Lake Highlands - Lakewood | April 2022

Tackling congestion along I635

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continuous frontage roads in each direction. Also part of the project is a revamp of the Skill- man Street interchange by simplifying the tangle of roads and building an iconic arched bridge akin to the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge that connects west Dallas with downtown. “Every time I drive through there, I just get a thrill,” said Lake Highlands resident Susan Morgan, who has been lobbying for change at the Skillman intersection for more than 15 years. “Everybody else hates con- struction. But I see the progress. I get excited.” Residents lobby for change Morgan said she had been involved with the city’s long-range planning as well as a strategic plan for City Council District 10, which includes Lake High- lands. She and residents there started taking a closer look around the intersection of I-635 and Skillman. “It was congested; the retail was declining; our favorite restaurants were leaving,” she said. Discussions involved economic development, beautication and crime watch activities, according to Morgan. “One day someone said, ‘You know, nothing ever is going to improve at that intersection until some- one xes the transportation infrastructure,’” Mor- gan said. A chance meeting between Morgan and Lake High- lands resident Tipton Housewright kicked the eort to improve the Skillman interchange into high gear. Housewright, an architect at the architectural design rm Omniplan, said he overheard Morgan in a coee shop talking about the interchange and oered to help. Housewright said he and other architects at his rm came up with what he considered to be a better alternative for the interchange. “The intersection was too complicated and con- fusing,” Housewright said. “It just needed to be simplied.” His proposal of replacing the tangle of roads north and south of the Skillman bridge with more tradi- tional intersections caught on. With the momen- tum of community support on their side, the group pushed for the interchange project to move forward independent of the larger 635 East Project, which had been in the planning stages for years. In 2015, newly elected Dallas City Council Member

Current interchange at I635 and

Reconstruct and widen 11 miles from just east of US 75 to I-30 in Mesquite

S K I L L M A N S T R E E T

Skillman Street and Audelia Road cross at three points north and three points south of I-635. A

635

Current avg. daily trac on I-635: 230,000 drivers

SKILLMAN ST.

635

6 3 5 E A S T P R O J E C T

WHITEHURST DR.

Add one more lane in each direction of I-635

Cost: $1.74 billion Partially funded through the Texas Clear Lanes initiative, which prioritizes voter-approved funding on projects that relieve congestion in metro areas.

COPPERTOWNE LN.

Rebuild managed toll lanes

Construct continuous frontage roads

Tom Thumb shopping center

MAP NOT TO SCALE N

SOURCES: TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, PEGASUS LINK CONSTRUCTORSCOMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER

AdamMcGough joined the eort. “When we think about quality of life, you don’t think about streets and trac, but those are pieces of this that make a huge dierence,” McGough said of the project’s potential impact. In 2017, transportation ocials announced the Skillman interchange project would be joined with the entirety of the 635 East Project. But then the whole project soon became derailed at the state level due to its inclusion of managed toll lanes. Morgan, McGough and supporters made several trips to the state Capitol in Austin to advocate for the 635 East Project to move forward, tolled lanes and all. In May 2018, the Texas Transportation Commis- sion approved the project. Where the project stands now Today, construction on the interchange has reduced the Skillman bridge to just two through lanes going north and south with the three

western-most lanes blocked o to motorists with concrete barriers. The western side of the bridge is being removed to accommodate the construction of half of the new bridge. Following its completion, trac will be switched to the western side of the bridge while the eastern side will be closed o. Two lanes of trac in each direction will be main- tained on the bridge during construction. Dianne Tordillo is the public information ocer for Pegasus Link Constructors, the construction company in charge of the 635 East Project. She said despite the heavy construction, trac accident rates have remained mostly unchanged. “At this time there have been no major adjust- ments needed from the phasing plans,” Tordillo said. The Skillman interchange will be under heavy construction for at least two more years, according to the project timeline.

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