Collin County new limited-access highways

[dfwmapper]

Edit: 377 is not 380.

There's already a completed design for the 6 lane section of 377 between I-35E and James St/FM 1830 (Country Club), including the railroad underpass, so that's probably the first to get done. There was a public meeting last year for the 4 lane section from FM 1171 to Crawford Rd in Argyle, so that might be next.

[US-175]

Did that map actually label U.S. 377 as a 4 lane divided highway through the entire county?

According to the map legend, the part between Roanoke and the south edge of Denton is labeled 4-lane divided.  The overlap with US 380, the part north of US 380 to the top edge of the map, and the part from Roanoke south--all those show 6-lane divided.

[Brian556]

http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20170315-study-backs-limited-access-conversion-for-u.s.-380-in-collin-county.ece

[TheArkansasRoadgeek]

The way Texas builds roads, I'd be very surprised if Collin County does not get its wish.

Is TxDOT like AHTD in that they have highway obsessions?

[MaxConcrete]

It's nine years after the original post, which was based on a map which has dead links.

Plans for the US 380 and Spur 399 freeways are the result of this effort in 2016. The latest number I heard for the cost of these freeways is $8 billion.

You can see in the original post that there was a proposal for a north-south freeway in eastern Collin County, in the Lake Lavon area. I assumed it was dead, both due to expected opposition and all available funding being consumed by the 380/399 freeways. But I was wrong. This freeway appears to be coming back from the dead!

A document in the agenda for this week's NCTCOG meeting shows an $18 million item for fiscal 2027 to do alignment and environment studies. See page 17.

Based on the description in the document, copied below, I made a map showing the approximate alignment in purple. This is consistent with my memory of the freeway concept shown in the 2016 map.

It should be easy to define the alignment between the Collin County Outer Loop and US 380 at Princeton. Going south from Princeton will be much more difficult. The alignment will pass through the peninsula in Lake Lavon, then have a long crossing over the lake, then traverse through heavily built-up areas around Wylie. The section near Bush Turnpike looks like it has a clear path (if they can preserve it before it is developed.)

This will be a very expensive freeway or tollway, and won't happen anytime soon. But as always, the corridor needs to be preserved. I think the situation is similar to US 380. It's almost too late to save the corridor. But the fact that they have $18 million earmarked for the study suggests that officials believe it can be done. As is often the case for alignments which are planned too late, the alignment may be curving and swerving.

[thisdj78]

It's nine years after the original post, which was based on a map which has dead links.

Plans for the US 380 and Spur 399 freeways are the result of this effort in 2016. The latest number I heard for the cost of these freeways is $8 billion.

You can see in the original post that there was a proposal for a north-south freeway in eastern Collin County, in the Lake Lavon area. I assumed it was dead, both due to expected opposition and all available funding being consumed by the 380/399 freeways. But I was wrong. This freeway appears to be coming back from the dead!

A document in the agenda for this week's NCTCOG meeting shows an $18 million item for fiscal 2027 to do alignment and environment studies. See page 17.

Based on the description in the document, copied below, I made a map showing the approximate alignment in purple. This is consistent with my memory of the freeway concept shown in the 2016 map.

It should be easy to define the alignment between the Collin County Outer Loop and US 380 at Princeton. Going south from Princeton will be much more difficult. The alignment will pass through the peninsula in Lake Lavon, then have a long crossing over the lake, then traverse through heavily built-up areas around Wylie. The section near Bush Turnpike looks like it has a clear path (if they can preserve it before it is developed.)

This will be a very expensive freeway or tollway, and won't happen anytime soon. But as always, the corridor needs to be preserved. I think the situation is similar to US 380. It's almost too late to save the corridor. But the fact that they have $18 million earmarked for the study suggests that officials believe it can be done. As is often the case for alignments which are planned too late, the alignment may be curving and swerving.

Looks like a lot of homes and businesses may need to be taken to make room for the ROW, especially in eastern Wylie.

[armadillo speedbump]

Actually south of Lake Lavon may be the easiest.  Skirt the railroad and industrial on the east side of Wylie, then along the west bank of the Trinity.  Might be lots of fill, bridging, or wetlands mitigation to add cost, but doable.  Then turn southwest in the 200'+ wide electric utility corridor, should be able to fit a tollway without frontage roads.  Finally run down the east side of Muddy Creek along the trash dump to the PGBTollway, I'd guess the land for the interchange is in a floodplain so won't be developed.  I would have guessed Dallas County wouldn't complete it's section for political and NIMBY reasons, but less than a mile of the neighborhoods along the electric corridor are in the county, so perhaps there's a chance.

The Princeton peninsula is a different story.  If they can't buy or at least designate lane before the study is completed then you'd think some of those open plots will become subdivisions in the meantime.  Perhaps Princeton can lean on developers to set aside ROW during the approval process?  Does that extend to their ETJ?  (Extraterritorial jurisdiction, the area outside city limits that cities can claim for future expansion.)  I've forgot the Texas standards regarding development, but thought that counties had much less control of development than cities.

Maybe they end up ditching the idea north of Wylie, instead upgrading 78 into a freeflow expressway (full freeway not required) from Wylie to 380 near Farmersville, along with an arterial bridge to the peninsula across Lake Lavon.  Would be doable with some takings at the major intersections where overpasses are required.

[Road Hog]

Looks like the purple highway cuts the Outer Loop short. The Outer Loop is supposed to swing farther east and then south around Farmersville. If that's the case, there's no longer any point in working on the Outer Loop in the Nevada-Josephine area.

[MaxConcrete]

Looks like the purple highway cuts the Outer Loop short. The Outer Loop is supposed to swing farther east and then south around Farmersville. If that's the case, there's no longer any point in working on the Outer Loop in the Nevada-Josephine area.

The northeast section of the outer loop was removed from the current long-range plan due to financial constraints. It is expected to be restored in a future version of the long-term plan.

You can see on the map that the planned US 380 freeway will connect to the east Outer Loop. That is a suitable interim connection for the east Outer Loop.

[Plutonic Panda]

Hopefully, these are all constructed. It would make getting into Dallas much easier than having to use I-35.