03/11/2001
By Tony Hartzel / The Dallas Morning News

Graphic from the Dallas Morning News. Additional graphic of the corporate presence in the Irving area.

North Texas keeps growing and so does the effort to build a third highway loop around the Dallas area. The President George Bush Turnpike, part of a plan conceived 44 years ago called Loop 9, is transforming wide swaths of North Texas. The turnpike has quickly expanded to serve major cities and business centers, and planners see it as a major route to what they call North Texas' new downtown - Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

"Based on population growth, demographics and employment figures, there is a need for the entire loop," said Dan Perge, the Texas Department of Transportation's former project manager for State Highway 161, which is under construction as part of the loop. "There's an immediate need for north-south movements in western Dallas County. And this will relieve future congestion along Loop 12-Interstate 35E in Dallas County and on State Highway 360 in Tarrant County." Today, the turnpike runs 14 miles from near State Highway 78 in Garland to Midway Road in the Carrollton and Far North Dallas area. Within a year, two six-mile segments in Irving and Carrollton will open, almost doubling the length at a cost of $350 million.

By 2025, the loop is expected to extend more than 100 miles around the Dallas area from Garland and Rowlett on the east, Plano, Richardson and Carrollton on the north, Irving and Grand Prairie on the west through Lancaster and DeSoto on the south. The turnpike portion is being built by the North Texas Tollway Authority. Portions built by the state will continue to be called Highway 161. A lot of hopes are riding on the new turnpike. As more of it opens, leaders expect to see easier commuting and increased economic development. The turnpike also is expected to centralize new development and reduce North Texas' expansion into areas with fewer roads.

Congested urban areas such as North Texas have few chances for new freeways because of the high costs and lack of space. The Bush Turnpike is one of only a few new highways or toll roads planned in the region in the next 25 years. Its construction mirrors the region's growth. The turnpike's first segment opened in 1998. In 1999, North Texas added about 163,000 residents. That growth has fueled use of the turnpike, which last month carried 166,000 cars a day, already exceeding planners' predictions of 135,000 motorists a day by 2010. The region will add 2 million people in 25 years, said Michael Morris, director of transportation for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the regional planning agency. Mr. Morris emphasized the need to plan so development occurs where there is space for freeways.

Upcoming projects

Plans call for 30 miles of the Bush Turnpike from Richardson to Irving to be complete by 2004. With interchanges being built at several major freeways by the state transportation agency, the cost for the project surpasses $1.1 billion. That is only a portion of the highway loop project. The loop could be half-built and mostly designed by about 2010.

Next up to open:

. A six-mile segment through Carrollton to Interstate 35E in July. The toll to drive from Highway 78 to I-35E: $1.50. The segment also includes a $95 million interchange built by the state Transportation Department to carry motorists far above the flood-prone Trinity Mills area.

. In January 2002, a six-mile segment in Irving from just north of State Highway 183 to LBJ Freeway will open and cost 50 cents to use. That segment, currently Highway 161, includes a $22 million interchange built by the state Transportation Department that will feature a free exit to MacArthur Boulevard.

Although he doesn't plan to use the turnpike much, Irving resident Juan Lucero sees the new road as a way to relieve traffic elsewhere. "It's always hideous" in the LBJ Freeway/I-35E area, he said. "I'm sure it will help as far as letting everyone miss that." The only drawback, Mr. Lucero said, is having to detour around the major construction next to his apartment complex near LBJ Freeway. "I have to come out the back road of the apartment," he said.

The Irving segment will feature a toll plaza near Belt Line Road. Ramps and toll booths also are being built at Belt Line Road and Royal Lane. Access to State Highway 114 will originally be provided at the Royal Lane exit and along frontage roads that do not have traffic lights. Engineers also have future options. If traffic warrants, direct ramps from the turnpike to Highway 114 will be built. The project includes concrete columns that will support those future ramps.

Turnpike's goals

Even with all the concrete being poured, the Bush Turnpike has never been expected to relieve traffic on LBJ Freeway, the area's most congested highway. Instead, the turnpike will serve the expanding needs of residents in Collin and Denton counties, two of the fastest-growing counties in the nation. It will give motorists an east-west route and easier access to D/FW Airport and beyond. To industrial specialist Jewel Brodie, the turnpike will provide alternatives. Ms. Brodie lives in Lewisville and travels side streets to her job in Las Colinas. But she wants to buy a house within the next year; Arlington, Grand Prairie, Richardson and Plano are possibilities, she said. "The only reason it will be good for me is if I move," she said. "It gives me more options to buy a house." Without the turnpike's opening, Ms. Brodie said, she wouldn't consider those other cities.

The Bush Turnpike is the first project combining the efforts of the tollway authority and the state. Transportation planners and local officials are pushing for the Legislature to make it even easier for the two agencies to work together. Without cooperation, there wouldn't have been enough money to finish the Bush Turnpike for at least another decade, said Mark Bouma, director of engineering for the tollway authority. In a separate effort, D/FW Airport administrators have begun having public hearings on how best to develop some of the airport's available land near the turnpike. Thousands of acres have sat vacant since the airport opened in 1974. Dallas and Fort Worth, which own the airport land, have in recent years reached tax-sharing agreements with Irving and Euless to allow developers and planners to begin building on some of the area's most valuable real estate. D/FW Airport has established preliminary land-use plans for three tracts near the turnpike, with potential uses that include business parks, light industrial complexes and retail centers. The turnpike will run through only a small portion of vacant airport property that extends out from D/FW's easternmost runway. The airport has no plans for that area now, but it may eventually be used for office complexes. "Any highway access that is going to ease the flow of traffic into the airport is going to help our development," said Kevin Cox, the airport's senior executive vice president. "Having another north-south freeway is going to help." The airport's role in the region is expected to assume even greater prominence in the coming years. Demographers predict that much of North Texas' growth by 2025 will occur in northern Tarrant County and southern Denton and Collin counties. The development pattern means the airport, already seen as the largest catalyst for the region's economic growth in the last 27 years, will be in the geographic center of a booming region that will provide tens of thousands of jobs.

Development effects

Recent history in Garland, Plano and Richardson shows the effect the Bush Turnpike will have on development. Economists predict that within a decade, all the vacant land around the turnpike will be gone. Some of the parcels have sat dormant for dozens of years in anticipation of the long-planned road. In Richardson, the turnpike has allowed the crowded Telecom Corridor to expand eastward, with several major office construction projects already announced. Across the highway in Plano, the city has begun to see its efforts to develop a technology-driven corridor bear fruit. In December, Flextronics International USA Inc., a California-based electronics company with sites in Richardson and Garland, announced plans to build a third complex for 5,000 employees along the turnpike in Plano.

At the opposite side of the future highway loop, local leaders eagerly await the state Transportation Department's work to build an interchange at Interstate 20 and the extensions to Highway 161 in Grand Prairie. That portion of the project had been delayed for years by legal battles from Grand Prairie homeowners. The homeowners, concerned about the effect the road would have on their quiet neighborhood, argued that the state's studies did not justify the need for a major highway along the selected route. A federal judge ruled in favor of the state several years ago and allowed the project to proceed. State planners have begun buying property in the area, and construction on frontage roads could begin in about three years. Southern Grand Prairie has seen a retail boom in the last couple of years, and there is plenty of available land, Mayor Charles England said. "People have already shown a lot of interest, but there needs to be a road there," he said. "Traffic is as important as economic development is now."