{"id":36932,"date":"2019-05-09T22:23:17","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T22:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=36932"},"modified":"2019-05-09T22:23:17","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T22:23:17","slug":"txdot-takes-very-long-view-of-highway-realignment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=36932","title":{"rendered":"TxDOT takes very long view of highway &#8216;realignment&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=KETR%20%23US380%20%23TxDOT&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/380.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-36933\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/380-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/380-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/380.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Blogger&#8217;s Note: This blog post was published originally on the KETR-FM website.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If you had any thought that the Texas Department of Transportation was going to knock out a planned realignment of U.S. 380 through Collin and Hunt counties just like that, well, you can set that thought aside.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s going to take some time. And quite a <em>long<\/em> time at that, according to TxDOT officials who are concluding a series of public presentations along the route of the proposed realignment.<\/p>\n<p>I attended the presentation at Princeton High School this week. TxDOT\u2019s Ceason Clemens delivered a 24-minute summary of the grand plan. It\u2019s a doozy, I\u2019ll tell you.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the time line, as explained to me by Michelle Raglon, TxDOT public affairs manager: They won\u2019t start \u201cthrowing dirt around\u201d for six to nine years and over time, it\u2019s going to take TxDOT roughly 20 years to finish the job; it might go longer than that, Raglon said.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line? North Texans are in for a long haul.<\/p>\n<p>Clemens made a couple of points I want to highlight before discussing some of the guts of the proposed realignment.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>One is that there has been no shortage of public meetings about the plans to reconfigure the U.S. 380 corridor from the Denton-Collin County line to Hunt County, she said. TxDOT has received more than 15,000 public comments over the course of about five years.<\/li>\n<li>Another is that this project is not subject to any kind of public vote. TxDOT has received authorization from the Texas Legislature to study the feasibility as well as the environmental impact of the work to be done and it is proceeding with that mandate from state lawmakers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, what\u2019s in store for Princeton, where I live and where my wife and plan to live for, shall we say . . . <em>the duration?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>TxDOT is planning to spend about $353 million to build a loop north of the existing U.S. 380 thoroughfare. It will displace 19 business, compared to 122 that would have been displaced with another option it considered before settling on the recommended route. The affected area lies between Farm to Market Road 1827 to County Road 559. TxDOT believes this route offers \u201cgreater support for future economic growth opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The highway department is planning average right-of-way depths of 330 to 350 feet, but there will be \u201cexceptions\u201d made around \u201cmajor interchanges where more is needed for ramps.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The renderings presented after revealing TxDOT\u2019s recommendations suggest a major widening of the highway to accommodate what is expected to be tremendous growth over the next several decades. Indeed, I recently spoke with Princeton City Manager Derek Borg, who told me the city\u2019s population \u2013 which he estimates today to be around 13,000 residents \u2013 will top out at around 110,000 residents in the next, oh, <em>40 or 50 years<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, the pressure on the highway infrastructure is going to be immense. You know?<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s much more, of course, to this proposal. TxDOT, for instance, is looking at yet another loop <em>south<\/em> of the existing U.S. 380 corridor through Farmersville. It will displace far fewer businesses and residences than another alternative considered. The TxDOT recommendation offered for the segment from County Road 559 to the Hunt County line will cost around $404 million.<\/p>\n<p>The Princeton High School meeting drew a substantial crowd of about 250 residence. TxDOT brought a full complement of staffers, engineers, spokespeople \u2013 you name \u2018em \u2013 to the public presentation.<\/p>\n<p>My sense is that the size and scope of what TxDOT is pitching \u2013 in conjunction with the North Central Texas Council of Governments \u2013 hasn\u2019t sunk in completely with those who will be affected.<\/p>\n<p>It all will, over time, which TxDOT seems \u2013 at the moment \u2013 to have plenty at the moment as it seeks to explain fully what it intends to do with this highway corridor that courses through North Texas.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=KETR%20%23US380%20%23TxDOT&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blogger&#8217;s Note: This blog post was published originally on the KETR-FM website. If you had any thought that the Texas Department of Transportation was going to knock out a planned realignment of U.S. 380 through Collin and Hunt counties just like that, well, you can set that thought aside. It\u2019s going to take some time. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=36932\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">TxDOT takes very long view of highway &#8216;realignment&#8217;<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1063,8436,8608,8367,4936,8497],"class_list":["post-36932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-collin-county","tag-ketr-fm","tag-nctcog","tag-princeton-tx","tag-txdot","tag-us-380"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36932"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36934,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36932\/revisions\/36934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}