#txdot

Perhaps you have heard it said that one should “go big or go home,” correct? Well, gang, the Texas Department of Transportation has taken going big to a whole new level. It is pondering construction of a new interstate highway that would stretch — and get hold of yourself — from Amarillo to Port Arthur. All in the same state! That would be Texas. The interstate would track the course already…

Driving south along Beauchamp Boulevard in Princeton, Texas, a day or so ago, a couple of orange signs jumped out at me as I entered the intersection with US Highway 380. One sign had an arrow pointing west along 380 that said “Road Work 2 miles.” The other sign had an arrow pointed east on 380 that said “Road Work 6 miles.” That’s when it hit me. The fun I have known would come to those of us…

It has happened. I am now getting the look from those who ask this question: How was the traffic coming here? And what is the look? It’s the look that tells me the person asking the question knows what the answer is going to be. I fielded the question several times this morning while attending a breakfast meeting in McKinney. They knew how I would answer the traffic question. “It was terrible,”…

Quite soon, Princeton, Texas — the city I have called home for the past six years — is going to assume a title I don’t think anyone ever wants for their community. Princeton will become known as the City to Avoid at Rush Hour.  How do I know that? Because the Texas Department of Transportatio is going to lay waste to the major east-west thoroughfare that runs straight through the middle of…

DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas — Forget high school football, or fried beer that they peddle at the state fair in Dallas, or the 12th Man that fills the stadium in College Station. The newest “Texas thing” has to be the highway construction projects that disrupt traffic flow in virtually every corner of this vast state. I returned to Dripping Springs in the Hill County to introduce Sabol, my new…

Every single trip I make along US Highway 380 through McKinney, Princeton and Farmersville only reminds me of what lies ahead for North Texas motorists in the months ahead. We are facing a traffic-flow nightmare as the state highway department starts breaking up asphalt along the highway.  They’re going to close down two of four existing lanes of traffic soon to begin work to expand 380 from…