TX360 and US287 interchange is getting too much housing overgrowth

[thisdj78]

TX DOT just needs to once again grow the balls it takes to build highways that are freeway-friendly to upgrades. They used to do a great deal of that 30-50 years ago, but not so much anymore.

As far as I can remember, big chunks of US-287 between Wichita Falls and Fort Worth had a big median wide enough to hold a future freeway. I remember Kell Blvd in Wichita Falls back in the 1970's and early 1980's being a divided street with a freeway-size median. Now there's a freeway there. There are numerous other examples of wide, divided highways around Texas that could easily be upgraded. But many of those highways have been around a long time.

They know they don't even have to build a freeway to protect a freeway-size corridor. It can be as "small" as a 2-lane street with a 250' wide swatch grassy space reserved off to one side. Apparently there is no "glamour" these days in a highway department just buying a strip of land to hold it for future use later. They've done this with a tiny portion of the Colin County Outer Loop (but left much of the ROW preservation job very not finished). Same goes for the Northern-most extension of the Dallas North Tollway.

The Southern extension of the TX-360 toll road may end up with some fairly hard curves going South of US-287, similar to the curvy nonsense the Kilpatrick Turnpike has to do going South of I-40. And that's assuming that Southern extension of TX-360 is actually ever built. Current interest rates might slow down the pace of development and buy TX DOT a little bit of extra time. But it won't be long before that whole area is totally blockaded in with planned residential developments.

Not to get too off topic but there are several newer two-lane surface roads in Williamson County that have been built with wide medians in anticipation of future freeway conversion, like Chandler Road and Ronald Reagan Blvd. So it's being done.

[Bobby5280]

Ronald Reagan Blvd (going around the West and North sides of Georgetown, TX) is not a good example. It has extra ROW, but only enough to widen the current 2-lane road into a 4-lane divided arterial. The intersection with TX-29 could be turned into a grade-separated freeway exit. Just South of that intersection, where Reagan Blvd converts to 4-lane divided there is a lot of residential and commercial development hugging up close to the street. The close proximity of the US-183 toll road greatly reduces the chances of Reagan Blvd of being upgraded into a freeway.

Georgetown's Inner Loop Road is another example of a street with built-in extra room for expansion, but not enough for a limited access freeway or toll road. The same applied to Chandler Road going around the North side of Hutto.

[thisdj78]

Ronald Reagan Blvd (going around the West and North sides of Georgetown, TX) is not a good example. It has extra ROW, but only enough to widen the current 2-lane road into a 4-lane divided arterial. The intersection with TX-29 could be turned into a grade-separated freeway exit. Just South of that intersection, where Reagan Blvd converts to 4-lane divided there is a lot of residential and commercial development hugging up close to the street. The close proximity of the US-183 toll road greatly reduces the chances of Reagan Blvd of being upgraded into a freeway.

Georgetown's Inner Loop Road is another example of a street with built-in extra room for expansion, but not enough for a limited access freeway or toll road. The same applied to Chandler Road going around the North side of Hutto.

Long term plans call for those to be limited access freeways:

https://www.wilco.org/corridors

[Bobby5280]

There is an ambitious list of "wants" on that Wilco map, including a lot of controlled access projects. Not many of them are realistic, including the ones for Ronald Reagan Blvd and Chandler Road. They're not securing enough ROW.

Look at Chander Road in Google Earth. The ROW is only wide enough for a standard 4-lane divided road with at-grade intersections. There isn't nearly enough room for freeway/toll road main lanes and flanking frontage roads. And it doesn't look like any ROW is being reserved for on/off ramps. Reagan Blvd isn't any different. The ROW is just wide enough for a 4-lane divided suburban arterial street. The existing 4-lane portion of Reagan Blvd South of the TX-29 intersection is getting more and more encroached by development.

As the Austin metro continues to grow they may have to upgrade parts of Chandler Road, Reagan Blvd, US-79 and a few others to limited access. But it will come at the very high price (and high political cost) of having to buy and demolish a lot of properties because they didn't secure enough ROW well in advance.

Right now TX DOT and other "deciders" in the Austin region need to pay attention to the basics and focus on improving the major corridors going in and out of the metro. US-290 needs to be Interstate quality from Austin to Houston and US-290 needs to be Interstate quality West out to at least the US-281 corridor. The South portion of Loop 45 needs to be completed and extended West to US-290 by Dripping Springs. TX-71 needs to be Interstate quality from US-183 and the Austin airport down to Columbus and I-10. Those are the big ones that must be tackled. That Wilco map has a bunch of other blue dotted line corridors as proposed super highways that aren't nearly as realistic (especially those that are very covered up with development).

[MaxConcrete]

I agree with Bobby5280: the Williamson County long-range plan is unrealistically ambitious in terms of freeway. Some routes are redundant. There's no way the county alone can pay for all of this, or even pay for all the ROW. (Some routes are TxDOT, so they'll have some help)

It would be amazing if all the routes can ultimately be achieved (although I would surely have left planet earth by then.) In my view, if only 33% of those proposed freeways are built, it will be a big accomplishment.

I actually did survey of a few corridors last week to investigate if ROW is being preserved.

Southeast Loop (E1): work on one side of frontage road is in progress east of SH 130. The ROW is very narrow at SH 130, but the schematic shows there is enough space for a 3x3 freeway and 3x3 frontage roads. Freeway-width ROW is delineated along FM 3349 up to US 79 (by utility lines). There is also some right-of-way secured north of US 79, but I don't know how far north. The house visible on Google maps is vacant and abandoned.

SE Inner Loop east of I-35: I did not see evidence of ROW delineation via utilities. There is clear evidence of ROW set-aside at FM 1460 (which is visible on Google maps). The corridor is still almost entirely unbuilt, so this remains viable for future freeway status.

Georgetown Southwest loop: Freeway-width ROW is preserved from I-35 to RM 2243

RM 2243: This has gone through TxDOT environmental process. There wasn't clear evidence of ROW preservation (via utility lines), but the corridor is almost entirely free of development. I think this corridor will have its ROW preserved.

Chandler/University (B1, B2): I did not see evidence of ROW being preserved. There is also work in progress to build it as an arterial. As Bobby mentions, this is probably a lost cause for ultimate freeway status.

Ronald Reagan Blvd and Parmer from RM 2243 to SH 45: This corridor is heavily developed and it seems that there is no way a freeway can be built. This corridor is also redundant with the SH 183 tollway. However, if you look at the CAMPO 2045 plan and go to page 86, you'll see the following between SH 45 and RM 1431 https://campotx.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2045RTP_6.1.2022-Project-List-Only.pdf

WIDEN 6-LANE DIVIDED TO 2-LANE LIMITED
ACCESS WITH 3-LANE FRONTAGE ROADS IN
EACH DIRECTION

This suggests they want to squeeze a very minimal freeway in the corridor. The cost numbers are very low ($168 million), so this seems like a candidate for cancellation after cost is adjusted for inflation.

US 183 North of SH 29: I think we can expect this to become a freeway or tollway.

As for all the other corridors, I didn't inspect them so I have no observations.

[bwana39]

I agree with Bobby5280: the Williamson County long-range plan is unrealistically ambitious in terms of freeway. Some routes are redundant. There's no way the county alone can pay for all of this, or even pay for all the ROW. (Some routes are TxDOT, so they'll have some help)

It would be amazing if all the routes can ultimately be achieved (although I would surely have left planet earth by then.) In my view, if only 33% of those proposed freeways are built, it will be a big accomplishment.

I actually did survey of a few corridors last week to investigate if ROW is being preserved.

Southeast Loop (E1): work on one side of frontage road is in progress east of SH 130. The ROW is very narrow at SH 130, but the schematic shows there is enough space for a 3x3 freeway and 3x3 frontage roads. Freeway-width ROW is delineated along FM 3349 up to US 79 (by utility lines). There is also some right-of-way secured north of US 79, but I don't know how far north. The house visible on Google maps is vacant and abandoned.

SE Inner Loop east of I-35: I did not see evidence of ROW delineation via utilities. There is clear evidence of ROW set-aside at FM 1460 (which is visible on Google maps). The corridor is still almost entirely unbuilt, so this remains viable for future freeway status.

Georgetown Southwest loop: Freeway-width ROW is preserved from I-35 to RM 2243

RM 2243: This has gone through TxDOT environmental process. There wasn't clear evidence of ROW preservation (via utility lines), but the corridor is almost entirely free of development. I think this corridor will have its ROW preserved.

Chandler/University (B1, B2): I did not see evidence of ROW being preserved. There is also work in progress to build it as an arterial. As Bobby mentions, this is probably a lost cause for ultimate freeway status.

Ronald Reagan Blvd and Parmer from RM 2243 to SH 45: This corridor is heavily developed and it seems that there is no way a freeway can be built. This corridor is also redundant with the SH 183 tollway. However, if you look at the CAMPO 2045 plan and go to page 86, you'll see the following between SH 45 and RM 1431 https://campotx.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2045RTP_6.1.2022-Project-List-Only.pdf

WIDEN 6-LANE DIVIDED TO 2-LANE LIMITED
ACCESS WITH 3-LANE FRONTAGE ROADS IN
EACH DIRECTION

This suggests they want to squeeze a very minimal freeway in the corridor. The cost numbers are very low ($168 million), so this seems like a candidate for cancellation after cost is adjusted for inflation.

US 183 North of SH 29: I think we can expect this to become a freeway or tollway.

As for all the other corridors, I didn't inspect them so I have no observations.

This plan is not dissimilar to that for Dallas circa 1960. Williamson county is some larger than Dallas County was back then, but the view to build for the future is similar if not the same. Just like Dallas County much if not most of it will never be built. I will add this, If Dallas county had built more 2x2 or 3x3 freeways, we wouldn't be struggling with 10x10 freeways that clearly are a mess to build, a mess to travel, and a mess to the surrounds.