Frontage Roads

[austrini]

I've never actually heard anyone call them feeder roads... a search of the Dallas Morning News archives reveals 8 hits for "feeder road" but 500+ for "service road" ... maybe its just a DFW nomenclature though. In the rural areas they are signed as Frontage Roads.

Jack Kultgen was head of TxDot during the early Interstate construction area and built Frontage Roads, as previously stated, to services large ranches and farms - but after 1968 they were built primarily at the behest of property developers like Rosewood or Wynne - at least in the DFW area. I dont know a ton about Houston.

TxDot stopped development and construction of Frontage Roads after 1991, unless plans were specifically in place and budgeted to build them in advance of a future freeway; or if an existing road was transformed into a freeway. For instance, SH 130, Loop 49, the Fort Bend Parkway, and other new limited-access roads generally don't have them. SH 121, 160, Marsha Sharp, etc, have them as they're upgrades of existing roads. SH 190 was built as frontage roads because TxDot was not allowed to build toll roads at the time, so the main lanes were to be managed by NTTA.

Other things TxDot decided in 1991: to change all ranch roads into farm roads, and to remove all cloverleafs in the state. Those two policies are still hit and miss.... (cloverleafs are rapidly dying here, though)

Again, my personal knowledge does not generally extend to Houston.... I need to spend a weekend there.



Original

[Sykotyk]

Personally, I hate them. They direct so much commerce and traffic to the interstate that it clogs up with local traffic impeding through traffic.

From Waco to San Antonio on I-35 is just insane.

And you can't blame the businesses, who wouldn't want a store-front seen by that many motorists?

Sykotyk

[mightyace]

I was surprised to hear that about Fort Bend parkway because I thought that I had read something about toll roads in Texas needing frontage roads for a free alternative.  Or, maybe what I read was that if they were building toll lanes along a free route they had to keep the free lanes in some form?

[Greybear]

I used to be a driver for Greyhound, based out of Dallas, and I can tell you from experience that the insanity along the I-35 corridor actually starts in Dallas. Service roads or not, it's still a madhouse.

[SSOWorld]

When I was in Texas (north of Dallas) in 2002, I got caught in a traffic jam due to a crash and drivers were cutting over from the freeway to the frontage road to try to buy time

[Darkchylde]

I've never actually heard anyone call them feeder roads... a search of the Dallas Morning News archives reveals 8 hits for "feeder road" but 500+ for "service road" ... maybe its just a DFW nomenclature though. In the rural areas they are signed as Frontage Roads.

They're referred to extensively in Houston as "feeder roads."

[Greybear]

Other things TxDot decided in 1991: to change all ranch roads into farm roads, and to remove all cloverleafs in the state. Those two policies are still hit and miss.... (cloverleafs are rapidly dying here, though)

Right now, I know of two cloverleaf interchanges along I-30 that will be no more within the next two years:

Greenville - TX 34 (Exits 93A-B)
Texarkana - US 71/59 State Line Avenue (Exits 223A-B)

BTW, Austrini . . . I love that pic of Airport Freeway (TX 183) under construction.

[austrini]

Yeah, San Pedro at IH-410 in San Antonio, SH 6 at IH-35 in Waco, IH-27 at Loop 289 (South) are all munched or in the process of getting munched!

I have some photos of Farm Road signs with "FARM" pasted over the old Ranch. I think they sort of forgot about this directive though.

[J N Winkler]

Jack Kultgen was head of TxDot during the early Interstate construction area and built Frontage Roads, as previously stated, to services large ranches and farms - but after 1968 they were built primarily at the behest of property developers like Rosewood or Wynne - at least in the DFW area. I dont know a ton about Houston.

TxDot stopped development and construction of Frontage Roads after 1991, unless plans were specifically in place and budgeted to build them in advance of a future freeway; or if an existing road was transformed into a freeway. For instance, SH 130, Loop 49, the Fort Bend Parkway, and other new limited-access roads generally don't have them. SH 121, 160, Marsha Sharp, etc, have them as they're upgrades of existing roads. SH 190 was built as frontage roads because TxDot was not allowed to build toll roads at the time, so the main lanes were to be managed by NTTA.

Other things TxDot decided in 1991: to change all ranch roads into farm roads, and to remove all cloverleafs in the state. Those two policies are still hit and miss.... (cloverleafs are rapidly dying here, though)

Where are these directives re. no new frontage roads for new-location freeways, cloverleaf removal, and RM-to-FM conversion written down?  What happened in 1991?

[austrini]

In 1991, the state department of highways was merged with the state motor vehicle commission to create TxDot.
I kind of doubt its written down anywhere. The cloverleaf thing would be something established by engineering approval. I just know this because I've worked with TxDot for years on tons of things and people have told me, repeatedly. As for the Ranch Roads, other than people telling me, I have a bunch of pictures of signs with "farm" glued on them over the "ranch".

I'll make a new post on cloverleafs since we're getting away from the topic of this thread.