One of the major changes in American roads these days are the building of toll roads or addition of toll infrastructure to pre-existing freeways. No more evident is that then in the capital city of Texas and its metropolitan area. With so few freeways serving the area, a plan was needed to deal with the growing congestion on Interstate 35, the primary freeway linking Austin with points south and north, [...]
Under construction since February 2005, the newest segment of the ever-growing Dallas North Tollway opened to drivers on September 29, 2007. With the 9.6-mile extension, the toll road travels 32 miles between downtown Dallas and U.S. 380 at Frisco. Traveling over the new Texas 121 freeway along the northbound lanes of the Dallas North Tollway. Texas 121 is part of a future freeway/toll road under construction to link [...]
This is a look at the Texas trunk highway system. It's an offshoot of the governor's crazy Trans-Texas corridor http://www.keeptexasmoving.com/index.php/trans-texas_corridor scheme, but makes more sense. The idea is to connect huge parts of the state with expressways, building freeway bypasses of almost every populated place. Click images for larger versions. Munday's (pop. 1,500) new bypass This view shows the bypass at Seymour (pop 3,000), which [...]
Lubbock, Texas is a city of about 250,000 smack on the middle of the Caprock - an oil and agricultural rich perfectly flat region in West Texas. The city is also in the process of getting its third freeway, named for retired Texas Tech basketball coach Marsha Sharp. What's the deal with naming freeways after people who are still alive? I thought you weren't supposed to do that. Click any [...]
US 75 originally connected Canada with the Gulf of Mexico at Galveston. That all changed in 1987 when it was truncated to end in Dallas. South of Dallas, the remaining segments that were not on IH 45 became SH 75. Currently, Texas is updating all of its big green signs in the new (and stupid) Clearview font. On the new signs along IH 45, every mention of SH 75 along [...]
Ahh, Texarkana. They say it is "twice as nice" but it is not "twice as many interstates nice" because I-49 is not here yet. Regardless of your maps, the freeway stretching south of Texarkana is signed only as AR 549. No "Future I-49" signs here, no sir. Here it is, plus some AR 245 goodness. AR 549 is an all concrete facility, with lanes 2×2 but a small [...]
SH 121 connects DFW airport and several large employment areas with Collin County, north of Dallas, TX. Collin County is the fastest growing county in the state and one of the top 5 fastest growing in the nation. As such, SH 121 is undergoing massive traffic strains. 15 years ago it was a bucolic 2 lane rural highway, and today it is a snarly mess with a regional mall on [...]
The High Five Interchange, a fixture on the Dallas road scene for years now, is pretty much completed. Let's take a look at it. Dallas High Five Interchange flyovers. The High Five is located at US 75 and IH 635 in North Dallas. This freeway interchange was for years one of the worst bottlenecks in Dallas. Now, several hundred million dollars and many gallons of beige paint [...]
Yes, another Texas regional town post from yours truly - this time it's Paris. I've sent up two pages on it at our Texas portal Lonestarroads.com. Go check out Paris, and Paris Regional. Diagrammatic sign in Paris, Texas.
Tyler is a regional center in east Texas, with an area population of about 100,000. The city reminds me a lot of other cities - Tallahassee with its horrible loop, Wheeling with its little unexpected skyline, Kansas City with its unexpected hills. Here is a quick look at the goings-on in Tyler, Texas. Future SH 49 Toll corridor sign An incarnation of this sign has been sitting [...]
