Little Known Corridors in Texas that have ROW for Planned Freeways

[thisdj78]

When looking at Google satellite maps, I'll see roads with wide ROW and I wonder if they were designed for future freeway corridors. What are some little known corridors in TX that were built with future freeway plans in mind?

Examples of the obvious ones: Red Bluff and Fairmont Pkwys in Houston or the southern and eastern parts of 1604 around San Antonio. Looking for the less obvious ones though.

[TheBox]

When looking at Google satellite maps, I'll see roads with wide ROW and I wonder if they were designed for future freeway corridors. What are some little known corridors in TX that were built with future freeway plans in mind?

Examples of the obvious ones: Red Bluff and Fairmont Pkwys in Houston or the southern and eastern parts of 1604 around San Antonio. Looking for the less obvious ones though.

Up until the past few years, there was this unused ROW for Spur 5 south of Old Spanish Trail all the way around I-610 (South Loop E)

[Road Hog]

SH 289 south of US 82 in Grayson County has a wide ROW preserved for several miles. The thinking was that was where the Grayson County Tollway extension would run, but now there seems to be some ambiguity to what is planned north of FM 121 in Gunter.

[thisdj78]

SH 289 south of US 82 in Grayson County has a wide ROW preserved for several miles. The thinking was that was where the Grayson County Tollway extension would run, but now there seems to be some ambiguity to what is planned north of FM 121 in Gunter.

Judging by the angle that the toll will approach FM 121, looks like it will join up with the SH 289 corridor just north of Gunter at Fallon Rd

[thisdj78]

SH73 from Winnie to Port Arthur. Wide open and flat land without many businesses along the route. Definitely enough ROW for a future freeway connection from I-10 to Port Arthur.

[MaxConcrete]

It's difficult to have "little known" right-of-way set-asides since a wide right-of-way is usually very obvious. Generally speaking, right-of-way artifacts for canceled freeways or freeways on indefinite hold are rare in the cities. The reason is because most freeways were built, and TxDOT was generally minimally proactive about preserving right-of-way, which has caused major problems in recent times (Exhibit A: US 380 in Collin County). In many cases, wide right-of-way was vacant for decades but was eventually upgraded to new or larger facilities (like SH 35 in Houston, as mentioned by TheBox), and also the US 90 Crosby Freeway which had right-of-way set aside since the 1960s but was built around 15 years ago..

In the DFW Freeways book, I observe that there were zero(!) artifacts of canceled freeways in North Texas as of 2013 (now there is 1 due to the cancelation of the Trinity Tollway), even though a large number of freeways were canceled. In contrast, there is an abundance of canceled freeway artifacts in Los Angeles.

The best place to find "little known" corridors is in Williamson County (north of Austin), which has the most ambitious freeway plan in the country and there are ROW set-asides in numerous places (see thread). For example this view shows the ROW for the Southwest Bypass and a ROW set-aside at SE Inner Loop and 1460. This view shows the corridor for a future freeway along 3349. This view shows the area of the Liberty Hill Bypass. FM 2243 has completed the environmental process to become a freeway and there will be a new alignment along Hero Way, but there is no visual evidence of this corridor at this time.

TxDOT recently purchased right-of-way (typically 400 feet wide) for the west Loop 288 Freeway in Denton. However, there is no indication of this corridor on the ground or in aerial views.

Loop 9 south of Dallas recently opened with one side of the frontage roads. I would call this corridor "little known".

TxDOT recently had a public meeting for the freeway upgrade of Loop 340 in Waco. While this has a wider corridor, it is less than 300 feet and not obvious it is planned to be a freeway.

Houston's Will Clayton Parkway between I-69 and the airport. As far as I know, freeway main lanes are not planned to be built. The wide median was planted with pine trees about 25 years ago, and it is now a thick forest.

A section of SH 146 north of Texas City has a freeway-quality ROW, but there are no plans for a freeway. Since an adjacent section to the north is being built as a non-freeway, I don't think we'll ever see main lanes on this section.

In south Austin, SH 45 was planned to be a freeway but the freeway plans are canceled.

Austin: Riverside at S. Pleasant Valley is wide to a support an overpass for the long-ago canceled Riverside freeway.

Alamo Ranch Parkway in San Antonio is on a wider-than-normal right-of-way for a street and could serve as an extension of the SH 151 freeway, but I'm not aware of any plans and the corridor is too narrow to support a high-quality freeway.

I think there is plenty of ghost right-of-way in rural areas, but I'm not sufficiently familiar with rural areas to identify many.

For example, there are sections of US 287 northwest of Fort Worth with very wide right-of-way.

In Fulton (north of Corpus), there appears to be mostly clear corridor for a possibly once-planned extension of SH 35.

There are plenty of examples where the ROW is obviously preserved, but the freeway has been on hold for decades.

Houston: SH 35 in Alvin. Main lanes will be built soon as part of the Grand Parkway section B. But the ROW has been empty since the 1960s or 1970s.

El Paso US 54.

[Chris]

I suppose the Collin County Outer Loop cannot be considered to be 'little known'?

[TheBox]

There's also a little ROW or Fort Bend Parkway Toll Road west of Sienna Ranch Rd

[rte66man]

TX447 east of I44 in Wichita Falls. They 'could' still build it

[Bobby5280]

That would hop over two traffic signals in Downtown Wichita Falls. Woo hoo. At least it might provide some porky excuse to create a full directional stack between US-287 & Kell Freeway.

One thing I really wish TX DOT would do is build some more damn frontage roads along US-287 just West of the interchange with I-44. It's ridiculous US-287 goes from being part of an 8-lane freeway segment with I-44 only to start seeing at-grade driveways connecting directly to the US-287 main lanes barely a mile West of I-44.

It might be a tough sell to some for US-287 between Amarillo and Fort Worth to be upgraded fully to Interstate standards. But that segment from I-44 in Wichita Falls over to Vernon should have been 100% Interstate quality a long time ago. They don't have to build continuous frontage roads the entire distance. But they need to cut off those damned driveways and at-grade intersections.

[TheBox]

Southwest of Lubbock, they're building a ROW for future Loop 88

[Bobby5280]

They have about a 3 mile long start of Loop 88 visible in Google Earth imagery (South side of Lubbock, running West of I-27). I'm a bit skeptical the entire proposed loop will be built as planned, but we'll see.

[-- US 175 --]

They have about a 3 mile long start of Loop 88 visible in Google Earth imagery (South side of Lubbock, running West of I-27). I'm a bit skeptical the entire proposed loop will be built as planned, but we'll see.

The way the minute order is worded for Loop 88, it appears to be a placeholder for a US 84 bypass.  I'm not sure if that helps the loop get built or not.

[Bobby5280]

I'm fairly certain the Southern leg of Loop 88 will get built. According to TX DOT that is Segments 3 and 4. That runs East-West, starting at US-84 near Posey and running over/parallel to 130th St/FM 1585 much of the way until it crosses US-62/82 near Wolfforth.

The zone South of Loop 289 and between I-27 and US-62/82 is where most new development is taking place in the Lubbock metro. Segment 3 of Loop 88 would help serve local traffic needs of that suburb. Of course, that's the first segment getting built.

Segments 2 and 1 going around the West and Northwest sides of Lubbock (with a possible Eastward extension to the airport North of Lubbock) appear more iffy to me.