Edit: Please feel free to correct any factual errors and I'll adjust. I'm fairly sure of the information below. I remember reading that 290 use to be continuous through central Austin but then that would mean that Hwy 2222 didn't exist at that time which is possible. I just can't find any links that would corroborate that. Maybe I'm not remembering that correctly and 290 just kept traveling eastword and first hit austin at the 71 junction and then went through austin, I-10 and to Houston.
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Originally Posted by drummer
Maybe 12 would make sense along 290 then...it'd just be another split off of I-10 to the north. If 71 were to become an interstate, I-10N would make much more sense.
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It would be very confusing to have a I-10 north especially since the light free portion of "I-10 north" ends in Austin (well after the current work to eliminate lights on 71 between Austin and Columbus.) HWY terminates on the other end nowhere near I-10. You would take I-10 North and end up stranded in some random town in central western texas after going through an endless amount of lights. I-35E and I-35 west very clearly split between two twin cities (Dallas and Ft Worth) that are relatively close and they merge again once you pass those cities. It is a very simple concept. 71 and I-10 don't merge back together.
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Originally Posted by drummer
So, it seems to me that Hwy 71 and Hwy 290 are both in a good position to be upgraded to an expressway (a la interstate highway) from Austin all the way to Houston or I-10 respectively. Which do you guys think is more likely to happen? If both are headed in that direction with the growth in Texas, which would happen first?
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It's virtually impossible for 290 to be widened and have all lights eliminated unless a toll road was built that would bypass all of the cities. You would then have a "290 Business" that went through all the small towns but I don't think the time it takes to go through those towns and lights would justify the massive expense of building a whole new highway. You don't have the use that you have along 183 west of Austin.
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Originally Posted by drummer
Hwy 290's downfall for this idea is that it essentially dead ends at I-35, which is already horrible (and don't tell me it'll get better someday, haha).
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Highway 290 does not basically dead end at I-35 at all. It has aways passed through Austin. It used to be continuous but it was moved along I-35 to share road with 71 at some point after 35 was made into a highway. It then resumes it's old path just west of Austin. It eventually dead ends at I-10 in central western texas.
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Originally Posted by drummer
281 to 67 would be great, especially with the new Chisholm Trail Parkway from Fort Worth to Cleburne...then from there onto Dallas proper. I do think that a parallel road to I-35 will eventually be needed, but I'd love to see the massive number of folks travel via rail instead...but this is Texas.  |
I-35 is getting massively redone once you get past the Austin Metroplex. You really won't need a parallel route from Georgetown to the Metroplex. The drive from Austin to Waco is crazy with construction. That kind of expansion is not possible in Austin which is why a small part of 183 are being turned into an expressway since it runs North-South in Austin and it's why SH 130 and SH45 exists which is a 2nd I-35 option in central texas. It's light free from I-35 south of Austin all the way to Round Rock. It's also being developed into a I-35 alternative from San Antonio to Austin though I-10 and 130 but that is also a mess of a route.
The shame is that all parts of Texas receive equal funding from the last two highway referendums but places like Austin need so much more funding because of the complexity than all the rural areas.
It's going to be quite an accomplishment when all of the lights are off 71. When I started at UT, you had 4 lights in Bastrop and Ben White Blvd which was a parking lot on holiday weekends. The recently completed Riverside underpass which has made an amazing difference finally gave you a light free path from Downtown to the Airport was hugely significant and the work they are doing now east of the Airport is something people should be happy about as well.
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