Regional Boards > Mid-South
I-14 in Texas
Bobby5280:
I think the best chance Midland has of getting another Interstate route is via the Ports to Plains Corridor. And I think that's an outside chance. The main line of the P2P corridor goes thru Big Spring. Midland getting in on that depends on a I-27W and I-27E combo being funded and built.
If Midland gets connected via the P2P corridor I think it's more likely the route would be in the form of an I-27 spur running from Lamesa down to Midland and ending there. Midland would depend on the I-14 effort to get the Southern half from Midland to Sterling City built.
I don't expect I-14 to get built from Midland thru Huntsville and into Louisiana without the Federal government getting back to offering a 90/10 funding split. If TX DOT ends up having to foot much of the bill the I-14 corridor will see very little development past the Killeen area. TX DOT has so many other highways to maintain. They'll likely concentrate of spending any extra money to improve highways in highly populated areas. Right now the state government has adopted a stance against new toll roads. But I don't think that's going to last very long.
longhorn:
TxDOT is expanding 36/190 from Temple to Rogers into a freeway, making its way to Cameron.
https://www.google.com/maps/@30.9349273,-97.2345457,6585m/data=!3m1!1e3
Bobby5280:
They are building a 4-lane bypass around the town of Rogers. But this sort of thing has grown somewhat common in parts of Texas. The US-277 corridor between Wichita Falls and Abilene has a few town bypasses that are Interstate quality or can be upgraded to it. Everything in between is regular 4-lane highway. The proposal in Wichita Falls to extend Kell Freeway to the Holliday bypass was down-graded to a very modest project adding a center turn lane to the existing 4-lane non-divided street.
The bypass in Rogers would become a portion of I-14 if/when TX DOT builds it from Temple down to the College Station area. It doesn't look like TX DOT is addressing the non-freeway segments of US-190 between Temple, Heidenheimer, Rogers, Buckholts and Cameron -at least not for now. And then there is still a big question over what path I-14 would take once it reaches the Milano area. Will it go direct (on a new terrain path) to Bryan and/or College Station?
longhorn:
It is freeway capable from I -35 to Heidenheimer, except for a small portion by the Temple college that can easily have an interchange built in that area. The latest TxDot plans had ramps planned for the I-35/360 interchange. It will be the route of I-14 going east out of Temple. Kind of disappointing but it saves money. Due to other priorities, TxDot is slow walking this freeway expansion. There is a lot of traffic from Cameron to Temple so expanding that section is a no brainer and will be MUUUUUUCH safer and everyone gets to dodge the speed trap called Rogers.
My guess at Cameron the route shoots over south of Hearne and stops. It gives CenTex a safer and faster route to Houston. No way do I ever seeing I-14 making it to the eastern state line.
Bobby5280:
The segment of US-190 from the 1st Street intersection in Temple to the start of the freeway-ish bypass of Heidenheimer is a mess. After 1st Street the existing US-190 road is reduced to a 5-lane street on what looks like about 200' of ROW. There are significant properties on either side of the street. There is a freeway exit with HK Dodgen Loop, then it turns into a standard 4-lane divided highway for a mile. It looks like TX DOT will have no choice but to use the existing alignment for I-14 upgrades. But it's going to come at the cost of some property removals.
Google Earth imagery dated 8/2022 shows some work being done to existing US-190 between Heidenheimer and Rogers, but it only looks like they're adding a second pair of lanes to an otherwise standard 4-lane divided road. The ROW width is varying from 240' to 270', which will be a tight squeeze since continuous frontage roads look necessary to maintain local access.
US-190 from Rogers to Cameron is just a 2-lane road. A lot of completely new construction, maybe even on a new alignment, will be necessary. That would give way to whatever new alignment TX DOT might choose going to Bryan. Obviously a route as direct as possible from Cameron would be preferable.
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