The 5 Longest Highways On The Planet #travel

The 5 longest highways on the planet are stunning feats of engineering with stretches of tarmac running for nearly 60,000 miles across continents.

Country borders, international conventions, mountain passes, deserts and many engineering issues could not stop these man-made structures visible from space being constructed.

But which are the biggest? Here are the 5 longest highways on the planet, clocking up nearly thousands of miles, hundreds of cities and countries between them!

The Pan American Highway

Quite famously, the Pan American Highway is by far the longest highway on the planet, stretching some 30,000 miles from Buenos Aries to North America.

The highway took 27 years to complete from conception to the completion of the build. It’s so long it connects over 20 countries and encompasses the whole of the US interstate highway system.

When the idea was first muted in 1889 it the Pan American route was to be a rail road with tracks and not a car route, but in 1923 it was revisited and the highway plans were put in place.

The countries served by the highway are Canada, the United States, Mexio, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Suriname, Guyana, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina as well as major points leading into Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Highway 1

Australian Highway 1 is dwarfed in length by the Pan American Highway but still boasts over 9,000 miles of tarmac made up of interconnected major roads.

More than one million people use Highway 1 each day as it connects nearly every state in Australia.

Trans-Siberian Highway

6,835 miles long, the Trans-Siberian Highway is the third longest highway on the planet.

The route, like the two above, is comprised of a network of major network routes and stretches from St Petersburg to Vladivostok near China and North Korea.

Trans-Canada Highway

The Trans-Canada Highway is the second longest national road system – the fourth largest in the world. Taking 12 years to build and costing in the region of $1 billion, the highway spans British Columbia to Newfoundland, passing through all 10 Canadian provinces and linking each major city in the country.

At 4,859 miles in length, the highway is so long it links the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the country, and even passes through the Glacier National Park.

The Golden Quadrilateral Highway Network

Connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, the Golden Quadrilateral highway network is the longest highway in India, and the fifth longest on the planet.

The highway took just under 11 years to complete once construction had begun in 2001, and took a combined investment of $10 billion to finish.

Built to help ease the countries congestion issues and increase trade between its major cities, this fine piece of Indian engineering hosts four to six lanes at all times along the highway, with four contractors winning bids to complete a section each.

And at 3,632 miles long, the project survived corruption claims and subsiding passages and upon completion helped link one of the largest and still developing countries on the planet.

About the contributor: Arthur Wilson is a professional blogger and road safety campaigner. Follow him on Twitter @Ayup_Arthur.

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