The intersection of US 75 and I-635 in Dallas is a boondoggle of a bottleneck. Each road has 4 traffic lanes in each direction, but at the intersection I-635 squeezes down to 3 lanes, and US 75 squeezes down to 2. Besides horrible rush hour traffic jams, the old intersection’s layout is goofy, has dangerous left exits and entrances, and does not have access road connections across freeways.
The Dallas High Five project, a $261,000,000 project, replaces this interchange with a modern 5-level interchange.
To this point, all information I have reviewed, including Dallas Morning News articles and press releases, have advertised 4 through lanes in each direction for both highways.
Even the bottleneck section of the project overview page says that that “TxDOT will add . . . two lanes in each direction along U.S. 75.” Simple math suggests 4 lanes in each direction. (EDIT (4-24-05: I just discovered that TxDOT drastically revised this page. Go figure! Here is a link to the archived version of that page containing the original text.)
Not so!
Tony Hartzel, the Dallas Morning News transportation writer, inadvertently exposed this lie on his March 19, 2005 article (go to www.bugmenot.com if you need registration):
Central, also known as U.S. Highway 75, will have three through lanes in each direction and an additional lane for traffic merging to and from some of the ramps.
This means that this “fourth lane” will not be a through lane. Instead, it will only be an entrance/exit ramp.
Fantastic. The I-635 interchange on US 75 will continue to be a bottleneck.