US 82 Texas Corridor Study

[Bobby5280]

The plans for a "US-82 relief route" for Gainesville have been in development for several years. Unfortunately those plans consist only of a quarter partial loop from I-35 South of Gainesville up to US-82 East of Gainesville.

That's a pretty dopey concept for a "US-82 relief route."

An actual US-82 relief route around Gainesville would have both ends of the relief route terminating at US-82 both East and West of Gainesville. The relief route would go around Gainesville either to the North or South of town. The, uh, thing they're studying only looks like a partial relief route for I-35 traffic, not US-82 traffic.

I think a US-82 North bypass around Gainesville would be more feasible to build. The new terrain route could start around Whitesboro and work due West, bypassing Gainesville to the North. Then the freeway could drop down into the existing US-82 route West of Gainesville. TX DOT could still build a partial loop highway around Gainesville. But the North side or quadrant could be doubled up with a proper US-82 bypass route.

[splashflash]

The TXDOT US 82 Corridor study has been completed and posted on the website:  https://www.txdot.gov/projects/projects-studies/statewide/us82-corridor-study.html
Scroll to the middle of the page and download the PDF files.

[Bobby5280]

Early impressions: it doesn't look like TX DOT will pursue very many substantial projects along the US-82 corridor.

Perhaps the biggest possibility is a new freeway bypass around the North side of Gainesville. TX DOT at least mentions the need to do a study.

I kind of laughed a bit about the "concerns of a sign jungle" along Loop 286 around the North side of Paris. The North half of that loop could have been a properly functional Interstate quality freeway. But either TX DOT and/or the local city government allowed businesses to build right up onto the main lanes of the highway. Driveway entrances are everywhere, even connecting to on/off ramps at freeway style exits. Likewise various commercial business street signs are installed close to the road. Visibility conflicts exist between all the business signs and ground mounted green traffic signs. None of these problems would have existed if they had bothered to build continuous frontage roads in the first place.

In Wichita Falls it looks like they're probably going to not do a damned thing about US-82 between the West end of Kell Freeway and the Holliday Bypass. They do acknowledge that not-divided 4-lane segment of US-82 has a really high concentration of vehicle crashes. A bunch of industrial tin shed style buildings are built alongside the road. There are lots of driveways for service vehicles. The real solution is extending Kell Freeway around all that junky clutter and connecting to the Holliday Bypass. There were plans to do just that, but those plans got shot down. I guess it might take a really grisly collision with multiple fatalities to change some minds. For now, all they're going to do is pay lip service to it with "improved road markings," other signs or some other cheap shit.

[Stephane Dumas]

Early impressions: it doesn't look like TX DOT will pursue very many substantial projects along the US-82 corridor.

Perhaps the biggest possibility is a new freeway bypass around the North side of Gainesville. TX DOT at least mentions the need to do a study.

I kind of laughed a bit about the "concerns of sign jungle" along Loop 286 around the North side of Paris. The North half of that loop could have been a properly functional Interstate quality freeway. But either TX DOT and/or the local city government allowed businesses to build right up onto the main lanes of the highway. Driveway entrances are everywhere, even connecting to on/off ramps at freeway style exits. Likewise various commercial business street signs are installed close to the road. Visibility conflicts exist between all the business signs and ground mounted green traffic signs. None of these problems would have existed if they had bothered to build continuous frontage roads in the first place.

At least, let's hope they'll change their minds for the gap between I-35/Gainesville and US-75/Sherman before it became a repeat of the US-380 situation.

On a off-topic sidenote, I wonder why US-62 isn't completely multiplexed with US-82 at Lubbock? Instead of continuing on the Marsha Sharp freeway, US-62 left the freeway to use 19th street only to reach US-82 near the northern junction of Loop-289.

[Bobby5280]

If TX DOT can at least get a new terrain bypass built around the North side of Gainesville that will solve some of the problems. The stretch of US-82 from Gainesville to Whitesboro has turned into a big mess. That new terrain bypass might end up needing to be built around both Gainesville and Whitesboro. To the East of Whitesboro US-82 looks much easier to upgrade to Interstate standards.

I'm guessing the split of US-62 and US-82 within Lubbock has to do with getting state or federal funding for certain city streets. US-62 (and TX-114) runs along the South edge of the Texas Tech campus as a surface street. The Marsha Sharp Freeway (US-82) runs along the North edge of campus. US-84 runs North South along Ave Q and then Clovis Road.

The situation reminds me how OK-7 formerly ran inside of Lawton. Its terminus had been moved around at least a couple times within the past 30 years. Finally the state truncated its West terminus at I-44 on the East side of town. No more state highway maintenance funds for surface streets like Lee Blvd or Sheridan Road. We have a huge industrial park out on the West side of the city yet there are no direct connections with any highways. They plan to extend Goodyear Blvd up to US-62 where a new $16 million diamond interchange of some type will be built. That will put a lot more truck traffic onto Rogers Lane: a city street trying to pretend at being a freeway yet has some serious safety flaws.

[bwana39]

If TX DOT can at least get a new terrain bypass built around the North side of Gainesville that will solve some of the problems. The stretch of US-82 from Gainesville to Whitesboro has turned into a big mess. That new terrain bypass might end up needing to be built around both Gainesville and Whitesboro. To the East of Whitesboro US-82 looks much easier to upgrade to Interstate standards..

The ROW for Full frontage roads is intact all the way to the Cooke County line I doubt there will be any greenfield building in Grayson County. On the other hand, anything done in Gainesville will almost surely be a bypass situation.

[Bobby5280]

Yeah, the frontage road segments along US-82 in Whitesboro end right at the county line running North-South. Once US-82 proceeds West into Cooke County the real mess begins.

While US-82 going over Whitesboro has enough room to be fully upgraded to Interstate standards there isn't a pain-free way how to make a Gainesville bypass dove-tail into it. Lots of small to medium sized homes are scattered all over that area. Plus there are larger industrial and agricultural buildings mixed into the situation. Lake Dealey and Camp Sweeny is another serious obstacle.

If they did upgrade US-82 in place going by Whitesboro they would probably have to do the upgrade work at least as far West as the FM-678 interchange going into Oak Ridge. TX DOT would have to buy/clear some properties along the way, but they would be stuck doing the same thing by building a new terrain route.

[Stephane Dumas]

Let's hope they also reserve some ROW when the Dallas North Tollway (or Grayson County tollway) for a stack interchange with US-82 when traffic level warrant it and speaking of tollways, I wonder if Grayson county might be tempted to convert US-82 into a tollway while the service roads are free in a similar way to TX-121/Sam Rayburn tollway? 

[motorola870]

Let's hope they also reserve some ROW when the Dallas North Tollway (or Grayson County tollway) for a stack interchange with US-82 when traffic level warrant it and speaking of tollways, I wonder if Grayson county might be tempted to convert US-82 into a tollway while the service roads are free in a similar way to TX-121/Sam Rayburn tollway? 

Not likely. They would find the funding to do the necessary upgrades to US82. TXDOT would not be up for converting just one county along the route to a toll road either.

[Bobby5280]

Strategically speaking, it would be better to keep US-82 maintained as a "free" super highway over the Northern reaches of the DFW Metroplex. I see US-82 as being one of at least 2 or more relief highways to move long distance commercial traffic around the Metroplex. I think it would be better to keep such highways toll free so they can help attract as much long distance "thru" commercial traffic as possible.

I totally see the possibility for the US-82 corridor from US-287 in Henrietta to I-30 in New Boston being an Interstate, even a 2-digit Interstate such as "I-34." Fictional Highway Alert: the potential would be there for the same Interstate to extend across parts of Southern Arkansas if the needs justified it. Currently, IMHO, the Henrietta-New Boston leg is a worthwhile Northern bypass for nearly 8 million residents in DFW.

[MikieTimT]

Strategically speaking, it would be better to keep US-82 maintained as a "free" super highway over the Northern reaches of the DFW Metroplex. I see US-82 as being one of at least 2 or more relief highways to move long distance commercial traffic around the Metroplex. I think it would be better to keep such highways toll free so they can help attract as much long distance "thru" commercial traffic as possible.

I totally see the possibility for the US-82 corridor from US-287 in Henrietta to I-30 in New Boston being an Interstate, even a 2-digit Interstate such as "I-34." Fictional Highway Alert: the potential would be there for the same Interstate to extend across parts of Southern Arkansas if the needs justified it. Currently, IMHO, the Henrietta-New Boston leg is a worthwhile Northern bypass for nearly 8 million residents in DFW.

There will be development east of Texarkana over the next decade as the bromine extraction industry around Magnolia in the Smackover Formation transitions into a lithium extraction industry that dwarfs the bromine portion.  There's too many big energy players sinking money into what seems to be a no-brainer to take the brine coming out of the bromine plants that would otherwise be pumped back into the formation and pull the high concentrations of lithium out of the "waste" product before pumping back into the ground.  I don't necessarily subscribe to the idea that we'll all be driving electric cars in 8 years, but the need for lithium for various kinds of products that we all take for granted in addition to battery storage systems for power grid substations like what's going up down the road from me for voltage and frequency resilience means that the current low prices for lithium are an anomaly in the market and will be short lived.

There will be lots of development in the energy sector around Magnolia and El Dorado, so US-82, being one of the priorities of ARDOT's 4-lane grid system, will be at minimum upgraded to 4 lane divided/5 lane Arkansas freeway within the next 20 years from Texarkana to El Dorado.  I think an interstate along there is far-fetched, but would be less so if I-69 ever truly got a push between Shreveport and Memphis, also far fetched in the next couple of decades.

Arkansas' having the 12th biggest road network in the nation along with near bottom rankings in wealth would preclude them from adding yet another Interstate to the list of priorities when I-57, I-49, and allegedly I-69 are already on the radar.  When I-57 gets completed through Arkansas, and I-49 gets pushed north of Texarkana, only then does I-69 get any love other than Super-2 bypasses of the cities in south Arkansas.

[Bobby5280]

The Great River Bridge and Mississippi's segment of I-69 are the two big variables currently making I-69 not yet worth building in Southern Arkansas. Why spend all that money if the road would only dead-end at McGehee?

That situation would make it less likely for a potential Interstate along US-82 to be extended East of Texarkana. If it could connect into I-69 in the El Dorado area that would work better. There would probably be a lot of commercial traffic using that as an alternative to the I-40 bottleneck between Little Rock and Memphis. The new bridge would make all the difference.