SH224 Grade Separated Intersections in Commerce

[thisdj78]

I drove though Commerce TX for the first time this weekend and was driving along SH224. I noticed two random grade separated intersections along the route. Was this meant to be a future freeway corridor at some point? The traffic in the area didn't seem to justify it on this route.

[bwana39]

I drove though Commerce TX for the first time this weekend and was driving along SH224. I noticed two random grade separated intersections along the route. Was this meant to be a future freeway corridor at some point? The traffic in the area didn't seem to justify it on this route.

This route is a mixed up sort of thing. The main routes through Commerce have all been renumbered or rerouted.

SH224 was originally SH24 (Which continued from Greenville along the current US-380 to McKinney and beyond). SH50 from commerce to I-30 was truncated and renumbered to SH24. The grade separations on 24/224 were originally part of a loop / bypass of Commerce to get SH50 (now SH24) out of the East Texas A&M Campus. 30 years ago most of the student housing was west of (the) SH50 and the Campus was to the east. Today, the west halls are still standing but are mostly unused. SH224 is very underutilized.

Other than the renumberings and reroutings nothing significant has happened with the highways in or around Commerce since the early / mid 1990's. The campus has ballooned in the past 15 years, but the traffic outside the campus itself has changed little. Hunt County as a whole is still outside the North Texas sprawl.

SH24 or SH224 would be part of the Gulf Coast to Indian Nation Turnpike 4-lane upgrade program which itself has had no traction in DECADES.