17 replies to this topic

[Jeriat]

So... I'll get into it a bit later, but I was brainstorming something with all the news of Butler Housing and growth of the southside and all. 

But just some basics to note:

- A rail line would be altered 
- The idea is to have NO homes demolished, but it would cost some small industrial businesses. 
- This is also being designed to "clean up" some of the connectors from 121 and 287. 
- This addresses some other suggestions (i.e., a highway deck) that have been thrown around in the past on this forum, as well.

Like I said, I'll get into more later, but here's the start...

[Jeriat]

The Train re-route to make this happen:

[Austin55]

My understanding is that those are Fort Worth and Western tracks. Does anyone know how much use they even get?

[Doohickie]

The Train re-route to make this happen:

So the red is the new track alignment?  Which sections would be abandoned?  (Not clear to me from looking at the map.)  Would it be branch that runs between the proposed and I-35?

[Jeriat]

 

The Train re-route to make this happen:

So the red is the new track alignment?  Which sections would be abandoned?  (Not clear to me from looking at the map.)  Would it be branch that runs between the proposed and I-35?

 

Everything north of the western section of the new alignment. There would be no need for it anymore. 

[steave]

It doesn't seem that useful at this point. There are also railroad tracks and industry cutting up that area too.

 

Improving the Morningside Drive overpass with some kind of deck plaza/park to replace that towering pedestrian overpass would be interesting though.

[Jeriat]

It doesn't seem that useful at this point. There are also railroad tracks and industry cutting up that area too.

 

Improving the Morningside Drive overpass with some kind of deck plaza/park to replace that towering pedestrian overpass would be interesting though.

I'm going to get into that. 

[Doohickie]

Driving up I-35 this morning and looking at the I-35/I-30 mixmaster, which has ramps to the Express Lanes.  Hard to believe the toll authority, the state, the feds, the railroad, will be able get behind this plan.  I suppose there is some level of synergy potentially with the I-30 Corridor Project, but I don't think they're going to want to add cost to that.  It would have to be in line for after that is complete which will likely take a decade or more to complete.  Interesting study but I'm not sure it could ever get traction.

[Jeriat]

Driving up I-35 this morning and looking at the I-35/I-30 mixmaster, which has ramps to the Express Lanes.  Hard to believe the toll authority, the state, the feds, the railroad, will be able get behind this plan.  I suppose there is some level of synergy potentially with the I-30 Corridor Project, but I don't think they're going to want to add cost to that.  It would have to be in line for after that is complete which will likely take a decade or more to complete.  Interesting study but I'm not sure it could ever get traction.

 

It's just a thought. 

Besides, the ramps on that mixmaster would stay. The only thing that's changing is that section of 35W.

[Doohickie]

the ramps on that mixmaster would stay.

Really? What would they connect to if I-35 wasn't there?

[Jeriat]

 

the ramps on that mixmaster would stay.

Really? What would they connect to if I-35 wasn't there?

 

To the North, you'd have the continuation of 35W.

To the South, it would be towards the new "Grand Boulevard" I have in mind. It would only be a couple lanes for the on/off ramps.

[Doohickie]

But they would need to be totally rebuilt, which was my point.

[elpingüino]

While we're sharing our wish lists, I'd like to see a direct connection from eastbound 30 to northbound 121. If all the traffic going from W/SW Fort Worth to NE Tarrant/DFW Airport didn't have to funnel onto 35W for 3/4 of a mile, that would ease bottlenecks on both 35 and 30.

It'd be a similar design as the interchange south of the airport. The southern terminus of International Parkway is one mile to the east of 360, but there's a direct ramp so that southbound traffic doesn't have to funnel on and off of 183 for that mile.

[Doohickie]

All I want are the rest of the ramps on the CTP/I-20 interchange so I could come from downtown and head east on I-20 without getting off on access roads.

[JBB]

While we're sharing our wish lists, I'd like to see a direct connection from eastbound 30 to northbound 121. If all the traffic going from W/SW Fort Worth to NE Tarrant/DFW Airport didn't have to funnel onto 35W for 3/4 of a mile, that would ease bottlenecks on both 35 and 30.

I'm quick to be critical of how much money has been spent on freeway construction in this area versus other forms of transit, but why ^this^ was not included in the billions of dollars of work done on and around I-35 in recent years is mind boggling. How much cheaper would it have been 5 years ago? Recent freeway planning in this area puzzles me. They are spending hudreds of millions of dollars to modernize 820 from Pipeline to Randol Mill but they are building everything around the dilapidated 50 year old Trinity Blvd. bridge. I have a hard time circling that square.

[hannerhan]

 

While we're sharing our wish lists, I'd like to see a direct connection from eastbound 30 to northbound 121. If all the traffic going from W/SW Fort Worth to NE Tarrant/DFW Airport didn't have to funnel onto 35W for 3/4 of a mile, that would ease bottlenecks on both 35 and 30.

I'm quick to be critical of how much money has been spent on freeway construction in this area versus other forms of transit, but why ^this^ was not included in the billions of dollars of work done on and around I-35 in recent years is mind boggling. How much cheaper would it have been 5 years ago? Recent freeway planning in this area puzzles me. They are spending hudreds of millions of dollars to modernize 820 from Pipeline to Randol Mill but they are building everything around the dilapidated 50 year old Trinity Blvd. bridge. I have a hard time circling that square.

 

 

Agreed. This is the ONE ramp in all of Tarrant County that would help commuters the most. If you look at the I-35W/North 820 mixmaster, they figured out really quickly that the Southbound I-35 toll lanes needed a direct exit to 820, rather than the original plan which dumped the toll people out into the main lanes 1 mile from 820, forcing them to cross over. So, about 3 years after the thing opened, you had two new ramps open within the mixmaster that drastically improved the traffic flow. The other ramp was the eastbound 820 to northbound I-35 toll ramp, allowing those people to directly get on the toll portion.

 

Anyway, the fact that we actually had the chance to fix the lack of a ramp from I-30 to 121 when they were building the Texpress stuff, and didn't do it, is a travesty.

 

The second problem downtown, which I'd also love to see fixed, is that you can't get onto westbound I-30 from the southbound toll lanes. Dumb.

[steave]

Another bad ramp is 30 Eastbound to 35 Northbound in the mixmaster. The problem is the ramp from 30 goes from 2 lanes to 1, and then has to merge with the main lanes of 35 unless you want to get off at Belknap.

 

They should have made the northbound lanes of 35 between 30 and 121 wider by an extra 2 lanes. One would extra lane would result from making the 30 to 35 ramp 2 lanes with the outer one becoming the Belknap exit, and the other one would come from the 287 to 35 North ramp. Then these extra 2 lanes would continue until peeling off in a reconstructed 121 Airport Freeway exit.

 

The result is that you would replace a small "zipper" location with a merging zone about a quarter mile long that would flow much faster.

 

This is part of my argument for tearing down Butler Place and replacing it with absolutely nothing at that site, instead re-investing any money sunk into it into community facilities elsewhere . Then the Luella St. Overpass and ramp could be demolished and that would reduce the complexity of that entire general area. That would also allow the Belknap to 35 north exit to be 2 lanes all the way from downtown to the freeway entrance. The area in the triangle space would just be natural, trees and grass. You could finally just buy out and condemn all those awkward vacant streets and lots in between the freeway and the tracks that act as magnets for dumping, etc. Maybe some day the old railroad yard margins could also be greened up.

[JBB]

Yeah, that was the ramp being discussed in the previous 3 posts.