US-75 Expansion/Construction between north of Dallas and the TX/OK state line

[rte66man]

I don't see US-69 getting the traffic that US-75 between North Dallas and Atoka, Oklahoma, and the section between the Oklahoma state line and Atoka is combined US-69/US-75. Even in Atoka, US-69 going north is a mix of two and four lane roadway while US-75 becomes a two-lane road.

What? There are ZERO 2-lane sections of US69 between Atoka and Big Cabin. It has been that way for decades.

[Bobby5280]

US-69/75 thru Tushka is a 4-lane not-divided configuration, often with no shoulders. It's no wider than Ferris Avenue here in Lawton (that's an ordinary neighborhood street). US-69/75 has a brief stretch of 4-lane divided road between Tushka and Atoka. In the town of Atoka US-69/75 is a 5-lane street with a center turn lane. No shoulders. The highway has 3 traffic signaled intersections in Atoka, 1 in Tushka.

Nearby in Stringtown US-69/75 is a 4-lane non-divided street with no shoulders. There are no traffic light controlled intersections though.

While none of that stuff is 2-lane it's not ideal either for carrying large volumes of commercial truck traffic.

[MaxConcrete]

Bids were opened today for reconstruction and widening of a 1.7 mile section south of US 82 in Sherman.

County:   GRAYSON   Let Date:   10/01/24
Type:   WIDEN ROAD - ADD LANES   Seq No:   3031
Time:   0 X   Project ID:   C 47-18-88
Highway:   US 75   Contract #:   10243031
Length:   1.690   CCSJ:   0047-18-088
Limits:   
From:   US 82   Check:   $100,000
To:   SH 91 (TEXOMA PARKWAY)   Misc Cost:   
Estimate   $134,037,797.92   % Over/Under   Company
Bidder 1   $151,581,089.26   +13.09%   INDUS ROAD & BRIDGE, INC.
Bidder 2   $152,539,698.95   +13.80%   RPM XCONSTRUCTION, LLC
Bidder 3   $155,148,688.98   +15.75%   WEBBER, LLC
Bidder 4   $184,768,100.93   +37.85%   ZACHRY CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION

[Road Hog]

Oh great, at least 2 more years of construction in Sherman. Probably much longer considering the current pace.

[rtXC1]

Oh great, at least 2 more years of construction in Sherman. Probably much longer considering the current pace.

It needs to be done though...

[MaxConcrete]

Bids where opened this week for the next widening project.

This project is 9.7 miles in Grayson County from the Collin County line at Van Alstyne to north of Howe.

For the main lanes this project adds a new shoulder to the existing pavement, and the existing shoulder is converted to a traffic lane. The project also includes asphalt resurfacing of the frontage roads. This limited scope compared to a total rebuild results in the low cost of $12 million per mile.

County:   GRAYSON   Let Date:   11/07/24
Type:   WIDEN ROAD - ADD LANES   Seq No:   3202
Time:   0 X   Project ID:   F 2025(066)
Highway:   US 75   Contract #:   11243202
Length:   9.818   CCSJ:   0047-13-033
Limits:   
From:   COLLIN COUNTY LINE (MPO BOUNDARY)   Check:   $100,000
To:   FM 902   Misc Cost:   
Estimate   $124,606,662.95   % Over/Under   Company
Bidder 1   $116,632,320.76   -6.40%   RPM XCONSTRUCTION, LLC
Bidder 2   $126,022,183.62   +1.14%   WEBBER, LLC
Bidder 3   $147,224,605.88   +18.15%   MARIO SINACOLA & SONS EXCAVATING, INC.

[Road Hog]

Yes, when they rebuilt 75 about 20 years ago they pre-did all the earthwork to add an outside lane. That was the first smart thing TxDOT has done.

Then there's that funny stretch between TI and 1417 that is on original 1960s pavement. Maybe they want to keep it as a museum piece.

[rtXC1]

Yes, when they rebuilt 75 about 20 years ago they pre-did all the earthwork to add an outside lane. That was the first smart thing TxDOT has done.

Then there's that funny stretch between TI and 1417 that is on original 1960s pavement. Maybe they want to keep it as a museum piece.

They are supposedly going to work on that stretch next. I figured that (and a rebuild north of Loy Lake in Denison) would be more important than the Howe/VA expansion, but what do I know.

[MaxConcrete]

The image below is included in an article in today's Dallas Morning News. It looks southwest at CR 371 in north Anna (north Collin County). The freeway is being rebuilt and widened to 3x3.

The image appears to be recent. Maybe someone in the area can confirm.

Direct link to image (full resolution)

[ZLoth]

Yup, there is construction going on in that area.

[rtXC1]

Construction is also about to begin in Sherman between SH 91 and US 82. Scheduled to commence sometime this month.

[ZLoth]

How many construction projects are going on at once in North Texas? Enough to make the construction cone the unofficial flower of North Texas?

[05danper42842]

How many construction projects are going on at once in North Texas? Enough to make the construction cone the unofficial flower of North Texas?

Quite alot. In Mesquite Texas now two construction projects in the same interstates are going at par. 635 and US 80 Interchange Project and 635 East Project. Bunch of Freeways have two construction projects going on.

[rtXC1]

Later this year, TxDot is going to overlay US75 from FM 120 (Exit 69) to the Red River. This is the first I am hearing of it, but I am happy because it can't handle much more without something being done.

https://www.kten.com/news/next-phase-of-us-75-construction-to-start-next-week-in-grayson-county/article_d7cee458-eb4e-11ef-8df1-c723fc58e564.html

[Road Hog]

The image below is included in an article in today's Dallas Morning News. It looks southwest at CR 371 in north Anna (north Collin County). The freeway is being rebuilt and widened to 3x3.

The image appears to be recent. Maybe someone in the area can confirm.

Direct link to image (full resolution)

I believe this the Mantua Road exit because you can see the new-build 75 in the distance. This is a very short project, maybe 2 miles.

[dvferyance]

As much as the Dallas-Fort Worth metro has grown over the past 30 years, it's difficult for me to not consider towns like Sherman & Denison as part of the Metroplex now. At this point towns like that (as well as Gainesville, Decatur, Greenville, etc) are at least "exhurbs" of DFW. Sherman has a couple of its own broadcast TV stations. Still, the rural, green spaces between Sherman and McKinney are filling in with development.

It has been close to 20 years since they upgraded that 11.5 mile segment of US-75. Now they really need to add an outboard lane on each roadway. They could have justified a 3x3 arrangement 20 years ago with all the commercial trucks using that corridor. Budgetary constraints had to be why it was built in a 2x2 manner. Some portions look like they won't have to do much grading work to make it 3x3. There is a greater amount of down-slope outside the right shoulders elsewhere. The bridges carrying the US-75 main lanes over other intersections don't look wide enough for a 3x3 configuration including the inner and outer shoulders.

No nothing north of Anna is part of the DFW metro area. While it's true there isn't a ton of farmland in between DFW and Sherman. Grayson County is not included in the DFW metroplex.

[Road Hog]

There is still a LOT of farmland in Grayson County, and frankly in Collin and Denton Counties too. Based on my observational experience, Grayson County will grow (mostly Sherman) but won't start booming in earnest until Collin County fills up.

The communities of Tioga, Gunter and Van Alstyne on the south edge of Grayson County will grow just for people who like living on acreage, but those days are numbered, just as they were for the country folk in Prosper, Celina, Anna and Melissa.

[Bobby5280]

No nothing north of Anna is part of the DFW metro area. While it's true there isn't a ton of farmland in between DFW and Sherman. Grayson County is not included in the DFW metroplex.

Technicalities aside, the fact remains development in the DFW region is spreading North. That's easy enough to see in Google Earth imagery. At least a dozen or more housing developments are going in North of Celina. Pilot Point and Sanger have some new building activity. Van Alstine (North of Anna) has a big new high school complex. New residential subdivisions are getting built around and even North of Van Alstine. Sherman is seeing a good bit of new development scattered all around town. The same goes for Denison. It's highly likely many of the people moving into new homes in places like Sherman or Denison are commuting down to jobs in DFW.

The growth is considerably more concentrated closer to the US-380 corridor in places like Krugerville. I can remember when much of US-380 between Denton and McKinney was empty rural space. Just 20 years ago most of that stretch was wide open. Now it's pretty much all packed in with development. Builders are running out of empty space miles North of US-380.

The only thing I see stopping the growth of DFW sprawl spreading across the Grayson County line is either a complete crash of the housing industry (which is possible considering the insane price bubble we're in) or the longer term specter of America's demographic cliff. Even with a severe baby bust in total fertility rates big metros like DFW still stand to attract more new residents from other parts of the country. Smaller cities and towns as well as rural areas are under greater threat. Their populations are aging out faster and their local tax bases will shrink due to a worsening shortage of working age residents.

[dvferyance]

No nothing north of Anna is part of the DFW metro area. While it's true there isn't a ton of farmland in between DFW and Sherman. Grayson County is not included in the DFW metroplex.

Technicalities aside, the fact remains development in the DFW region is spreading North. That's easy enough to see in Google Earth imagery. At least a dozen or more housing developments are going in North of Celina. Pilot Point and Sanger have some new building activity. Van Alstine (North of Anna) has a big new high school complex. New residential subdivisions are getting built around and even North of Van Alstine. Sherman is seeing a good bit of new development scattered all around town. The same goes for Denison. It's highly likely many of the people moving into new homes in places like Sherman or Denison are commuting down to jobs in DFW.

The growth is considerably more concentrated closer to the US-380 corridor in places like Krugerville. I can remember when much of US-380 between Denton and McKinney was empty rural space. Just 20 years ago most of that stretch was wide open. Now it's pretty much all packed in with development. Builders are running out of empty space miles North of US-380.

The only thing I see stopping the growth of DFW sprawl spreading across the Grayson County line is either a complete crash of the housing industry (which is possible considering the insane price bubble we're in) or the longer term specter of America's demographic cliff. Even with a severe baby bust in total fertility rates big metros like DFW still stand to attract more new residents from other parts of the country. Smaller cities and towns as well as rural areas are under greater threat. Their populations are aging out faster and their local tax bases will shrink due to a worsening shortage of working age residents.

No question about that. In 2000 Melissa only had around 4,000 in population now it's over 20,000. Melissa and Anna combined have a population of close to 50,000. That would have been unthinkable 20 years ago. It's hard to beleive that as recently as 2010 US 75 was only 2x2 lanes though McKinney. Even in the 2000's McKinney was definitely big enough for at least 3x3. However there is still plenty of open land left in northern Collin County that would be filled in before it starts spreading into Grayson County. It probably will happen at some point.

[debragga]

I know the topic is US-75 north, but surely the other freeway corridors out of Dallas going clockwise (I-30, US-80, I-20, US-175, I-45, I-35E, US-67) will see significantly more sprawling development before the sprawl gets all the way to Sherman. Van Alstyne is already 50 miles from Downtown Dallas, Crandall and Ferris have only recently started seeing developments pop up and they're only 20-25 miles from downtown.

[Road Hog]

Sherman is already growing independently of DFW with all the tech stuff being built there. Van Alstyne is well positioned to benefit from both ends, but won't start blowing up big-time until Anna and Melissa fills up. They are basically where Celina was 15 years ago, but with the benefit of a freeway.

[Bobby5280]

I know the topic is US-75 north, but surely the other freeway corridors out of Dallas going clockwise (I-30, US-80, I-20, US-175, I-45, I-35E, US-67) will see significantly more sprawling development before the sprawl gets all the way to Sherman.

The growth direction of sprawl in the DFW region is not even. Most of the growth is very much on the North side of the metroplex. There is growth in the Southern suburbs as well as points out East of Dallas and West of Fort Worth. Still most of the growth is happening on the North side and moving toward the Red River.

I have a cousin who sells real estate in the DFW area. She, her husband and kids used to live in the Flowermound area North of Grapevine Lake. They bought a bigger spread farther North near Gainesville to get some breathing room.

[TheBox]

I know the topic is US-75 north, but surely the other freeway corridors out of Dallas going clockwise (I-30, US-80, I-20, US-175, I-45, I-35E, US-67) will see significantly more sprawling development before the sprawl gets all the way to Sherman.

The growth direction of sprawl in the DFW region is not even. Most of the growth is very much on the North side of the metroplex. There is growth in the Southern suburbs as well as points out East of Dallas and West of Fort Worth. Still most of the growth is happening on the North side and moving toward the Red River.

I have a cousin who sells real estate in the DFW area. She, her husband and kids used to live in the Flowermound area North of Grapevine Lake. They bought a bigger spread farther North near Gainesville to get some breathing room.

Plus the area around I-45 (south of I-20) is industrial to get say a big shopping center or a big new neighborhood built from the ground up

Thanks to the jail, the WM and Republic Services landfills, and especially all the warehouses

Not to say there's no new or recent houses there, just not as many as there is on the northern half ofc

[ZLoth]

I live along US-75. Let's just say that I continue to be thankful for the older home that I purchased in early 2019 and where it is located. There is a DART station that is five driving minutes away which will also become a silver line station to the DFW airport whenever that line is completed. There is also a major medical center nearby. So, I'm glad I'm not dealing with any of the commute traffic on a regular basis.