Tag Archives: US 380

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

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

Complex isn’t coming down after all … yet!

I guess I got a bit ahead of myself in suggesting that demolition work had begun on that monstrosity of an apartment complex on US 380 in Princeton.

The Princeton Housing Standards Authority — aka the City Council — voted 3-2 Thursday evening to order completion of several rotting structures, even as crews began razing three buildings “to the slab.”  Even those structures, deemed irreparable, could come back to life.

I don’t know about the wisdom of that decision.

The complex has sat there unfinished for more than a year, exposed to North Texas’s occasionally harsh weather. Mold and water damage run rampant through the 300-unit apartment complex.

The developer has a deadline to get the work done. Some buyers are lined up to possibly purchase the site next to Wal-Mart on the south side of US 380.

Folks, it still looks like a mess to me.

I’ll have more to say later on the location and whether it is even wise to have such a huge apartment complex on a thoroughfare that already is choked with stand-still traffic.

Sorry I jumped the gun.

local news

Monstrosity on its way down!

All the yammering around Princeton regarding that 300-unit apartment complex that has gone to serious seed must have been heard by those who needed to hear it.

I just noticed crews at work taking down several of the buildings. And this is in advance of a public meeting set for this evening at Princeton Municipal Complex to discuss the future of the site.

It looks to me as if its future might have been decided. The demolition underway involves the razing of three structures deemed damaged beyond repair. There’s too much mold and water damage to the buildings to save them. So … they’re coming down!

The City Council is meeting as the city’s Housing Standards Authority. It will discuss the various — and numerous — code violations that render the site unworkable.

I am one of many Princeton residents who is delighted to see the work commence to rid the city of this monumental eyesore created when the contractor walked off the job after getting into a snit with the developer.

We’ll just have to stand by while the work continues and see what in the name of civic improvement occurs with the site on US 380.

Keep pounding away, fellas.

local news

Meeting set once again

I had reported on this blog my intention to comment on a special Princeton City Council meeting called to discuss the fate of that construction eyesore next to Wal Mart on US Highway 380.

Then the council postponed the meeting. It will meet this Thursday at 5 p.m. acting as the Princeton Housing Standards Authority. Now, they tell me, there will be a hearing to decide the fate of the abandoned, partially built, rotting luxury apartment complex that appears to be going nowhere in a hurry.

The general contractor got into a beef with the developer and walked off the job in the spring of 2023. My guess is that it’s about 40% finished. Will it cross the finish line? My gut along with my ol’ trick knee tell me “no.”

I intend to be present for this rescheduled hearing on Thursday. I don’t yet know whether the council make a decision that night. I asked Mayor Brianna Chacon whether there will be a decision; I haven’t received an answer.

I want to see some leadership on this matter rise to the occasion.

Let’s get rid of that eyesore.

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Looking ahead to key meeting

Every so often, events align in such a way that enable to get a first-hand look at what a governing authority intends to do about an issue I am discussing on this blog.

Monday night, the Princeton City Council is convening to discuss the fate of a hideous eyesore that occupies a parcel next to Wal-Mart along US Highway 380. It’s that apartment complex that has gone seriously to seed over the past many months.

The city has declared that it suffers from several code violations. It’s unsafe. It is in fact rotting before our eyes.

A contractor started work on the massive luxury apartment complex. Then he got into a beef with the developer and walked away.

The city council, acting as a housing standards authority, must decide what to do about. For me, the session occurs at 5 p.m. Monday and I am going to be there as a Princeton resident/blogger.

The Princeton Herald will assign a reporter to cover it. Me? I get to watch it unfold in real time.

The city, I suppose, could decide Monday on the fate of the project. It could take it all under advisement and reconvene later for a decision. The decision might be to knock it down. Or … they could decide the site is worth rehabilitating.

I’ve stated already I believe the project needs to vanish. It’s not my call. It belongs to the city. I’m just an interested observer with a lot to say on what the city council decides.