What Hath TxDOT Wrought?

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Meandering Right-of-Way

At 32nd Street, you have 19 lanes, but in a wider right-of-way that zigs and zags to avoid the most problematic neighbors. From 37th south to 30th, the southbound frontage road is cantilevered over the main lanes (see cross-section below) to accommodate Concordia University (which just built new dorms on the frontage road) and St. David's Medical Center. Even with this device, TxDOT still plans to take 150-plus feet of new right-of-way on the east side (taking out, among other things, the Star Seeds Cafe (photo B) and People's Community Clinic). As the cross-section shows, most of that land would not actually be paved.

From 26th (Dean Keeton) to Manor, the profile is reversed: to avoid Mount Calvary Cemetery, the northbound frontage road is cantilevered, and the southbound right of way widens by 100 feet or more, taking out the new UT practice facility, aka the Longhorn dome (photo C), and necessitating a major realignment of Red River, as southbound traffic exiting to 26th goes almost to Manor Road before looping back on Red River.

Again, TxDOT is quite fond of split-level solutions; southbound just past 26th, traffic entering the highway passes over people exiting. The reverse happens northbound, just north of 32nd.