My next-door neighbor and I were chatting just a little while ago and he reminded me of something I already knew, which is that the traffic on U.S. 380 just north of where we live is horrendous in the extreme.
We laughed about the impossibility of traveling east on 380 from Princeton to Farmersville at 5 p.m. I drive it a few times each month to cover events in Farmersville for the Farmersville Times and I have to build in extra drive time because of the traffic jam along U.S. 380.
Then the subject turned to what the Texas Department of Transportation has planned to help alleviate that traffic. TxDOT is going to build a series of bypass routes around communities between Denton and Greenville.
It’s a long-term project … to say the bare minimum.
Indeed, I told my neighbor — a much younger man than I am — that I probably won’t live long enough to see it completed.
However, I am going to offer some hope that I can see it occur.
The idea is to build freeway bypasses around communities such as Princeton. Those who want to keep on truckin’ can just stay on the freeway; those who have business to do in Princeton or in any community along the U.S. 380 corridor will be able to exit.
TxDOT has done a good job so far of keeping the communities along the way informed of its plans. It has held town hall meetings, opened itself up to plenty of questions from affected residents and sought to explain its long-term strategy in building the bypasses — which TxDOT doesn’t like to call what it intends for the 60-mile-long corridor.
The traffic only is going to worsen along U.S. 380. Collin County is in major growth mode, as are the communities stretched along the highway corridor.
I suppose I am left, therefore, to use this post to implore TxDOT to get busy building the highway. I want to live long enough to see it finished.