SH 121 connects DFW airport and several large employment areas with Collin County, north of Dallas, TX. Collin County is the fastest growing county in the state and one of the top 5 fastest growing in the nation. As such, SH 121 is undergoing massive traffic strains. 15 years ago it was a bucolic 2 lane rural highway, and today it is a snarly mess with a regional mall on one side and a new urban center on the other. It’s also the center of a big legal battle. Here is a look at 121 through the years. Click for larger.
This freeway section is now opened as America’s first open tolling solution. This is a new road constructed and planned for a while. Signs tell drivers “no tolltag? dont worry – we’ll bill you”. I don’t know if that’s innovative or scary.
These views show the dramatic updating of SH 121 in Collin County over the past decade. Over one million people have moved within its area of influence within the past 12 years.
Originally planned as a free freeway, the state decided sometime around 2000 to make it a toll road. Local officials complained loudly. Plano, for instance, was vehemently opposed to being surrounded on three sides by toll roads. TxDot partnered with Spanish company Cintra for the right to build and operate the road. Private-Public parterships for tolls, the state said, was “innovative financing”. I don’t think that is very innovative, personally, as the first major roads in the nation were private toll roads. In any case, the deal to turn 121 into a toll road went ahead.

A grade separated interchange replaced the traffic lights at SH 121 and 289. Preston Road is one of Dallas’ busiest arterials and traffic would sometimes have to sit through 5 or 6 light cycles to get through here during peak periods.
Here is where the fighting comes in. TxDot allowed private companies only to bid on the toll project, with Cintra winning with a $2.8 billion 50-year deal. That’s right, fifty years. Another aspect of the project is that the state did not allow public entities to bid on the road. That left out the local toll road authority, the NTTA. The NTTA is responsible for managing every toll facility in North Texas. Additionally, a very heavy organized resistance to the toll road has organized and is headed by both the local governments and by influential businesses. Critics point out that the Denton County section that is currently tolled has already been paid for – 100% – by gas taxes.
Pressure from the above groups forced the Texas Legislature to demand that the DOT allow the NTTA to bid on the road. The NTTA’s bid was actually higher than Cintra’s – $3.3 billion. The legislature also passed a 2 year moratorium on private toll road financing. This put the DOT in a corner because, astonishingly, every single freeway project in the DFW area that TxDot has planned includes tolling whether it be entirely or just several managed lanes. The jury, currently, is still out on what SH 121 will end up as. It might be free, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Texas, once a bastion of great free roads, is going toll crazy.
Tx 121 is open from 121 business to hillcrest road and has been since august 31, 2008