TxDOT awarded Denton County Judge Mary Horn with its top award this week. The Texas Road Hand of the Year was awarded to Judge Horn for her stellar work on easing the county's transportation woes.
They cite Loop 288, SH 161, and SH 121 as some of her accomplishments. So guess what we are going to do. Examine them! Yay!
Loop 288: This is a loop that travels the east side of the city of Denton connecting to I-35. Unfortunately, the only good part of the road that is completed is in rural North Denton where nobody lives. It is a nice highway speed drive up there. But where Loop 288 is most needed, the roadwork crawls at a snail's pace. The heavily congested intersection at its southern connection with I-35 has long been a thorn in the side of Denton residents and business owners. It is expected to be finished by the fall of 2009.
SH 161: We are not even sure why this is one of her accomplishments. We understand SH 161 to be the most southwestern non-tolled portion of George Bush Turnpike. That portion is not even in Denton County. As a matter of fact, the Bush Turnpike itself is barely even in Denton County at all, and was built and administered by NTTA.
SH 121: The grandaddy of them all. TxDOT has been dragging ass on this project since the writers of this blog moved to Texas 7 years ago. As of today, only a tiny stretch of the highway is open connecting Carrollton to I-35 as a toll road. The rest of it from The Colony west through Frisco in Collin County has been at a stand still. On top of the drag ass, it is half assed, without even a proper interchange at the North Dallas Tollway (which will now have to be rebuilt). Recently, TxDOT was ready to bail out on the project and sell it to Cintra, until NTTA swooped in with more money. Now NTTA owns the rights to SH 121, and will begin its final construction later this year. Granted, the Denton County portion is semi-complete.
Thank you, Judge Horn. The population will swell by 150% by 2020 and we might have 3 highways built by then, without your assistance. That truly deserves an award.
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