TX-45 / TX-130

[Chris]

If we look at the exit list of the Austin Toll Roads TX-130 and TX-45 (they run concurrent for a significant distance), you'll see exit numbers in the 400 range.

Is there any reason for such high exit numbers? Both roads are nowhere near 400 miles long.

[Sykotyk]

Just a guess, but they probably plan on extending the road further, so aren't quite sure at what mile-marker that part of the road will be. Give it ridiculously high exit numbers and if you renumber they won't be close to the originals to confuse people 

Sykotyk

[Chris]

Someone made a video of this toll road... notice there isn't a damn car on the tollway. It's in the second half. I guess the words "texas" and "tolls" do not belong in the same sentence. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN7MY3k4VjI

[Revive 755]

I think TX 130 was eventually intended to be part of the I-35 Trans Texas corridor.  That said, the photo doesn't show enough space under the overpass for any future truck lanes or six railroad tracks in the median.

[Sykotyk]

The problem with the toll is it's too expensive (especially for trucks), so you'll continue to have horrible traffic through I-35 in Austin.

Make it free for trucks, and you'll suddenly have no trucks going on I-35 and solve two problems. But, that's the problem with toll roads as opposed to free roads.

Sykotyk

[agentsteel53]

then they wouldn't collect any tolls at all ...

"gee, Martha, wanna pay to take the road that's full of trucks?"
"why yes, Vern, I certainly would prefer that to a free road that has only reasonable car traffic."

[Sykotyk]

Hence the problem with toll roads 

Sykotyk

[J N Winkler]

I think Sykotyk's theory for the high exit numbers is the most plausible.  The zero point can't be the beginning of I-35 at Laredo because it is only 233 miles between Laredo and Austin.

I haven't checked the exit numbers for US 82 and US 59, but in both cases they are mileage-based and in the case of the latter, I think the milepointing is based on a plausible itinerary beginning at a zero point on the Mexican border.

[Stephane Dumas]

I wonder how many miles is the distance between the McAllen/Brownsville area to Austin by using a corridor parralel to I-35? Maybe a TX-130 southern extension would had followed US-83 down to McAllen

[Revive 755]

I wonder how many miles is the distance between the McAllen/Brownsville area to Austin by using a corridor parralel to I-35? Maybe a TX-130 southern extension would had followed US-83 down to McAllen

An extremely rough estimation via drawing a line on Google maps generally parallel to US 83 yielded 201 miles from Exit 10 on I-35 to the Mexican border at Brownsville.  Measuring as the crow files from Austin to Brownsville yielded approximately 300 miles.

But I'm looking at Google maps, and confirming it in street view, that the exit numbers on TX 130 are going up as it heads south.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=30.351472,-97.593184&spn=0,359.867907&z=14&layer=c&cbll=30.351562,-97.593084&panoid=KLnd31D6zJ-AhajaWNftAQ&cbp=12,218.1,,0,-9.33

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=30.484822,-97.585384&spn=0,359.995872&z=19&layer=c&cbll=30.484741,-97.585415&panoid=Ii3oSANazzXT7_q9f43lYA&cbp=12,208.56,,0,-10.61

[Scott5114]

I've heard that mileposts in TX are reckoned from some arbitrary point in the panhandle, possibly the far northwest corner of the state.