New US-377 Routing in Denton

[BJ59]

Just saw today that Loop-288 in Denton now has US-377 signs posted just north of I-35E.
Does anyone know why they chose to reroute US-377 to this location?

[-- US 175 --]

I just heard about the Denton re-routings lately regarding US 77 and US 377 (maybe US 380 also?).  I'm not sure why it's being done.  The in-town routings US 77 and US 377 used up to now aren't becoming business routes of those roads (like I would have guessed).  Maybe the city wants to have truck traffic away from downtown.

[Chris]

https://www.txdot.gov/content/dam/docs/commission/2025/0130/agenda.pdf

This rerouting was on the agenda of the January 2025 meeting of the Texas Transportation Commission.

This minute order designates US 77 on the state highway system concurrently with I-35 and I-35E from the intersection of existing US 77 and I-35 southeastward to the intersection of existing US 77 and I-35E, a distance of approximately 7.1 miles; redesignates a segment of existing US 77 on the state highway system as US Spur 77 from I-35 southeastward to US 380, a distance of approximately 3.8 miles; designates US 377 on the state highway system concurrently with I-35E from the existing intersection of US 377 and I-35E, southeastward to SL 288, a distance of approximately
2.0 miles, then concurrently with SL 288 northward to US 380, a distance of approximately 3.7 miles; redesignates a segment of US 377 on the state highway system as US Spur 377 from I-35E northward along Fort Worth Drive to Eagle Drive, then eastward along Eagle Drive to Dallas Drive, a total distance of approximately 0.8 miles; redesignates a segment of US 77 on the state highway system as US Spur 377 from Eagle Drive southeastward along Dallas Drive to I 35E, a distance of approximately 1.6 miles; and removes a segment of US 377 from the state highway system along its concurrency with US 380 from North Elm Street eastward to SL 288, a distance of approximately 2.6 miles, in Denton County.

[kphoger]

But that doesn't really say why it was done, though, does it?

[BJ59]

But that doesn't really say why it was done, though, does it?

If I had to guess, I would agree with US-175 that it has to do with truck traffic and probably non-local traffic. They're probably trying to keep all unnecessary traffic out of the Denton Square and US-380 near Downtown.

Up until recently, the US-77/US-377 concurrency on Elm St. and Locust St. was a pretty beaten up road. There used to be potholes everywhere. They just repaved it within the last couple of years, and I guess they figure that if they keep trucks off of that road it won't be beaten to crap like it had previously.

2.0 miles, then concurrently with SL 288 northward to US 380, a distance of approximately 3.7 miles; redesignates a segment of US 377 on the state highway system as US Spur 377 from I-35E northward

I'm guessing they have to designate the old designations as spurs to keep them under state maintenance. I don't know why spur designations were chosen over the roads becoming Business US-77 and Business US-377.

The US-77 concurrency with I-35 seems smart to me, since US-77 just ties into I-35 on both sides of town anyways. However, the new routing of US-377 along I-35E and SL-288 seems to make the road zigzag all through Denton. And although it keeps the US-377 traffic out of the square, it is still dumping it into the Golden Triangle Mall area, which already has decent levels of traffic.

[BJ59]

Photo of the new concurrent signing of US-377 and SL-288, taken on Northbound SL-288 just north of Colorado Blvd

[-- US 175 --]

With the new US 77 and US 377 routings, this will now cause a wrong-way overlap on I-35E between Fort Worth Dr. and Lillian Miller Pkwy.