Tag Archives: TxDOT

local news, State news

When a loop isn’t a loop

ty1

TYLER, Texas — Used to be when I thought of Tyler, two thoughts came to mind: roses and Earl Campbell.

Now a third aspect comes to mind, and it’s not nearly as pleasant as the scent of a blooming flower they celebrate every year or the exploits of a great University of Texas and NFL running back who was born and reared in this community.

It’s Tyler, just like Amarillo, has a highway “loop” that has morphed into just another busy street.

The main drag through the city of 97,000 residents is U.S. 69. If you think you’re going to bypass the heavy traffic by taking Loop 323, well, think again. It’s about as useful as Loop 335 is circling Amarillo.

The good news for Amarillo, though, is that the city — in conjunction with the Texas Department of Transportation — is moving forward with plans to extend 335’s western-most corridor with the aim of pulling heavy traffic off of Soncy Road.

I haven’t a clue what they’re going to do in East Texas to improve traffic flow through Tyler.

But after slogging through loop traffic hoping to avoid the clogged highway that run through the center of this beautiful city, my hope is that plans are afoot to do in Tyler what’s being planned in Amarillo.

A loop by definition is supposed to relieve motorists’ headaches, not worsen them.

 

 

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Loop might yet become a loop

I think I’m having a flashback.

Some years ago, I heard the arguments for and against rerouting Loop 335, aka Soncy Road, a bit farther west to create an actual loop around Amarillo’s western edge.

Then the discussion ended.

It’s being revived, as the Texas Department of Transportation is considering a costly and comprehensive reworking of the so-called loop into something that would create a traffic bypass around what’s become one of the busiest commercial corridors in the city.

http://amarillo.com/news/latest-news/2014-10-15/txdot-wants-redo-loop

It’s going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s going to be the result, presumably, of a lengthy round of public hearings in which the city and the state will receive comment from affected individuals.

Good luck with this one, ladies and gentlemen.

Loop 335, as one of the commenters noted in the online post attached to this blog, isn’t really a loop the way Loop 289 is in Lubbock. Loop 289 was built correctly the first time, with limited access roadway encircling the city. If you miss your appointed exit in Lubbock, all you have to do is stay on the loop, circle the city and exit the loop. It’ll take some time, but it’s a sure-fire way to get pointed back in the direction you want.

Here? Well, we don’t have that kind of thoroughfare.

It’s developed along Soncy. Head east where Loop 335 makes the turn south of the city and development begins to thin out when you get past Washington Street. The rest of the 40-some-mile-long loop is relatively vacant of the commercial development you see on Soncy.

I recall hearing that TxDOT wanted to create some limited-access roadway along the southern edge of the city. Maybe that will help.

Now there might be a connection with the westernmost route along Loop 335, if it gets extended.

I’m not holding my breath waiting for this improvement. Still, I wish everyone at TxDOT and City Hall well.

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AMA going to seed

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At the risk of sounding like a negative Nelly, I’m going to weigh in on yet another problem that needs fixing.

I’ve griped in recent days about the shabby appearance of Amarillo’ highway interchanges, and about TxDOT’s unfriendly motor vehicle access to the “Welcome to Texas” sign.

Next up? Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport.

I just picked up one of my sons at AMA tonight and noticed something I hadn’t seen before: seedy grounds around the short-term parking lot.

What gives with the airport?

Weeds are popping up all over the place. The entrance where you pick up your parking ticket looks as if it hasn’t been weeded in weeks. The greenery around the parking structure needs manicuring — badly.

Weeds, weeds, weeds everywhere.

Has the city run out of landscape custodial money for AMA?

I mention this only because airports often are the only thing people remember about the cities they visit.

I’m just wondering if the city has dropped the ball on the airport grounds maintenance.

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First impressions count for motorists

BOISE, Idaho — First impressions count for motorists tooling through a city.

We blazed through Idaho’s capital city in our Prius and noticed something I wish our highway builders in Amarillo would grasp. The city of Boise and the Idaho transportation department have done a marvelous job of dressing up highway interchanges.

Do you hear me, Texas Department of Transportation? Your colleagues in Idaho have done something you seem unable to do.

Interstate 84, the main east-west thoroughfare through Boise is decked out in native Idaho wildflowers. I cannot identify them for you. I’ll just say they are gorgeous. The arrangements on the interchanges are attractive. They leave motorists just passing through — such as my wife and me — with good thoughts.

The Interstate 40/27 interchange in Amarillo is a mess. There’s no other way to describe it. The only thing TxDOT did correctly with the highway was to paint the concrete in colors that approximate the hues seen in Palo Duro and Caprock canyons. So there you have it.

Nothing else is appealing to the motorist roaring through Amarillo. Nothing. Zero.

My question to TxDOT once again is this: Why can’t you do something to make the interchanges more eye-friendly to the thousands of motorists whose only view of Amarillo will from an automobile roaring through town at 65 mph?

Call your brethren in Boise to see how it’s done.

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75 mph? In this neighborhood?

My wife and I made a discovery this afternoon while hauling brush to the relocated City of Amarillo mulching/brush drop-off site at the corner of Hollywood and Helium roads.

It was a speed limit sign at the edge of a residential neighborhood. You know, the type of place with kids running around and moms hauling their children to and from this or that event.

The sign said “75 mph.”

What? Seventy-five miles per bleeping hour — on this stretch of road with no shoulders, so near those homes?

OK, so maybe I need to get out more.

Then again, with speed limits like that on streets so close to the city limits, maybe I ought to just stay home, cover myself up and let others compete for space on race tracks disguised as city streets.

I’ve already noted my growing comfort with 75 mph speed limits on most open highways in Texas. The Legislature boosted them this session, believing apparently that 70 mph just isn’t fast enough. Hey, if you want to really push the pedal to the metal, take Interstate 10 down yonder, just west of San Antonio and you’ll get to drive at 80 mph legally. Then we have that miserable stretch of highway aka Texas 130 between San Antone and Austin where you can dead-head it at 85 mph. No thanks on that one.

Texas transportation officials and the city might want to reconsider the speed limit on that stretch of road just west of Loop 335 … and when I say “just west,” I mean exactly that.

It’s open road west of that location. There you can boost the limit to 75 — just not so close to that residential neighborhood.

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Where's the 'Welcome' sign?

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In the grand scheme of life, this isn’t a big deal to most folks.

But I am wondering: Why doesn’t Amarillo post a “Welcome” sign on either side of the city along Interstate 40?

We just returned from a quick weekend trip to the Metroplex and we noticed something we hadn’t noticed before on all the hundreds of trips we’ve made between here and there — and back again. It is that several of the smaller towns along U.S. 287 have erected scenic gateway entrances. Quanah comes to mind; Wichita Falls does too; same with Childress.

Heck, drive into Canyon from the north and you see a gorgeous gateway featuring a large Old Glory blowing in the breeze.

You drive into Amarillo from the west as you connect from 287 to I-40 and you see a simple sign that reads “Amarillo.” What’s more, it sits on a dirt-and-weed median.

It made me wonder on Sunday as we came back home about why the city doesn’t erect something a bit more, um, welcoming. Why not boast that Amarillo is, “The Gateway to Palo Duro Canyon,” or is the “Capital of the Caprock,” or is the “Hometown of … ” oh, Rick Husband, Syd Charisse, Carolyn “Morticia Addams” Jones, or Ron “TV Tarzan” Ely.

None of it is out there.

Just “Amarillo.”

It reminds me of a similar pet peeve, which is the shabby “landscaping” done at the I-20/I-27 interchange. Thousands of motorists pass through that interchange daily, many of whom are just passing through. Is this the best we can do to show these folks we know how to dress up a major section of interstate highway?

I believe we can do better.

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Loop 335 facing stressful time in Amarillo

Driving south on Soncy Road this morning, my attention turned to that big retail-residential complex going up just west of Hillside Christian Church.

It took forever to lay the foundation for it, but now the framing has begun. It’ll be a huge boon to the west end of the city — and figures to remake what once had been called a “loop” around Amarillo, Loop 335.

We’ve all seen that the loop doesn’t serve that purpose so much now. It’s now just one more busy street that’s going to get a lot busier once the new complex is completed.

I then thought about something I read recently about how the Texas Department of Transportation is going to start work soon on the southern end of Loop 335, turning it into a “controlled access” thoroughfare from Bell to points east. That will mean TxDOT will make access onto the loop more restrictive, I reckon by getting rid of the cross street access onto the street. The state will erect on- and off-ramps to create something of a highway that skirts the southern edge of a city that’s growing.

One of the mysteries that continues to nag me is how Loop 335 became such a mishmash. My understand all along is that it was built to serve motor vehicle traffic the way Loop 289 does in Lubbock. Loop 289 is a controlled access highway as it circles the Hub City. If you need to get to the other side of the city, take the loop and zip around until you find the exit you want.

Loop 335 doesn’t have that characteristic. It’s just a really busy street, especially from Interstate 40 south to 45th Avenue. Travel farther south toward Hillside Road and you see even more development sprouting up.

To what end is TxDOT’s plan for the southern loop? I’m still trying to figure that one out.

Meantime, Soncy Road continues to evolve into something to be determined later.

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TxDOT ends D/FW nightmare

The Texas Department of Transportation has brought an end to the nightmare of trying to get into Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport by automobile.

I read today that TxDOT has completed signage that’s supposed to make it clear — and not clear as mud — for motorists trying to find long- and short-term parking into the immense air terminal.

I know about these things, having been caught trying to blunder my way into a terminal to catch a flight from D/FW home to Amarillo.

Actually, my son was at the wheel at the time; my wife and I were passengers in his car. We circled the terminal seemingly forever before we accidentally found the off-ramp that led us to our destination, which we could see from the car; we just couldn’t find our way to it.

But I’m glad to know TxDOT has finished this job.

TxDOT is full of some smart civil engineers who I’m sure know how to make our travel lives easier while they construct, reconstruct and re-do our state’s roads and highways.

Some adequate construction signage would be a good start.