Interstate 635 in Texas
| I-635 | |||
| Get started | Balch Springs | ||
| End | grapevine | ||
| Length | 35 mi | ||
| Length | 56 km | ||
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According to ablogtophone, Interstate 635 or I -635 is an Interstate Highway in the US state of Texas. The highway forms a partial ring around Dallas. The highway is also known as the Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway or simply LBJ. The highway begins on the southeast side of Dallas, and curves to the central suburbs northwest of Dallas. The highway is 56 kilometers long.
Travel directions
It stacks between US 80 and I-635.
In the suburb of Balch Springs, I-635 begins as a branch of Interstate 20, which runs from El Paso toward Shreveport, Louisiana. The highway has 2×4 lanes from the start. This leads to Mesquite, a suburb of 137,000 inhabitants. A 4-level stack interchange crosses US 80, which runs from Dallas to I-20. Barely a few miles away, there’s a second stack interchange, this time with Interstate 30, which runs from Fort Worth to Little Rock, Arkansas. One then enters the suburb of Garland, which has 216,000 inhabitants. The highway is always very busy here, and has an alternating lane. Then one enters the northern neighborhoods of Dallas itself.
The complicated and new High Five Interchange crosses US 75, which runs from Dallas to McKinney, serving many suburbs. This node is 5 layers high. After that, the highway has express lanes, with 2×4 lanes at ground level and 2×3 lanes deepened below the highway. An old-fashioned cloverleaf crosses the Dallas North Tollway, a toll road from Plano to Dallas. The suburbs look very green, because there are many trees in the residential areas.
The suburb Farmers Branch crosses Interstate 35E, which runs from Dallas toward Oklahoma City. The highway will then have 2×5 lanes. A mesh of flyovers crosses the President George Bush Turnpike, which connects several suburbs north of Dallas. After this, the road narrows to 2×3 lanes, passing through the suburb of Irving, which has a population of 202,000. You then come close to the airport, with the associated industrial areas. The highway then ends at SR-121, which runs to Fort Worth and Coppell.
High Five Interchange
The High Five Interchange.
According to beautyphoon, the High Five Interchange is a major interchange connecting the LBJ Freeway (I-635) with the Central Expressway (US 75). The High Five is the first 5-level stack node in Dallas. The $261 million project began in 2002 and was completed by the end of 2005.
The former junction was an obsolete cloverleaf cloverleaf with a few direct arches. I-635 also added HOV lanes. A total of 37 viaducts have been built, the highest of which is 37 meters above ground level.
History
I-635 was first created by the Texas Department of Transportationin 1955 as a ring road around Dallas. At the time, Dallas was just a small city of 400,000 people without many suburbs. Today, some suburbs are as much as 30 miles off I-635. The first section opened in 1967 from US 75 to Mesquite, on the east side of Dallas. In February 1970, a second section of US 75 opened to I-35E on the north side of Dallas. I-635 was shortened in 1971 when I-20 over the southern portion of I-635 was renumbered as I-30 was extended through Dallas to Fort Worth. In the 1980s, I-635 was extended a little further west from Farmers Branch to Coppell, near the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. In February 2006, the remodeled High Five Interchange opened between I-635 and US 75 in north Dallas.
Opening history
| From | Unpleasant | Length | Opening |
| Marsh Lane | I-35E | 4.1 km | 23-03-1967 |
| US 75 | Marsh Lane | 8.9 km | 00-08-1967 |
| I-30 | US 75 | 17.9 km | 06-11-1968 |
| US 175 | Military Parkway | 9.2 km | 00-10-1969 |
| Military Parkway | I-30 | 6.1 km | 05-08-1970 |
| I-35E | SR-190 | 4.4 km | 19-07-1979 |
| SR-190 | SR-121 | 10.2 km | 00-00-1981 |
LBJ Express
I-635 “LBJ Express” on the north side of Dallas.
Between 2011 and 2015, I-635 was drastically modified. The original 2×5 lanes have been replaced by a completely new parallel structure with 2×3 sunken toll lanes, 2×4 toll-free lanes at ground level and 2 to 3 frontage road strips in each direction, a total of 20 lanes at the widest points. The project cost $2.1 billion in construction costs and $2.7 billion over the entire 52-year concession period, including maintenance and financing costs.
On December 14, 2013, the first short stretch of express lanes through the High Five Interchange with US 75 opened . On July 16, 2015, full capacity of 2×4 lanes on the general purpose lanes became available again. The entire project, including the express lanes, opened on September 10, 2015.
When the highway was opened in 1969, it had a capacity of 180,000 vehicles per day. In 2008, 270,000 vehicles used I-635 daily, and in 2020 this will increase to 500,000 vehicles per day. In the first year of use, traffic increased by 15 percent, and congestion decreased by 70 percent.
Future
Interstate 635 East
It is also planned to widen I-635 on the east side of Dallas with toll lanes and additional lanes, from US 75 to I-30. However, there is no money available for this. The cost is estimated to be $1.8 billion. As a temporary measure, the HOV lane was converted into a toll express lane in 2015. In October 2015, consensus was reached on the configuration of I-635 on the east side of Dallas, with 2×5 lanes and 2×2 express lanes, plus continuous frontage roads, meaning 14 through traffic lanes. There were then plans to make the express lanes toll-free, but in 2017 it became clear that there was a $1 billion shortfall in funding, so it was decided on October 30, 2017 to introduce tolls on the express lanes after all. However, the project was subsequently delayed again due to disagreements over the toll collection. In 2018, there was talk of a smaller widening, with 1 extra general purpose lane per direction, a reconstruction of the express lanes, but no extension thereof, so that the road profile would end up at 5+1+1+5 lanes, plus the continuous frontage roads. Construction of the project started on October 29, 2020. The project should be completed by the end of 2024.
Toll
Tolls have to be paid on the express lanes, also called ‘managed lanes’ or ‘TexPress lanes ‘. The toll rates depend on the current traffic. Carpoolers get a discount. A speed of 50 mph is guaranteed on the toll lanes, if the average speed is below 35 mph (apart from accidents) one can get the toll back in some cases. The original express lanes ran along the north side of Dallas between I-35E and US 75. As of October 1, 2016, the former HOV lanes between US 75 and I-30 on the east side of Dallas have also been tolled.
Traffic intensities
The starting point of I-635.
The data below concerns intensities after the relevant exit. In 2012, the intensities on the north side of Dallas will be lower due to large-scale work on the LBJ Express.
| Exit | Location | 2007 | 2012 | 2016 |
| 1 | Balch Springs | 113,000 | 118,000 | 139,000 |
| 6 | Mesquite | 160,000 | 163,000 | 196,000 |
| 8 | Mesquite | 181,000 | 183,000 | 203,000 |
| 19 | Dallas | 272,000 | 228,000 | 251,000 |
| 22 | Dallas | 240,000 | 208,000 | 184,000 |
| 27 | Dallas | 165,000 | 125,000 | 158,000 |
| 30 | Irving | 158,000 | 103,000 | 143,000 |
| 35 | Irving | 103,000 | 84,000 | 74,000 |
Lane Configuration
| From | Unpleasant | Lanes | Comments |
| Exit 1 | exit 8 | 2×4 | |
| exit 8 | Exit 17 | 4+2+4 | alternating lane |
| Exit 17 | Exit 19 | 2×4 | |
| Exit 19 | Exit 27 | 2×4 + 2×3 | deepened express lanes |
| Exit 27 | Exit 30 | 2×5 | |
| Exit 30 | exit 36 | 2×3 |
