Contents

Interstate 27: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:33, 17 August 2007

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I-27 parallels the BNSF Railway's Plainview Subdivision.

Loops through towns and cities

In addition to the two sections of US 87 that run separately from I-27, passing through Kress and Tulia and Happy and Canyon, several Interstate business loops and state highway loops are designated along old alignments of US 87. The old route of US 87 through Lubbock is U.S. Highway 87 Business, designated in late 1992 when I-27 was completed.^[2]

State Highway Loop 461, the New Deal Loop, stretches 1.719 miles (2.766 km) along Monroe Avenue through New Deal, between exits 13 and 15 of I-27. It was authorized on April 1, 1968, after the new US 87 freeway was built, and initially marked as US 87 Business.^[3] Along the way, it intersects Farm to Market Road 1729 (Main Street).

← Spur 459		→ Loop 463

State Highway Loop 369, the Abernathy Loop, stretches 1.496 miles (2.408 km) along Avenue D through Abernathy, between exits 20 and 22 of I-27. It was authorized on October 15, 1962, after the new US 87 freeway was built.^[4] Along the way, it intersects Farm to Market Road 597 (1st Street).

← Loop 368		→ Spur 371

Business Interstate 27-T stretches 1.168 miles (1.880 km) along Main Street through Hale Center, between exits 36 and 38 of I-27. It was bypassed in about 1962,^[5] but was turned over to the city until April 5, 2002, when the new business route was authorized.^[6] Along the way, it intersects Farm to Market Road 1914 (Cleveland Street).

Business Interstate 27-U stretches 9.282 miles (14.938 km) along Columbia Street through Plainview, between exits 45 and 53 of I-27. It was originally authorized as State Highway Loop 445, the Plainview Loop, on February 15, 1967, after the new US 87 freeway was built, and marked as US 87 Business.^[7]OnJanuary 14, 1991, Loop 445 was renamed Business I-27.^[8] Along the way, it intersects Farm to Market Road 3466 (South 4th Street), U.S. Highway 70 (5th Street), and Farm to Market Road 1767 (34th Street).

History

The roadway between Lubbock and Amarillo was part of the Puget Sound to Gulf Highway (State Highway 9), one of the original state highways defined in 1917.^[9] In 1926, it became part of U.S. Highway 385,^[10] which was absorbed into U.S. Highway 87 in 1935.^[11] The SH 9 overlap was dropped in the 1939 renumbering.^[12][13] Paving began in 1929 near Plainview,^[14] and was almost complete by 1940, with only about 8 miles (13 km) south of Canyon still bituminous surfaced^[15] until later that decade.^[16] The Canyon Expressway, a freeway upgrade of US 87 (also US 60 there) between Canyon and Amarillo, was built in the late 1950s and early 1960s.^[14] This highway, with a design speed of 45 miles per hour (70 km/h), included frontage roads along its entire length,^[17] and ended in each city with a wye junction: the split of US 60 and US 87 in Canyon, and a split between the two one-way pairs of Taylor and Fillmore Streets and Pierce and Buchanan Streets in Amarillo. The Dumas Expressway, a freeway upgrade of US 87 north from Amarillo, opened several years later, feeding into the same one-way pairs.^[5]

Four-laning of US 87 from Canyon to Lubbock was completed in the late 1960s, with the last section to be widened lying between Abernathy and Lubbock. While this was built as a surface divided highway south of Canyon,^[18][19][20] short sections of freeway were built through New Deal, Abernathy, and Hale Center, and interchanges were built at U.S. Highway 70 and State Highway 194 on the new bypass of Plainview^[21] and at State Highway 86 (towards the west) south of Tulia.^[5][17] The original two-lane road, where bypassed, became Loop 461 (New Deal, 1968, marked as US 87 Business),^[3] Loop 369 (Abernathy, 1962),^[4] a local street (Hale Center), and Loop 445 (Plainview, 1967, marked as US 87 Business).^[7]

Interstate 27 was not part of the original Interstate Highway System chosen in the 1950s; the spur from I-40 to Lubbock was authorized with the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1968, which added 1500 miles (2400 km) to the system.^[22] George H. Mahon, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1935 to 1979 and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee after 1964, helped secure funding for the road. Texas officially designated the highway in early 1969, originally running from U.S. Highway 62 near downtown Lubbock to I-40 in Amarillo; the definition was extended south through Lubbock to the south side of the loop in early 1976.^[23] The existing freeway sections, including the Canyon Expressway, were absorbed into I-27, despite not being built to Interstate standards. New construction began in 1975, from Lubbock north to New Deal, and most of the freeway was completed in the 1980s.^[5] Two long sections of US 87 were bypassed: HappytoCanyononDecember 5, 1986,^[14] and KresstoTulia soon after;^[5] I-27 was complete north of Lubbock by 1988.^[24] Most of the Happy-Canyon bypass was built along the two-lane Farm to Market Road 1541, which now ends at exit 103 southeast of Canyon.^[25]

The final section of I-27 to be built was through Lubbock, inside Loop 289; this was built in the early 1990s, and completed on September 3, 1992. On that day, a ceremony at the 34th Street overpass opened the road from 19th Street (US 62) to 54th Street,^[26] completing Texas's 3200-mile (5100 km) portion of the Interstate Highway System.^[27] At its south end, the new I-27 connected to an existing freeway upgrade of US 87, built about 1970^[5] to a traffic circleatUS 84 (just north of Loop 289).^[28] The old route of US 87 through Lubbock became U.S. Highway 87 Business upon completion of I-27.^[2] Two business loops of I-27 have been designated: through Plainview (former Loop 445) in early 1991,^[8] and through Hale Center (formerly a local street) in 2002.^[6]

The completion of I-27, costing a total of $453.4 million, encouraged growth along the highway: towards the north side of Lubbock and the southwest in Amarillo; Canyon has become a suburb of Amarillo. Plainview, the largest city between Lubbock and Amarillo, has the only significant retail cluster outside the two terminal cities, and has attracted several industries. On the other hand, Tulia, once a self-contained community with local businesses, was bypassed by I-27, and residents must now drive elsewhere for most shopping needs.^[14]

A study of a southern extension of I-27 to I-10^[29] found that a full freeway extension would not be not economically feasible, instead recommending limited upgrades to the three corridors studied: SH 349 via Midland-Odessa to east of Fort Stockton, US 87 via Big SpringtoSonoraorJunction, and US 84 via Sweetwater to Sonora or Junction. Of the three corridors, the Sweetwater route came the closest to warranting a freeway.^[30] The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, passed in 1998, designated I-27 as part of the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor, a High Priority Corridor from MexicoatLaredotoDenver.^[31] This corridor, planned for upgrading but not as a freeway, crosses I-20 at Big Spring and Midland (via a split), and I-10 at Sonora.^[32] It also forms part of the Great Plains International Trade Corridor, continuing north to Saskatoon, Canada.^[33] The part of the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor within Texas is a proposed Trans-Texas Corridor.^[34]

Exit list

County	Location	#	Destinations	Notes
Lubbock	Lubbock		US 87 south – Tahoka	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		1	US 84, US 87 Bus. north, Loop 289, 82nd Street – Littlefield, Post	Signed as exits 1 (82nd Street), 1A (Loop 289 west), and 1B (Loop 289 east, US 84) southbound
		1A	50th Street	Signed as exit 1C southbound
		2	34th Street, Avenue H
		3	US 62 / SH 114 – Floydada, Levelland
		3A	13th Street, Broadway	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		4	US 82 (4th Street), US 87 Bus. south – Mackenzie Park, Lubbock Memorial Civic Center, Crosbyton, Brownfield
		5	Avenue H, Municipal Drive	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		6A	Spur 326 (Avenue Q)	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		6B	Loop 289	Signed as exit 6 northbound
		7	Yucca Lane
		8	FM 2641 (Regis Street) – Lubbock International Airport
		9	Lubbock International Airport, General Aviation, FAA
		10	Keuka Street
		11	FM 1294 – Shallowater
		12	County Road 58	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
	New Deal	13	Loop 461 north – New Deal
		14	FM 1729
		15	Loop 461 south – New Deal	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		17	County Road 53
		20	FM 597 – Abernathy (Loop 369 north)	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
Hale	Abernathy	21	FM 597 / FM 2060Module:Jct warning: "road" parameter is deprecated
		22	Loop 369 south – Abernathy	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		24	FM 54
		27	County Road
		31	FM 37 east	South end of FM 37 overlap
		32	FM 37 west	North end of FM 37 overlap
		36	FM 1424 northModule:Jct warning: "road" parameter is deprecated
	Hale Center	37	FM 1914 (Cleveland Street)
		38	Main Street (I-27 Bus. south)	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		41	County Road
		43	FM 2337
		45	I-27 BL north – Plainview
	Plainview	48	FM 3466	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		49	US 70
		50	SH 194
		51	Quincy Street
		53	I-27 BL south – Plainview
		54	FM 3183
		56	FM 788
Swisher		61	US 87 north – KressModule:Jct warning: "road" parameter is deprecated	North end of US 87 overlap
		63	FM 145 – Kress
		68	FM 928
	Tulia	74	SH 86 – Tulia
		75	Northwest 6th Street
		77	US 87 south – Tulia	South end of US 87 overlap
		82	FM 214
		83	FM 2698
		88	US 87 north / FM 1881 – Happy	North end of US 87 overlap; signed as exits 88A (FM 1881) and 88B (US 87 north) northbound
	Happy	90	FM 1075 – Happy
Randall
		92	Haley Road
		94	FM 285 – Wayside
		96	Dowlen Road
		99	Hungate Road
		103	FM 1541 northModule:Jct warning: "road" parameter is deprecated
	Canyon	106	SH 217 – Canyon
		108	ToUS 60 west (Hunsley Road) / FM 3331 – Hereford
		109	Buffalo Stadium Road
		110	US 60 west / US 87 south – Canyon, Hereford	South end of US 60/US 87 overlap; no northbound exit
		111	Rockwell Road
		112	FM 2219
		113	McCormick Road
		115	Sundown Lane
	Amarillo	116	Loop 335 (Hollywood Road)
		117	Bell Street, Arden Road
		119	Hillside Road, Western Street, 58th Avenue	Signed as exits 119A (Hillside Road west) and 119B (Western Street, 58th Avenue) southbound
		120A	Republic Avenue	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		120B	45th Avenue	Signed as exit 120 northbound
		121A	Georgia Street	Signed as exit 121 northbound
		121B	Hawthorne Drive, Austin Street	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		122A	Parker Street, Moss Lane	Northbound exita nd southbound entrance
		122B	FM 1541 (Washington Street)Module:Jct warning: "road" parameter is deprecated
		122C	34th Street, Tyler Street	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
Potter		123A	26th Avenue	Signed as exit 123 southbound
		123B	I-40 / US 287 south – Oklahoma City, Fort Worth, Albuquerque	North end of I-27; south end of US 287 overlap; no exit number southbound
			US 60 east / US 287 north (Buchanan Street)	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
			US 87 north (Fillmore Street)	Northbound exit and southbound entrance

References