I-94 intersects with I-90 several times: at its western terminus; Tomah to Madison in Wisconsin; in Chicago, Illinois; and in Lake Station, Indiana.

Major cities that I-94 connects to are Billings, Bismarck, Fargo, Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Detroit.

The route enters at Beach and passes through the Badlands near Medora (near the Theodore Roosevelt National Park South Unit).

Between Mandan and Bismarck, I-94 crosses the Missouri River with a view of the Northern Pacific/BNSF Railway Bridge on the south side of the road.

At Steele, it passes the world's largest sculpture of a sandhill crane (named Sandy), which is 40 feet (12 m) tall and visible from I-94 on the south side of the road, just to the east of exit 200.

At Jamestown, it passes the world's largest sculpture of the buffalo (actually bison) named "Dakota Thunder", which is 28 feet (8.5 m) tall and is visible from I-94 on the north side of the road.

East of Moorhead Municipal Airport, the Interstate travels in a northwest–southeast trajectory past Fergus Falls, Alexandria, and St.

In the Twin Cities, the routing of the highway is politically charged, primarily through many historic working-class and Black neighborhoods.

I-94 runs north along Lake Michigan to St. Joseph and Benton Harbor where it meets US 31 and I-196 before heading east toward Detroit.

Construction began in 2009 to completely rebuild I-94, including expansion to eight lanes, from the Wisconsin–Illinois border through the Mitchell Interchange in Milwaukee.

[8][needs update] In 2005, the I-94 bridge over the Crow River near St. Michael, Minnesota, about 35 miles (56 km) northwest of Minneapolis, was rebuilt.

In 2006, a project to widen I-94 east of Downtown Saint Paul between MN 120 and McKnight Road from four to six lanes was completed.

The expanded Marquette Interchange in Downtown Milwaukee was completed in August 2008 at a cost of $810 million (equivalent to $1.13 billion in 2023[9]).