New toll road to connect Granbury with the Chisolm Trail Parkway

[nhoward45]

The Hood County News published an article today stating that the City Council will hear a presentation about a possible toll road connecting Granbury tomorrow.  Here is the link: https://hcnews.com/pages/updates/toll-road-for-granbury/

Has anyone heard about this proposal? 

[The Ghostbuster]

Has this toll road been approved? Or is the study of said toll road just beginning?

[wxfree]

This road is on the regional planning documents, but is considered a "corridor for future evaluation."  The proposed toll road would connect to Chisholm Trail Parkway near FM 1187.  This would enable travel from south of Cresson to Fort Worth avoiding Benbrook.  This connector, if relatively straight, would be shorter than the south end of CTP toward Cleburne, meaning the toll cost, if at the same per-mile rate, would be slightly less.  Note that the orange line doesn't show new road, but the corridor, which includes US 377.  The connector, the new road, would be the part separate from that highway.

There's a map on Page 14 of this PDF file.
http://www.nctcog.org/trans/committees/rtc/2016/01Jan/Ref.Itm_5.1.rtc011416.pdf

[compdude787]

Wouldn't an upgrade of US 377 provide a more direct route into Fort Worth than if they were going to make a road go east towards the Chisholm Trail Parkway? US 377 seems like the "hypotenuse" route in this case. (and don't worry, I'm not a sockpuppet of dzlsabe!)

[TXtoNJ]

Wouldn't an upgrade of US 377 provide a more direct route into Fort Worth than if they were going to make a road go east towards the Chisholm Trail Parkway? US 377 seems like the "hypotenuse" route in this case. (and don't worry, I'm not a sockpuppet of dzlsabe!)

377 is a developed commercial corridor, while the cutoff to the CTP is mostly greenfield. It's a lot cheaper to go that way for a 1-2 minute difference in travel time.

[wxfree]

Wouldn't an upgrade of US 377 provide a more direct route into Fort Worth than if they were going to make a road go east towards the Chisholm Trail Parkway? US 377 seems like the "hypotenuse" route in this case. (and don't worry, I'm not a sockpuppet of dzlsabe!)

I don't think the difference would be very big.  It looks like a bigger difference if you just look at the shortest distance to I-20.  Drivers headed toward downtown would either go north on I-820 and east on I-30 or would go east on I-20 and north on CTP.  Either of these is an inefficient route.  By moving the inefficient part of the route south, you can take advantage of a more efficient route along CTP to the north while building through open country instead of through or around built-up areas.  It also moves traffic off of existing Interstates and onto a toll road, which TxDOT and NTTA will both like.

[compdude787]

Wouldn't an upgrade of US 377 provide a more direct route into Fort Worth than if they were going to make a road go east towards the Chisholm Trail Parkway? US 377 seems like the "hypotenuse" route in this case. (and don't worry, I'm not a sockpuppet of dzlsabe!)

I don't think the difference would be very big.  It looks like a bigger difference if you just look at the shortest distance to I-20.  Drivers headed toward downtown would either go north on I-820 and east on I-30 or would go east on I-20 and north on CTP.  Either of these is an inefficient route.  By moving the inefficient part of the route south, you can take advantage of a more efficient route along CTP to the north while building through open country instead of through or around built-up areas.  It also moves traffic off of existing Interstates and onto a toll road, which TxDOT and NTTA will both like.

Yeah, looking at the route some more, it makes more sense to me. At first I was thinking that they wanted the road going directly east from Granbury rather than going roughly northeast and hitting the CTP at the FM 1187 junction.

[Bobby5280]

Part of US-377 in Granbury and some portions of US-377 between Granbury and Fort Worth could be upgraded to freeway quality. But there's no way the whole corridor could be upgraded. There's just too much development encroaching the right of way. A new terrain route (and as a toll road) is probably the only practical solution.

[Road Hog]

I will be a big fan of this as I have to go to Stephenville a few times a year. Where is the terminus of this?

[wxfree]

The new toll road would extend from CTP near FM 1187 to US 377 south of Cresson.  There is no timetable for construction, so it could be a very long time.