Highway 114 Reconstruction

crescentboi · 10 September 2005, 08:44 PM

Well I guess since I have so many questions and opinions on this (as I'm sure others do) I figured I'd start a new thread.

Does ANYONE know ANY information as to when they are going to reconstruct the southern portion of 114 through Las Colinas? I drive through there everyday now to go to work as I did when I lived there in high school and it only seems to be getting worse. The backups are rediculous and usually due to merging. It seems like there is plenty of room to expand it from four lanes to eight or ten even. I would think that four lanes for north and south bound with one reversable HOV lane would fit that area great. So any info you have would be great! (Have checked the TxDot site and couldn't find anything, I may have been looking in the wrong places though.)

**Geaux Tigers** · 11 September 2005, 11:47 AM

I think read something about this stretch of freeway on the NTCOG web site. Basically, as per the norm with freeway projects in the DFW area, TxDOT doesn't have it on a "must do" list and it will probably be around 2009 when they start doing preliminary studies.

**RobertB** · 12 September 2005, 10:33 AM

It's worth noting that DART is having to work closely with TxDOT along this stretch of highway. The Purple Line to Las Colinas and DFW depends heavily on cooperation between DART, TxDOT, and the Univerisity of Dallas. UD is donating land for rail ROW (not an entirely altrustic move, as they're selling ~50 acres at the corner of 114 & L-12). TxDOT is ensuring that their highway design includes LRT from the beginning.

TxDOT isn't doing all the giving, of course. The future intersection of the PGBT and SH 114 (mentioned in the PGBT Segment 4 thread) is one of the factors that prevents DART from running the Purple Line along the north side of 114 as shown in DART's early route layouts. Winding the LRT through there would have been difficult and expensive. Plus, that routing had little support, especially with free ROW available from Las Colinas to DFW property via North Lake College.

On the downside of the cooperative relationship, DART may not be able to start on the LRT portion of the project until TxDOT gets to a certain phase of the SH 114 project. But we know that funding for highways (as opposed to public transit) is seldom lacking, so that shouldn't be a problem.

**JFire2** · 12 September 2005, 03:28 PM

Originally Posted by Geaux Tigers

Basically, as per the norm with freeway projects in the DFW area, TxDOT doesn't have it on a "must do" list and it will probably be around 2009 when they start doing preliminary studies.

So it will be well after 2009 before they even begin construction on 114?!? :angryfire

:angryfire

**MaxConcrete** · 13 September 2005, 10:41 PM

Originally Posted by JFire2

So it will be well after 2009 before they even begin construction on 114?!? :angryfire

:angryfire

I would tend to agree that it will be well after 2009 because there are several priorities ahead of it.

It appears that the $1.5 billion I-635/LBJ tunnel project is the leading priority. It will be mostly privately financed but will receive around $420 million in TxDOT money, according to the bidding documents.

Other big, expensive projects that are ahead of SH 114:
* The 121/114 Funnel north of DFW
* Work on Loop 12 west
* Interchange for SH 161 at I-30, also SH 161 frontage roads (imminent)
* Work on I-820 north of Fort Worth (will have toll component)
* Potential work on 183 on both sides of DFW airport

So with even with the current policy of tolling just about everything, I don't see the 114 project happening anytime soon since all the above projects will require substantial conventional funds. But if the 114 project needs to move forward to allow the light rail to move forward, we could see it moved up the priority list.

**JFire2** · 15 September 2005, 02:33 PM

^ Thanks. Make sense. Seing that LBJ tunnel would be worth the sacrifice.

**RobertB** · 15 September 2005, 02:37 PM

Originally Posted by MaxConcrete

It appears that the $1.5 billion I-635/LBJ tunnel project is the leading priority. It will be mostly privately financed but will receive around $420 million in TxDOT money, according to the bidding documents.

A privately financed tunnel? I think you must have meant "federally" financed, with the feds chipping in 2/3 of the project cost.

If the cost was privately borne, say by the businesses along I-635, you'd probably see a radically different design.

**Alex Rodriguez** · 15 February 2011, 12:03 PM

Dirt should be moving this year for two projects along 114, as the money has been fully let.

1. Extend the 114 freeway main lanes from Trophy Club past SH170, including an interchange with direct connectors.
2. Extend the frontage roads in front of Texas Motor Speedway west to just east of SH156 and the railroad bridge. Not sure how this project helps anything as the road still narrows down to 2 lanes at the railroad and past Northwest High School. I guess it just gets 114 in Denton County closer to the Wise County line, where the 114 frontage roads are complete all the way to Rhome.

CONST 4 TO 6 MAIN LANES / DIRECT CONNECTORS SH 170 RECONST SEC
0353-02-060
SH 114
Actual
JAN 2011
$33,333,333

CONSTRUCT FRONTAGE ROADS - PHASE 1 OF FREEWAY EAST OF FM 156 TO WEST OF IH 35W
0353-02-062
SH 114
Actual
OCT 2010
$15,384,182

**gchrisbailey** · 15 February 2011, 10:41 PM

Not sure if it belongs on this thread, but driving from Las Colinas to downtown Dallas for a Stars game, I took 114 to the merge with 183 and etc...

Maybe this has been addressed somewhere in the forum, and I certainly hope it has, but here is my completely obvious observation from that drive that concerns me:

With the interchange around the late Texas Stadium getting completely rebuilt and the DFW connector expanding 114 and 121 to what appears to be 78 lanes across, I realized that I have heard nothing about expanding 114 from MacArthur through the Las Colinas urban area...please tell me someone has a plan to make that area of 114 MORE than 4 lanes across...I'm mainly concerned about the bridge over O'Connor Blvd.

I don't want to even try to imagine the bottleneck that would be caused on both ends of that area if that bridge isn't considerably expanded...

Please tell me there is a plan somewhere concerning this...

**jrd1964** · 17 February 2011, 05:49 PM

Originally Posted by Alex Rodriguez

Dirt should be moving this year for two projects along 114, as the money has been fully let.

1. Extend the 114 freeway main lanes from Trophy Club past SH170, including an interchange with direct connectors.
2. Extend the frontage roads in front of Texas Motor Speedway west to just east of SH156 and the railroad bridge. Not sure how this project helps anything as the road still narrows down to 2 lanes at the railroad and past Northwest High School. I guess it just gets 114 in Denton County closer to the Wise County line, where the 114 frontage roads are complete all the way to Rhome.

The narrowing is apparently only temporary; BNSF is going to move that track so eventually 114 will somehow intersect better with FM 156 w/o having to deal with the low, narrow RR underpass ( >yay< )

It will be *so* nice to be able to go all the way to 287 in Rhome w/o narrow stretches and getting stuck behind those bleepin' gravel trucks!!