Dallas North Tollway going further north - 15km Extension 3 to open Sept

Dallas North Tollway (DNT) Extension 3 to US380 is due to open this September, the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) says. The extension is 15.5km (9.6 miles) long and three main lanes each direction plus frontage lanes. Frontage lanes are now open the whole length of the roadway works.

The current work which began in 2005 is costing $264m, project cost. At 57.6 lane-miles and 93 lane-km mainline that is a cost of $4.58m/lane-mile or $2.84m/lane-km mainline - economical numbers these days.

Roadway pavement is reinforced concrete.

There are nine sets of slip ramps to and from oneway frontage roads, and in typical Texas style the frontage roads meet cross streets at signals to form interchanges.

There's a new mainline toll plaza in Extension 3 with open road tolling down the middle and cash collection on the sides. It is the fourth mainline toll plaza on the road

Extension 3 will add 44% to the length of the tollroad taking the total length to 51km (31.6 miles) from its present 35.5km (22 miles). The road trends almost due north-south originating at ramps from I-35E almost on the northern edge of downtown Dallas. The first segment to I-635 (LBJ Freeway) and constructed in 30m (100ft) railroad right of way opened in mid-1968. A second extension to Briargrove Lane, just inside Collin County but short of SH190 (later Pres Geo Bush Tpk) opened in 1987 and it reached SH121 in Plano in 1994. It is currently complete to Gaylord Parkway in Frisco just 2.5km (1.5mi) beyond SH121. These are all described as parts of Extension 2.

Extension 4 in planning

A socalled fourth extension from US380 north 22km (13.6mi) to the Grayson County line is in the planning stages. Present efforts are to build a 2-lane road on the edge of the right of way that could eventually become a one directional frontage road.

HNTB is doing planning work with Collin County and NTTA for Extension 4.

Grayson county goes right up to the Red River and the Oklahoma state line. The DNT logically plugs into US377 at its northern end. US377 goes through Ada and joins the Turner Turnpike (I-44) about midway between Oklahoma City and Tulsa.  

NTTA doesn't report toll revenues or traffic for individual toll facilities, but the DNT is  over half the total of the system which also includes the east-west President George Bush Turnpike, the Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge, and the Addison Airport Tunnel.

 In 2006 the four facilities grossed $191m from a total of 373m transactions, or just over a million a day (1.02m/day).

TOLLROADSnews 2007-08-06