Extension will speed commute for thousands

02:41 AM CDT on Monday, April 5, 2004

By TONY HARTZEL / The Dallas Morning News

The wait for a quicker commute into Frisco is almost over for thousands of Dallas North Tollway users.

Starting Tuesday afternoon, motorists will be able to use a new $35 million interchange at the tollway and State Highway 121 to soar over traffic. Drivers will pay an additional 25 cents to use the 1.5-mile extension.

An estimated 42,000 vehicles a day use the tollway and State Highway 121 interchange. The North Texas Tollway Authority estimates that about 21,000 motorists will use the new extension. At its end, motorists must exit and go through tollbooths at Gaylord Parkway.

Engineers hope that the interchange design will eliminate some of the three-mile backups into Plano without shifting the congestion to Gaylord Parkway.

Both northbound lanes exiting the tollway at Gaylord will not have to merge with existing lanes on Dallas Parkway. The left lane will become a left-turn-only lane at the Gaylord intersection a half-mile from the exit ramp, said Mark Bouma, the North Texas Tollway Authority's director of engineering.

Authority officials caution motorists that the interchange is still a work in progress.

"It's going to look like a construction zone for a while," Mr. Bouma said.

The contractor finished several months ahead of schedule, but the project officially won't be complete until late fall. The tollway authority recently updated its guidelines for toll plazas' appearance, and those designs slowed construction of permanent booths.

That delay will pay off for motorists. Until the new booths are open, motorists will get a 10- to 15-cent break on tolls, which officials hope will keep traffic moving through the interim ramp plazas.

"It's a lot easier to drop a single quarter than to pay three coins," Mr. Bouma said.

The desire to keep traffic moving also led to other changes at the new ramp plazas. Each ramp will have two lanes for traffic entering or exiting the tollway, and TollTags may be used in either lane. But for the first time on a tollway authority road, one of the two lanes at the ramp tollbooths will be dedicated to TollTag use.

"That should make a lot of people happy," agency spokeswoman Donna Huerta said.

Officials also warn that because of ongoing interchange construction, the Headquarters Drive entrance ramp to the southbound tollway will be closed when the Gaylord ramp opens. No date has been set for that ramp's reopening. Motorists should use the Spring Creek Parkway entrance ramp.

Work started on the interchange in January 2002. The North Texas Tollway Authority paid for two-thirds of the project cost, and the Texas Department of Transportation paid the remainder and the almost $700,000 to design the project.

Next up for the tollway authority is completion of a study to determine how much farther to extend the Dallas North Tollway into Frisco.

Engineers hope to build the road to at least Main Street and probably Eldorado Parkway. They could have a decision and a project start date by fall. The agency also is studying a less likely option to extend it to U.S. Highway 380.

The interchange project does not include direct ramps from the tollway to Highway 121, so motorists wanting to head east or west at the interchange still must wait at traffic lights. The state Transportation Department and the tollway authority have plans - but no funding or construction dates - for direct ramps for the northbound tollway to eastbound Highway 121 traffic, and for westbound Highway 121 to the southbound tollway.

In addition, the state will begin work this summer to build the main lanes of Highway 121 from the tollway to Custer Road. The state does not have a date for the main-lane construction from Custer to Central Expressway.

E-mail thartzel@dallasnews.com