Your hands on the wheel, your foot on the gas and nothing but the open road before you. Few experiences can so quickly beget a sense of freedom as The Drive. And few can equal the frustration of finding, instead of an open road, one fraught with potholes, burdened by construction equipment or submerged by recent rains. Or finding your vehicle funneled, from four lanes into one, through a slow-motion clog that goes on for who knows how many miles.
You can’t change the conditions. But you can know about many of them before you leave home. Here are some numbers that you can call to find out about road conditions in several states. Most of these lines are operated by state highway departments. Some of the numbers lead to automated recordings, some to live operators. Some focus more on weather, some more on construction. Some numbers answer only on weekdays during business hours.
But a call to any of these numbers should give you a head start before you head out.
Arkansas: 501-569-2374
California: 916-445-7623
Colorado: 303-639-1234
Illinois: 312-368-4636; May-October, 800-452-4368
Indiana: 317-232-5533
Iowa: 515-288-1047
Kansas: 785-291-3000
Kentucky: 800-459-7623
Michigan: 800-337-1334
Minnesota: 800-542-0220
Missouri: 800-222-6400
Nebraska: 402-479-4512; winter, 402-471-4533
Ohio: 614-466-2660
Washington: 206-368-4499
Wisconsin: 800-762-3947
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