Hardly any of the properties in Decatur hugging close to the US-287 main lanes look good at all, particularly on the North side of town close to the US-380 interchange. They're all commercial properties. No residential homes. I don't think it would be controversial at all for TX DOT to buy out and clear those properties.
On the South side of town the car lots, tractor dealership and other businesses would see their parking lots "get a haircut." A couple or so buildings and billboard structures would have to be removed.
With growth on the Fort Worth side of DFW propelling to the North and Northwest it's obvious TX DOT will have to do some big upgrade work in Decatur. They can't keep kicking the can down the road. Not only does US-287 need to be a freeway thru Decatur, it probably needs to be in a 3x3 configuration and then maybe drop to 2x2 lanes North of town. I've seen some freeway designs drawn up for that area, including a freeway segment for US-287 on the North side of Decatur. If they can get those projects done then further freeway upgrade work going farther Northwest will be comparatively easy.
North of Decatur where Business US-81 merges into US-287 the highway has plenty of ROW space for continuous frontage roads and freeway main lanes all the way up to Alvord. From there, an upgraded freeway would tie into the existing freeway segment bypassing Bowie.
Really, Decatur is the biggest obstacle in the way of a potential Interstate from Wichita Falls to Fort Worth.
There is currently no such ramp configuration on U.S. 287 North to U.S. 380 East.
Technically, there is a ramp movement for that. There are at-grade intersections allowing left turns across the main lanes of US-380. Definitely NOT an optimal situation.
US-380 crossing thru the Decatur area is its own mess. There is a lot of at-grade intersections and driveways connecting to the main lanes. Over the long term I really believe the US-380 corridor from Decatur to Denton and McKinney to Greenville will have to be turned into an Interstate-class corridor the whole way. It's not just to function as a regional North bypass of the DFW metro, but also as a major East-West corridor to the booming population expanding North of the DFW metro. US-82 will have to be given similar considerations.