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Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas
I actually think it would make more sense to have SH-71 be redesignated as an interstate. It would give us an interstate for our airport, plus, while 71 doesn't connect to I-10, you could designate it an interstate from I-10 at Columbus all the way to Brady, then US-83 the rest of the way to Big Spring where it would meet up with I-20. It's kind of odd that we don't have an east/west interstate up through the middle of the state.
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I think Houston is the largest city to not have an interstate connection to its state capital.
71 between Columbus and Austin is ripe to be upgraded to an interstate, IMO. There are only a handful of locations which are currently insufficient(at-grade intersections, not wide enough) and all of those locations currently justify improvements to a freeway standard whether or not interstate designation was ever the ultimate goal. At some point growth will necessitate building overpasses between Bastrop and 130. While the section between Smithville and La Grange is rural, that also means it should be very cheap to expand the road there.
Beyond Austin to points west it is harder to visualize because of the expense and eminent domain required to plow a freeway through NIMBY and environmentalist hill country Travis County suburbia and beyond that towards Brady or Junction I think traffic counts would just be too low to justify expansion.
To link west Texas to the central and eastern parts of the state I think I-14 will do the job. US 190 was signed as I-14 between Temple and Copperas Cove recently. I think the goal is go from I-45 at Huntsville, past Bryan, then up to Temple. Then from Copperas Cove make 190 an interstate 14 through Brady up to Big Spring and then north up to Lubbock to meet I-27. That would set the stage for the more big-picture and long-distance interstate link between Denver and the southern states and their ports, which currently doesn't exist.
Austin could tie into this by having an upgraded 195 from Georgetown to Florence and then hook around the south end of Fort Hood to the Copperas Cove bypass.