trans-Siberian Highway
The 11,000-kilometer route links Vladivostok in the east with St. Petersburg in the west. The M10 (St. Petersburg to Moscow) highway, the M5 Ural Highway (Moscow to Chelyabinsk), the Baikal Highway, the R297 Amur Highway (Chita to Khabarovsk), and the A370 Ussuri Highway make up the route (Khabarovsk-Vladivostok).
Areas Covered
The road connects Russia’s Western and Southern Border States with its Eastern Seaboard from Europe to Asia.
Longest Road in the World 4: Trans-Canada Highway
Nine of Canada’s ten provinces are connected by a network of transcontinental roadways maintained by the provincial and federal governments. The distance from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean is 7,476 kilometres. The highway’s distinctive white maple on green markings have gained cult status domestically and internationally. The road travels from St. John’s, the provincial capital of Newfoundland, to Victoria, British Columbia.
Length in Kilometres
7,476 kilometres
Conception & History
The Crowsnest Highway, the Big Bend Highway, and the Cariboo Highway are a few Canadian roads that predate the Trans-Canada. The Canadian Pacific Railway commissioned the initial surveying, and the highway followed that path. The Trans Canada Highway Act of 1949 gave the road its approval; work on it started in 1950 and was finished in 1962. It was the longest continuous highway in the world at the time.
Route of Trans Canada Highway
Except for New Brunswick, Quebec, and Nova Scotia, practically every province refers to the main road as Highway 1. Highway 16, Ontario Highway 71, 11, 66, Quebec Route 117, Autoroute 15, and the Prince Edward Island Route are some additional significant offshoots of the main highway.
Areas Covered
The Trans-Canada Highway connects major cities like Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, and Fredericton while traversing nine out of Canada’s ten provinces (Nunavet being the exception).
Longest Road in the World 5: Golden Quadrilateral National Highway
The national highway system, known as the Golden Quadrilateral, or GQ for short, links all of India’s major urban, industrial, and agricultural centres. 5,846 kilometres make up the whole paved and motorable length of the Golden Quadrilateral. It ranks as the world’s fifth-biggest highway project and the largest in India. It was constructed at an estimated cost of USD 8 billion and comprises 4-lane and 6-lane highways, motorways, and toll roads.
Length in kilometres
5,846 kilometres
Conception & History
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who laid the cornerstone on January 6, 1999, had the idea for the Golden Quadrilateral 1999. Initial completion was supposed to be finished in 2006. However, owing to land acquisition and contractor issues, it wasn’t. The roadway was finally finished in January 2012 at a lower-than-anticipated cost of USD 4.1 billion. On the DBFO Model, it was planned to convert all 4 lanes to 6 lanes.
Route of Golden Quadrilateral
The major roads of the Golden Quadrilateral include NH44 from Delhi to Kolkata (1453 km), NH48 from Delhi to Mumbai to Chennai (2752 km), and NH16 from Kolkata to Chennai (1648 km). The Golden Quadrilateral connects all other Indian National Highway Systems, which provide access to Srinagar and the remainder of Punjab (NH1), Kanyakumari (NH1), Hyderabad (NH9), Patna (NH30), and many more locations.
Areas Covered
Through its primary routes, the Golden Quadrilateral connects all of India’s major metropolises, including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai-MMR, Kolkata, and Chennai, as well as others through its branches, including Pune, Ahmedabad, Surat, Srinagar, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Kanyakumari, and Kozhikode. Except for the Seven Sisters in the East, GQ and its spurs pass through 28 of India’s 35 states and UTs.
Longest Road in the World 6: China National Highway 010
The Tongsan Expressway, officially known as National Highway 010, connected Sanya in Hainan to Tongjiang in Heilongjiang. Before it was eliminated in the 2010s, it had a total length of 5,700km and was the longest roadway in China.
Length in Kilometres
5,700 kilometres
Route of China National Highway 010
The G15 Shenyang-Haiko Expressway replaced the five principal north-south and east-west roads in the 2010s, which included China National Highway 010.
Areas Covered
The highway connects the provinces of Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong and goes from Tongjiang in Heilongjiang Province to Sanya in Hainan.
Longest Road in the World 7: US Route 20
US Route 20 is a national road in the United States that runs from coast to coast, connecting the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Northwest to the Atlantic Ocean in New England. The “0” in the numbering indicates a significant East Coast to West Coast road. In the entire United States, it is the longest such highway. In Yellowstone National Park, the route ends and is replaced by unnamed local roads.
Length in Kilometres
5,415 kilometres
Conception & History
This road was formerly known as New England Interstate 05 and was a component of the NE Highway System before the official US Highway Numbering System was implemented in the late 1920s. The road ended at Yellowstone National Park’s entrance before 1940.
Route of US Route 20
The highway’s western end is in Newport, Oregon, at a junction with US 101, and its eastern terminus is in Boston, Massachusetts, at a junction with Route 2.
Areas Covered
The states covered by US Route 20:
| Oregon | Idaho | Montana | Wyoming |
| Nebraska | Iowa | Illinois | Indiana |
| Ohio | Pennsylvania | New York | Massachusetts |
Longest Road in the World 8: US Route 6
In honour of American Civil War troops, the eighth-longest road in the world is also known as the Grand Army of the Republic Highway. US 6 is a diagonal highway referred to as going “from nothing to nowhere” and does not cross any significant transcontinental routes.
Length in Kilometres
5,148 kilometres
Conception & History
Since the highway’s construction in 1926, many changes have been made. In 1964, when the Californian government renamed and assigned most of its highway to other numbers, the nation’s longest-standing route ended in Long Beach, California, making US Route 6 the second-longest highway in the country.
Route of US Route 6
The route spans from Bishop, California, on the west coast, to Provincetown, Massachusetts, on the east coast of the Atlantic. There are numerous significant intersections with other interstates.
Areas Covered
Longest Road in the World 9: Interstate-90
The I-90 is the country’s longest east-west transcontinental motorway. It has toll sections that predate the creation of the motorway and parallel the older US Route 20. It has various climatic features, such as thunderstorms, marshes, prairies, alpine greenery, mountain passes, and snow-covered highways.
Length in Kilometres
4,862.18 kilometres
Conception & History
Many outdated roadways and motor trails were replaced under the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. I-90 was established in 1957, modified and expanded in 1978, 1987, and 1993, and finished in 2003.
Route of Interstate-90
The I-90 travels across the Pacific Northwest, the Mountain West, the Great Plains, and the Midwest before reaching an end at Massachusetts Route 1A close to Logan International Airport in the West. It starts at Washington State Route 519 in Seattle.
Areas Covered
Longest Road in the World 10: Interstate-80
A transcontinental roadway from California to New Jersey is the country’s second-longest interstate and tenth-longest road. The Lincoln Highway, the first trans-US road, most closely resembles the path of this road.In this 10 Longest Roads in the World, this is 10 th longest road in the world.
Length in Kilometres
4,664.44 kilometres
Conception & History
The I-80, like the I-90, was built as part of the 1956 Interstate Act in several phases, with the last one being finished in Salt Lake City in 1986.
Route of Interstate-80
Major cities like Oakland, Sacramento, Reno, Salt Lake City, Omaha, Des Moines, and Toledo are all passed by the route from Downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey.
Areas Covered
Latest Update – Upcoming Longest Road Tunnel in the World
The world’s longest and deepest subsea road tunnel will be built in Norway thanks to a contract for $500.6 million signed by a multinational construction and project development company called Skanska. The project is broken into pieces, and this construction company is working on the E04 Boknafjord tunnel north, one of the three major tunnelling contracts. This twin-tube tunnel will be 10.5 meters in diameter, 26.7 kilometres long, and 392 meters below sea level.
Skanska will construct a 2 km long road above ground and an 18.5 km long road inside the tunnel.
It is estimated that the contract will start in the first quarter of 2023 and end in the third quarter of 2029.
Summing up – Longest Roads in the World
Roads are one of the most crucial means of transportation for both goods and people. They help the world’s most remote regions get access to the economy, employment opportunities, and financial stability. Freeways and long, well-built highways are a common sight worldwide, especially in the United States.This is a top list of 10 Longest Roads in the World.
The Pan-American Highway (48 000 kilometres), the Trans-Canada Highway, the Golden Quadrilateral, and China 010 in Asia, as well as Route 20, Route 6, I-90, and I-80 in the United States, are among the top ten longest roads in the world.
Also Read: Feng Shui & Vastu Crystal Lotus – Benefits, Placement & More
Similar Topics: Garden Stakes – Meaning, Types, Uses | Decorative Garden Stakes
