Tag Archives: TxDOT

economic news

Go big or go home … ya think?

Perhaps you have heard it said that one should “go big or go home,” correct?

Well, gang, the Texas Department of Transportation has taken going big to a whole new level. It is pondering construction of a new interstate highway that would stretch — and get hold of yourself — from Amarillo to Port Arthur. All in the same state! That would be Texas.

The interstate would track the course already traveled by U.S.Highway 287.

I will stipulate that there is no way on this good Earth that I will live to see this project completed. I don’t know that TxDOT even has a strategic completion date in mind. I also must stipulate that I cannot quite wrap my arms around the scope of this project.

Expensive? Yeah … it is. TxDOT is projecting 670-mile-long project to cost something exceeding $24 billion. It would employ 40,000 people to work on it. I venture to suggest that a huge portion of the cost would be in the purhase of private land. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution stipulates that the government must provide “just compensation” to property owners who have to surrender their land to the government. Given that more than 90% of all land in Texas is under private ownership, TxDOT would have to fork over a ton of dough to complete that transition from private property to land converted for “public use.”

To be candid, this scope of this idea — and that’s all it is! — is too much for my feeble noggin to ponder. It took TxDOT, for example, more than two years to complete an Interstate 40 expansion just through Amarillo. U.S. 287 begins just east of the Panhandle city and courses through many cities and towns on its way south and east through the Metroplex and into Deep East Texas. The idea of expanding a four-lane highway into a limited-access freeway through towns such as Chillicothe, Vernon, Claude or Clarendon simply blows my mind. There are more developed communities, such as Decatur and Fort Worth that lie in the path of this enormous project. Then you find yourself in Beaumont, the Mid-County area of Jefferson County until you end up in Port Arthur.

It is way too early to pass any form judgment on this project. I am not even sure TxDOT will pursue it. The highway agency will have to determine if the expense and the enormous disruption will be worth the effort.

When will that occur and what in the world will Texas even look like when they take down the last construction cones?

economic news, local news

Signs portend driving misery

Driving south along Beauchamp Boulevard in Princeton, Texas, a day or so ago, a couple of orange signs jumped out at me as I entered the intersection with US Highway 380.

One sign had an arrow pointing west along 380 that said, “Road Work 2 miles.” The other sign had an arrow pointed east on 380 that said, “Road Work 6 miles.”

That’s when it hit me. The fun I have known would come to those of us who live in the nation’s fastest-growing city is about to commence. Actually, it won’t be fun. It’s going to be a headache, more than likely.

The Texas Department of Transportation is going to widen 380 from four lanes to six lanes. However, to do that I was told by a former Princeton city manager that TxDOT had to narrow the right-of-way from four lanes to two lanes … one lane in each direction. Thus, the “fun” begins for anyone needing to get anywhere along 380.

All of this appears to be the prelim to work on a freeway bypass around Princeton that TxDOT has been pondering since before my bride and I moved here six years ago.

This is the price of progress. I am able to pay it. Not with any great enthusiasm. But I’ll get through it. The alternative? There isn’t any!

To which I only could mutter: Aaaack!

This is one of the costs I am paying by living in a community that is undergoing a growth explosion. It’s no “spurt.” Or any other term that suggests a smallish growth pattern.

local news

Traffic class has begun

I have just taken a master class designed to acquaint motorists such as me with what to expect in the Metroplex for the foreseeable future … and beyond.

It is a class in patience associated with coping with highway construction.

I’ve known this class was on the books and that the hundreds of thousands of us who drive through the Dallas/Fort Worth area each day are aware of what we can expect. We’re going to experience gridlock made famous in places like Los Angeles and New York City. I’ll throw in some foreign cities with which I am acquainted. Traffic flow in places like Athens, Bangkok, Taipei and Mexico City is nothing to dismiss, either.

I saw construction sites with utilities — water drainage pipes — piled along the thoroughfares such as Texas Highway 5 and U.S. Highway 380 through Princeton. Motorists traveling past these construction sites are using good judgment and adhering to warnings that they would be fined extra if they sped through them. Following state police warnings, though, slows the traffic to a near crawl.

I drove to Addison to have lunch with a friend. We parted company just ahead of rush hour. My GPS said it would take me about 45 minutes to get home. It took well more than an hour! Yes, I grumbled and cursed when I approached Allen and Princeton, where I started noticing the utilities strewn along the roadway.

I had to remind myself that this is a temporary condition. State highway planners hope to relieve traffic along US 380 by building those freeway bypasses around Princeton, Farmersville, McKinney and other cities.

However, and this is a big deal … I am 75 years of age and I might not be around when it’s all done. So, I shall pray for continued good health and my ability to operate a motor vehicle. I want to see them pick up those ubiquitous orange construction cones for the final time.

local news

What gives on US 380?

My 75-year-old trick knee is throbbing for the first time in a good while and it’s telling me there might something amiss with that big apartment construction job that has been underway on U.S. 380 here in Princeton, Texas.

The site has gone dark … again! No sign of any work being done there for about the past three weeks.

You’ll recall that the general contractor walked off the job about three years ago when he/she got into a snit with the developer. I thought they would just knock the buildings down and start over with something different. I didn’t know what I was thinking.

The Princeton City Council agreed to let the developer proceed with a new contractor. It set a timetable for completion of the 300-unit complex billed originally as a “luxury apartment” site.

I don’t know what’s going on. I merely am using this blog to vent my continuing frustration with the on-off-again project that doesn’t seem to be gaining any traction.

Just think, soon the Texas highway department is going to tear the crap out of the roadway that runs through my city … making any commuting through Princeton a nightmare.

local news

City to assume unwelcome label

Quite soon, Princeton, Texas — the city I have called home for the past six years — is going to assume a title I don’t think anyone ever wants for their community.

Princeton will become known as the City to Avoid at Rush Hour. 

How do I know that? Because the Texas Department of Transportatio is going to lay waste to the major east-west thoroughfare that runs straight through the middle of Princeton.

U.S. Highway 380 is going under the bulldozer’s front as TxDOT starts to expand the highway from four lanes to six. Here, though, is the kicker: To expand the highway, TxDOT is going to narrow it, turning it from a four-lane right-of-way to a two-lane.

None of this, I hasten to add, will have much to do with the construction of the freeway bypass TxDOT is planning along the 380 route from Denton to Greenville.

One can argue that Princeton already has the Rush Hour ban label already. Traffic slows to a near stop west bound in the morning and east bound in the aftenoon along U.S. 380. I try to wrap my noodle around what will happen when TxDOT decides to narrow the highway from four lanes to two. It boggles my noggin.

To be candid, at my relatively advanced age I don’t expect to live long enough to see the completion of the bypass route around Princeton. Or around any of the other cities along the 380 route for that matter.

The state is facing some serious property condemnation issues as it seeks to purchase the land on which to carve the new highway. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution does require government to give “just compensation” for property it takes as its own. It’s going to be mighty expensive to build it … you know?

I long have favored development. I want my community to grow and to prosper. I believe Princeton will prosper once the highway gets improved and once the state finishes its bypass project.

But damn! The nightmarish inconvenience of it will make it mighty difficult to anticipate good things when the end of the work arrives.

I believe Princeton needs an identity to give the city a personality. This isn’t quite the ID I anticipated for the city where I choose to live.

economic news, local news

Come back during rush hour!

A friend who lives in Austin ventured through Princeton recently partly to check out some of the issues I have raised on this blog … at least that’s what he said.

He was traveling from Paris through Princeton and wanted to know about the hubbub over this city’s enormous growth.

He got a small taste of what I have been saying about this Collin County community that is undergoing a fairly fundamental identity crisis. My friend said somethinga about the city-imposed moratorium on residential construction. The council imposed the ban and then recently extended it another six months. My hunch is that it will do so again and again … and may even again.

City Manager Mike Mashburn estimates that Princeton is home to more than 40,000 residents. I believe him! Builders are planting “New Homes Coming” signs still on undeveloped residential plots as they commence contruction to fulfill building permits that already were approved prior to the council’s decision to suspend residential construction.

The city has overbuilt beyond its ability to service the people who already are here. It is trying to halt the construction long enough to enable it to provide the infrastructure it needs to provide the service.

My friend said he cannot imagine how tough it is during morning and evening rush hours along U.S. 380, the major east-west thoroughfare that cuts through Princeton. What’s more, it’s going to get worse. Texas transportation gurus want to widen 380 from four lanes to six, but to do that the’ll have to shut down two of the lanes to make the highway a two-lane track while they build the extra lanes.

I appreciate my friend’s outsider perspective. He can’t “imagine” how bad it can get here. I got news for him. Neither can I.

local news

Highway work: a Texas thing

DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas — Forget high school football, or fried beer that they peddle at the state fair in Dallas, or the 12th Man that fills the stadium in College Station.

The newest “Texas thing” has to be the highway construction projects that disrupt traffic flow in virtually every corner of this vast state.

I returned to Dripping Springs in the Hill County to introduce Sabol, my new puppy, to members of our family.

The road work here does not end. I doubt it ever will. If and when it does, I’ll likely be underground for eternity.

US Highway 290 is getting a second deck above the existing thoroughfare. I understand the state wants to build a no-exit thoroughfare through what they call “The Y” along 290. The existing highway will remain and local motorists can exit whenever they want.

I have done my share of griping about the work occurring in North Texas along US 380. We are not alone! Yes, other parts of the state are going through much of what we’re enduring in the Metroplex.

I now will vow to avoid griping too loudly about future highway projects at home. It’s a Texas thing … you know?

local news

Get ready for traffic collapse?

This information comes from a North Texas public school administration, a fellow I trust to be truthful and one who isn’t prone to spreading vicious rumors.

It goes like this: He has heard from a leading Princeton public official that U.S. Highway 380 is going to narrow to one lane of traffic each way (east and west) while the state widens the highway from four lanes to six.

I am not going to name any names here, because I cannot confirm it. I already knew about the Texas Department of Transportation plans to widen 380. It’s been in all the papers. What I didn’t know was that to widen the highway from four lanes to six it has to narrow the traffic lanes from four to two.

The traffic along 380 is becoming the stuff of legends in this part of Texas. Damn near everyone I know who lives near me — neighbors, assorted friends and acquaintances, my mail carrier — all complain about the traffic.

This new development, though, is going to require me to find alternate routes heading east and west out of Princeton. The westbound alternative might be easier to identify.

Absent that alternative, I fear the Mother of All Traffic Nightmares is going to visit us in Collin County … and she won’t go away quietly.

local news

Waiting for monstrous project

When you mention the word “infrastructure,” there is a decent chance you’re talking about traffic.

And when you mention “traffic,” particularly in North Texas, you well might be thinking of US Highway 380.

You might wonder: What do these elements have to do with each other? The Texas Department of Transportation is fixin’ to hopefully correct the traffic problems by working on alternatives to traveling along US 380.

It’s a nightmare right now.

When we moved to Princeton five years ago we learned TxDOT’s plans for the region. They involve construction of loops around several cities from Denton to Greenville. Princeton sits about 35 miles from Denton and 21 miles from Greenville. TxDOT wants to construct a loop south of 380. It would attract through traffic to use the bypass, leaving local traffic on 380.

It’s expensive, man. I cannot remember the total cost of the highway work, but it runs in the tens of billions of dollars.

Now for the downer. I am 74 years of age, turning 75 in December. I mention that because I might not live long to see this project completed. I keep hearing how it’s going to take decades to finish this task.

Which brings me to the most important point. What will happen as this region continues to grow at its breakneck pace, which is projected for the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metro area?

Will the highway loops around the cities that straddle US 380 be enough to loosen the traffic flow? If not, then what does the state do?

I surely get how important infrastructure is for growing communities such as those strung along the highway. I am going to hope that TxDOT is thinking past when it completes this huge project .,.. and prepares for the next big one.

local news

More on the monstrosity

That partially built apartment complex around the corner and down the street from my Princeton home just doesn’t leave my mind.

I want it gone. I no longer want it to be finished. Why? Traffic! That’s it, man.

You see, the 360-unit apartment monstrosity sits alongside US Highway 380, a multilane highway that already is congested beyond reason. The city is hoping to bring in a gigantic retail complex not far from where the apartment complex now sits fallow.

The Texas Department of Transportation wants to expand 380, adding more traffic lanes and, thus, making the traffic woes even worse.

I can remember when the Farmersville City Council nixed an apartment complex near the Brookshire’s grocery story complex some years back. The reason for the rejection? Traffic. Council members were concerned what the increased traffic would do to that area. Thus, I now wonder what the Princeton City Council must have been thinking when it approved the proposal to build the huge complex next to Wal-Mart.

The complex appears to be headed for the trash heap. I have no proof of that belief. I just believe it.

It’s just as good. We do not need any more traffic congestion to give us headaches as we do battle with the legendary D/FW traffic woes.