DFW Projects Thread

[rantanamo]

it was on dallasnews.com this morning, and yes, it is very high resolution.  I believe for commercial use, there's a subscription fee.

[Alps]

I was looking at that photo like, wow, a whole new span, that's another 2 lanes each way. Then I read the comments, and looked again. Wait... there's a whole new OTHER span in the other direction! This is like the 401's widening in Toronto from 3/3 to 3/3/3/3.

[Road Hog]

Four lanes each way isn't any better than the original, which is why there are few LBJ complaints.

[rantanamo]

don't get what you're saying

[Brian556]

Got some updates for the SH 114/SH 170 interchange, as well as the new section of FM 1938.

SH 114:

Looking east on SH 114 at Business 114/SH 170


Eastbound SH 114 approaching Trophy Club Dr. Leaving the work zone.



Westbound SH 114 at the temporary freeway ending.



A look at the new ramp to SH 170.

FM 1938:
A new section of FM 1938 has been constructed from SH 114, south a few miles. It narrows and becomes Randol Mill Rd. This means that FM 1938 now exits in two discontinuous segments.


Route Marker assembly on eastbound SH 114 Frontage Rd.




STOP signs too small.


The divided highway, and FM 1938, end temporarily in the background.


The STOP signs have reinforcements for no reason at all. definitely not TXDOT standard. I have no idea why they would not this. Also,the way the street name sings are mounted is whacky.


They have placed route marker assemblies at city street intersections, which is not TxDOT standard practice.

[Road Hog]

SH 289 (Preston Road) update:

They have already put down the asphalt base and are installing the rebar on the southbound side of the 3-mile segment through Prosper, and I expect the concrete to be poured by Thanksgiving. People may be driving on concrete as soon as mid-February. We've generally had good weather, so this project is moving fast.

The six-lane overpass over U.S. 380 is open. On the north end, earthwork continues up to FM 455 in Celina, but that segment will be four-lane only, so the whole thing should be done at the same time.

[Brian556]

Contractor named for I-35E Project: http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20121214-contractor-for-i-35e-widening-project-named.ece

[rte66man]

Contractor named for I-35E Project: http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20121214-contractor-for-i-35e-widening-project-named.ece

Will the northern part of the expansion end at 35W or will it extend up to at least US380?

rte66man

[wxfree]

Will the northern part of the expansion end at 35W or will it extend up to at least US380?

rte66man

http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/adm/2012/documents/minute_orders/dec13/9a_presentation.pdf
This gives the details.  The project will extend to US 380, where there will be 3 lanes in each direction (there are currently 2).

[txstateends]

There's a new YouTube animation of the LBJ Express project online, it was posted in this article:
http://transportationblog.dallasnews.com/2013/01/the-only-time-youll-be-able-to-drive-lbj-express-in-five-minutes-new-video-shows-off-full-expanse-of-ih-635-redo.html/

It goes from the way-far-in-advance ramps at I-35E/Loop 12-NW Highway all the way over to the Greenville Avenue exit.

[Road Hog]

The latest on Preston Road:

I was off a little in my guesstimation, but the new concrete through Prosper will be open within the week. The reflective lane markers are down, the temporary signs were being installed today, and there were some last-minute sweeping and landscaping jobs.

There is one little tricky tight spot left where the temporary roadway passes too close to the new construction. That still has to be shored up, and in order to do so they'll need to shut down the roadway overnight. That is scheduled for Thursday night according to the VMS's. Once that's taken care of, we'll be halfway home and they can start on the northbound lanes.

[Brian556]

Update on DFW Connector:

The new configuaration for southbound SH 121 approaching SH 114 and DFW Airport is open.
You now have to exit to a seperate carrigeway on the right to access DFW Airport and SH 114 EAST. There is an exit after that for Texan Tr/ NORTH SH 26 BUS SH 114. Continuing south goes onto SH 114 WEST/ SH 121 SOUTH





Coming north out of DFW Airport:


Other items of intrest in the area:
The DART Orange Line is under construction to DFW Airport. This is the bridge over Airfield Dr:


DFW Airport has put up some new route marker assemblies on Airfield Dr:


The intersection of Texan Tr/Ruth Wall finally got route marker signs. Unfoutunatly, they are all wrong.
Some have wrong information, some have TO information, but not the markers for the actual route.


The city of Grapevine does get props for this on-spec route marker assembly on Stars and Stripes Way (at Grapevine Mills Mall):

[txstateends]

Work begins on massive Horseshoe project to rebuild downtown Dallas freeways



http://dallashorseshoe.com/ (upcoming project website)
http://transportationblog.dallasnews.com/2013/05/work-begins-on-massive-horseshoe-project-to-rebuild-downtown-dallas-freeways.html/

This project will redo part of the downtown Dallas 'mixmaster' and the I-30 and I-35E bridges over the Trinity River; it will start with prep work for pilings for the bridges, with more visible construction work on the project to come later this year.  2017 is the current year given for completion.

[Road Hog]

That's fast for a typical urban TxDOT project. The lanes through there are already narrow, so it shouldn't mean much more congestion if any, as long as the lane shifts aren't crazy like on 114.

[Brian556]

DFW Connector update:

Some of the permanant BGS and frontage road route marker assemblies have been installed. The frontage road route marker assemblies use the large markers, and include SH 26. Interestingly, the sign 26 as an E-W route, like it's signed NE of Grapevine. SW of Grapevine, it's signed as a N-S route.



On the WB FR at the ramp to SH 26, the overhead sign leaves off SH 26; it only says "Ira E Woods Av". This is probably because there's a direct connection fron the WB mainlanes to SB SH 26; however, to me, the frontage road traffic still needs a SH 26 sign here.

On the EB frontage road E of Ira E Woods, there is a split with a route marker assembly with a left diagonal arrow in the middle of the split. This typically means "freeway left, frontage road right";however, I went to the right, and was dumped into a business parknig lot about 300ft later. This was total BS. This shouldn't be set up this way to begin with, but if it had to be, the signage definitely should've indicated that the road to the right was BUSINESS ACCESS ONLY.

There also were several lane closures/endings on the frontage roads that were not signed. Also, since the frontage roads have so many lanes now, it looks like it would be a good idea to put the turn/straight only signage overhead like Florida often does.

This looks like it will be nice when finished. I like that Texas is making new highways more asthetically pleasing by using colored bridges, brick islands, decorative lightpoles, ect.

[Revive 755]

^ Is Texas switching from horizontal to vertical traffic signals also, or is the signal pictured above just a fluke?

[txstateends]

Not all areas of TX have horizontal signals on masts.  Some have vertical, while others have a mix of both.

[Brian556]

Is Texas switching from horizontal to vertical traffic signals also, or is the signal pictured above just a fluke?

TxDOT District 2 (Ft Worth) uses vertical, while all others (as far as I know) use horizontal. A few individual cities (Farmer's Branch, for example) also choose to mount their signal heads vertically.

[Road Hog]

Concrete is being poured this week for southbound lanes of Preston Road north of Prosper. Judging by the progress of the earlier pour, that would mean it should be open to traffic by early October. However, weather should be more conducive to construction and this segment is more rural with fewer driveways, so maybe that means it'll open more quickly.

[bassoon1986]

Motorist confused by DFW Connector detour signs

I don't know why this one old guy thought it's so much worse than it has been. While that construction's been a mess, the signage has been helpful. You just have to go into it knowing that each time you drive through your lane configurations are probably different.

[Stephane Dumas]

The NTTA had posted a video showing the construction progress of Chisholm Trail formely known as Southern Parkway.

[Road Hog]

Quarterly Preston Road update:

The southbound lanes are complete from just south of FM 455 all the way to the US 380 overpass. The segment between FM 455 and FM 1461 opened to traffic yesterday morning. I got up early and wanted to be the first to drive it, but alas, I was beaten to the punch.

That is about 2 1/2 months after the concrete was poured, which is pretty good. We had a really wet June while the pour was taking place, but since then it's hardly rained at all.

The northbound lane should go pretty fast once they start, since the terrain is favorable for minimal earthwork. So all told, the Prosper segment (which will be 6 lanes when completed) and the Celina segment (which is only 4) may finish at the same time. I believe April 2014 is the target date.

There is still a 4-mile stretch from FM 455 north to Celina High School that hasn't even started yet. There must be some utility work that's lagging behind, but the work zone signs have been up for most of the year.

[txstateends]

Just posted today... new flyover video of the I-635 redo from US 75 to I-35E.  Part of it is actual flyover, part stops along the way to check out behind the scenes construction work.  Oh, and *warning*, guess you'll have to forgive the cheeeezy version of the Dallas theme song in the background:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTSeviK2IFo

[agentsteel53]

you need to do BBCode to embed a vid, not HTML.  the tag is "youtube" and "/youtube" - replace quotes with open and close square brackets.  it's also really finicky about the format of the URL.  yours is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTSeviK2IFo

to see the correct BBCode, reply-with-quote to this post.

[txstateends]

you need to do BBCode to embed a vid, not HTML.  the tag is "youtube" and "/youtube" - replace quotes with open and close square brackets.  it's also really finicky about the format of the URL. 

That's what I tried to do originally, but wasn't sure of what else to put between the BBcode besides the original URL itself.  Oh well, too much internet puttering, not enough