Once they’re done with Amarillo, what’s comes next for I-27? North or South?

[Plutonic Panda]

It's also interesting. They're looking at building I-27E to the Oklahoma State line in the panhandle. It makes me wonder if there's been any behind the door discussions with ODOT about continuing the interstate through the panhandle. I'm assuming it would still be I-27E in Oklahoma if built? If so, that would be a first. I could see that happening way before Colorado does anything. And even if Colorado did do something and built the interstate, would they sign it as I-27E as well?

[Molandfreak]

Is downtown Amarillo really all that significant? How many historic properties do they have? I personally wouldn't see much of an issue of running a trenched freeway somewhere through downtown Amarillo even if it required the destruction of some buildings in one day if this Prairie city ever warrant that they can build a park cap over it.

They could give it the Wichita Falls treatment and build twin viaducts over one of the one-way pairs, too.

[Molandfreak]

It's also interesting. They're looking at building I-27E to the Oklahoma State line in the panhandle. It makes me wonder if there's been any behind the door discussions with ODOT about continuing the interstate through the panhandle. I'm assuming it would still be I-27E in Oklahoma if built? If so, that would be a first. I could see that happening way before Colorado does anything. And even if Colorado did do something and built the interstate, would they sign it as I-27E as well?

I-27N, but yes, the suffix idea was not well-planned. If US 287 from DFW to Amarillo is upgraded, that number can just continue on the Raton leg and I-27N can just become vanilla I-27.

[Plutonic Panda]

It's also interesting. They're looking at building I-27E to the Oklahoma State line in the panhandle. It makes me wonder if there's been any behind the door discussions with ODOT about continuing the interstate through the panhandle. I'm assuming it would still be I-27E in Oklahoma if built? If so, that would be a first. I could see that happening way before Colorado does anything. And even if Colorado did do something and built the interstate, would they sign it as I-27E as well?

I-27N, but yes, the suffix idea was not well-planned. If US 287 from DFW to Amarillo is upgraded, that number can just continue on the Raton leg and I-27N can just become vanilla I-27.

Wouldn't it make more sense for it to become a 3DI for the part going through NM to I-25 and have I-27 just continue north through the Oklahoma panhandle of Oklahoma ever decided to take that on? If the idea is get the road to Colorado and north anyways it seems like it'd be a better idea also acting as a bypass from the Raton pass during inclement weather.

Either way it doesn't seem like any of that is happening anytime soon and TxDOT is just focusing on connecting it to Dumas for the time being.

[Plutonic Panda]

PS, if I-27N is built through the panhandle of Oklahoma I could see the future US-412 interstate being built west to connect to it before Colorado builds a brand new interstate. Oklahoma seems too broke to take on such an endeavor however and Colorado seems to be more and more anti freeway.

[Bobby5280]

Is downtown Amarillo really all that significant? How many historic properties do they have? I personally wouldn't see much of an issue of running a trenched freeway somewhere through downtown Amarillo even if it required the destruction of some buildings in one day if this Prairie city ever warrant that they can build a park cap over it.

Amarillo is not a little po-dunk city. 200,000 people live within the city limits. There are fairly tall office buildings downtown. The location is very different from the area where they elevated US-287 by downtown Wichita Falls.

Over the past 20 years a good amount of work has been done to improve the downtown area in Amarillo. That improvement work is still on-going. This can be seen in Google Street View imagery.

Further, where the hell would any bridge piers for an elevated structure be built? In Wichita Falls they were able to offset the elevated freeway viaducts so the bridge piers were built next to Holliday and Broad Streets. But that involved removing some structures. IIRC the surface streets also lost a lane, going from 4 lanes to 3. The four N/S streets in downtown Amarillo (Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan) are only 3 lanes wide as it is. Plus they've enhanced a lot of sidewalks, planted new trees and other greenery. They probably wouldn't be able to build bridge piers as thick as the ones in Wichita Falls, which might mean dual piers on both sides of the surface street. Say bye to those trees and sidewalks.

Again, it's worth repeating the fact an elevated Interstate thru downtown Amarillo would be more than twice the length of the one in Wichita Falls. It would be really expensive to build even if the locals in Amarillo were agreeable to such a thing. The high cost would siphon up a lot of money that could otherwise be used building out other parts of the I-27 extension. A lot more of the future Interstate could be built if it is routed on the loop around Amarillo.

[-- US 175 --]

There are a few buildings in downtown that have tunnel connections to each other, so trenching/tunnelling I-27 would have to be a carefully thought out and planned process, if it were considered.  I'm not sure if city higher-ups would like the elevated option, but that would depend on placement and where.

[PColumbus73]

Would it be cheaper to realign I-27 along the west side of the Loop 335? Downtown Amarillo will still have I-40 and an I-X27 spur taking over the former alignment, so it's not like they're going to lose anything.

If Amarillo experiences rapid growth, akin to Austin, it would probably be easier to expand the Loop 335 route versus a downtown route. There are also government offices between Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan streets.

[Bobby5280]

Loop 335 is getting built out around Amarillo regardless of what ultimately happens with I-27. So, yeah, it would be far cheaper to simply route I-27 along the East or West side of the 335 loop.