Texas "MH" Highways?

[Road Hog]

Has anyone heard of an "MH" designation for Texas highways? While researching info, I found this one in the Mineral Wells area that is still active at least as a street address. Anyone know the story?

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18bHnVDofy/

[usends]

I don't think it's a TXDOT designation.  The fact that the FB link goes to an announcement from the City suggests that it's a local designation.  But I don't know what "MH" stands for... maybe it has something to do with Millsap Highway (which it intersects).

[Big John]

Municipal?, Motor?, Metro? Highway

[MaxConcrete]

MH was the designation of the Meridian Highway around 100 years ago. But the Meridian Highway did not go through Mineral Wells, it went through Fort Worth. So it is almost surely unrelated.

[usends]

The road itself (west of FM 1821) wasn't even built until the '70s or '80s, and I see no indication that it was formerly any kind of state highway with a designation 379.

[Mapmikey]

It stands for Municipal Highway.  Explicitly shown on this TXDOT map:
https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/6c0166bfc5144afe83926a3a529a8d03

MH routes receive funding through TXDOT...see minutes where MH 379 receives some:
pg. 3 at https://publicdocs.txdot.gov/minord/MinuteOrderDocLib/003674398.pdf
pg. 1 at https://publicdocs.txdot.gov/minord/MinuteOrderDocLib/003674376.pdf

Also referenced to an item related to US 281:
pg. 15 at https://publicdocs.txdot.gov/minord/MinuteOrderDocLib/003676220.pdf

[-- US 175 --]

I looked around on StreetView.  The road looks like a state highway, including pavement stripes and speed limit signs, but no markings of road numbering from TxDOT.  The only numbering comes on local street blade signs.  The intersection at US 281 only has a SB US 281 reassurance sign afterward.

[Mapmikey]

Updated info...

They are called Metropolitan Highways.

See pp 36-37 for MH 379 creation in 1977 - https://publicdocs.txdot.gov/minord/MinuteOrderDocLib/003674321.pdf

There is/was a Federal Aid Metropolitan system and that seems to be a pre-requisite for TxDOT to fund these.  See pg. 81 - https://publicdocs.txdot.gov/minord/MinuteOrderDocLib/003674251.pdf

The genesis appears to have been in 1971...see pg. 23 - https://publicdocs.txdot.gov/minord/MinuteOrderDocLib/003674246.pdf

[CoreySamson]

The iceberg of Texas highway systems continues to get deeper and deeper (I thought Principal Arterials were obscure enough)!!

[kphoger]

There is/was a Federal Aid Metropolitan system and that seems to be a pre-requisite for TxDOT to fund these.  See pg. 81 - https://publicdocs.txdot.gov/minord/MinuteOrderDocLib/003674251.pdf

According to this 2020 bridge inventory data coding guide (.pdf warning), Metropolitan Highways are "Federal-Aid Urban System Routes that have been designated part of the State Highway System".

[Rothman]

There is/was a Federal Aid Metropolitan system and that seems to be a pre-requisite for TxDOT to fund these.  See pg. 81 - https://publicdocs.txdot.gov/minord/MinuteOrderDocLib/003674251.pdf

According to this 2020 bridge inventory data coding guide (.pdf warning), Metropolitan Highways are "Federal-Aid Urban System Routes that have been designated part of the State Highway System".

That's intriguing.  Are all MHs in some sort of urban area?  FHWA defines small, medium and large and each affects what funding they're eligible for.

[kphoger]

That's intriguing.  Are all MHs in some sort of urban area?  FHWA defines small, medium and large and each affects what funding they're eligible for.

I don't know of any way to search for them to find out where they all are.  I downloaded and attempted to filter TxDOT's bridge inventory as a rough approximation, now that I know how to decipher the 10-digit code, but the bridge IDs in the dataset were longer than 10 digits, so I abandoned that.

[Mapmikey]

Digging some more...

Per this order, Metropolitan Highways are removed from the highway system as soon as construction is completed...  https://publicdocs.txdot.gov/minord/MinuteOrderDocLib/003679428.pdf

Pg 3 of this 2002 document says Metropolitan Highways are no longer an actual thing...  https://publicdocs.txdot.gov/minord/MinuteOrderDocLib/003680459.pdf

though it took until 2019 to get them out of their state regs.  See pg. 9 here - https://publicdocs.txdot.gov/minord/MinuteOrderDocLib/115512.pdf

[Rothman]

Digging some more...

Per this order, Metropolitan Highways are removed from the highway system as soon as construction is completed...  https://publicdocs.txdot.gov/minord/MinuteOrderDocLib/003679428.pdf

Pg 3 of this 2002 document says Metropolitan Highways are no longer an actual thing...  https://publicdocs.txdot.gov/minord/MinuteOrderDocLib/003680459.pdf

though it took until 2019 to get them out of their state regs.  See pg. 9 here - https://publicdocs.txdot.gov/minord/MinuteOrderDocLib/115512.pdf

Texas is weird.

[Road Hog]

I knew TxDOT had a program where they built city arterials and turned them over to the city after completion, but this is the first instance where I saw a number in the wild.

[kphoger]

Per this order, Metropolitan Highways are removed from the highway system as soon as construction is completed...  https://publicdocs.txdot.gov/minord/MinuteOrderDocLib/003679428.pdf

I had found individual orders specifying that an individual road was to be removed from the system upon project completion, but not that such was expected to be the case for all of them.  So that's a great find:  "will be removed from the State Highway System upon completion of construction, as with all Metropolitan Highways".

See pg. 9 here - https://publicdocs.txdot.gov/minord/MinuteOrderDocLib/115512.pdf

It's too bad they're no longer a thing, because apparently they were very polite roads:  "A local road or street which compliments the state highway system".