Frisco | October 2022

CONTINUED FROM 1

•CELINA the region A PATH FOR DENTON COUNTY Map key

While Denton County is having a bond election to help fund its portion of the Outer Loop, Collin County completed work this spring on a portion of its segment. More work is coming this year and next year.

Key

Collin County’s Outer Loop portion

Completed

In progress

In design

COLLIN COUNTY

•CELINA

•WESTON

WESTON•

A service road between the Dallas North Tollway and Preston Road is open, but will expand to four lanes in 2024.

SRT TOLL

BLUE• RIDGE

•MELISSA

A November bond in Denton County will help connect the Outer Loop to Denton and Collin counties.

•MELISSA

DNT TOLL

•PROSPER

•NEW HOPE

Denton County’s Outer Loop portion

380

A two-lane service road between Custer Road and US 75 is in design. Work should start in summer 2023 and take two-three years.

A segment of the Outer Loop between US 75 and SH 121 has already been completed.

•PRINCETON

•MCKINNEY

•FRISCO

•FAIRVIEW

FARMERSVILLE•

A two-lane service road between Preston Road and Custer Road is under construction.

SRT TOLL

377

DNT TOLL

•ALLEN

•PROSPER

LEVON LAKE

•PLANO

NEVADA•

288

•NEW HOPE

DNT TOLL

PGBT TOLL

380

•FRISCO

•DENTON

380

•MCKINNEY

MAP NOT TO SCALE N

•RICHARDSON

500 ft.

CONTINUED FROM 1

Ramp

FREEWAY DESIGN

Ramp

into the larger proposed Outer Loop—a project that in its entirety will not be nished for several more decades, but would span seven counties, including both Collin and Denton counties, and 240 miles around the northern portion of Dallas-Fort Worth, ocials said. While all construction on the Outer Loop will take place outside of Frisco’s borders, ocials said the project will provide “regional connectivity” and “mobility options” for Frisco residents. “The project can bring people to the [Dallas North Tollway], who can then easily travel to Frisco for work, shop- ping and entertainment,” said Brian Moen, Frisco’s assistant director of engi- neering services and transportation. A pathway to progress The $30 million allocated to the Outer Loop would help fund environ- mental studies to move the project forward, Polster said. Denton County is using federal funds to build the road, making the study mandatory, he said. “The environmental clearance … is

Potential future rail

Ultimately, the Outer Loop will be 500 feet wide to allow for up to ve main lanes with some buer for future light rail in the center. It will also have service lanes on each side.

Main lanes

Access road

SOURCE: COLLIN COUNTYCOMMUNITY IMPACT

just getting the alignment established and getting it environmentally cleared so that we can protect the corridor from future development,” Polster said. The process is expected to take about three years, but it could go as long as ve years, he said. Following this phase, Denton County crews would move to right-of-way acquisition and utility relocations. “Basically, you’d be making the corri- dor empty of all utilities and whatever structures that were in the way that we had to purchase,” he said. Denton County’s population is almost 1 million people, and it is pro- jected to grow to 2.3 million by 2050, state projections show. “We’re seeing development blow up in our county, and it’s causing these

corridors to close in, and so we’re moving out on [the Outer Loop] now, because we have to because of the development that’s going on,” he said. Stormwater issues through the Den- ton County Outer Loop corridor present a challenge, Polster said. The county has aspirations to make its portion of the Outer Loop project tie into best management practices from an envi- ronmental standpoint. That means the water in the surrounding area will be ltered through natural processes, such as gravel and grasses, to clean the water and then send it on to the coun- ty’s aquifer. “We want to build a road that ts into the community as best as possible and does more than just convey trac—it also should do something to help the

environment,” Polster said. Because the entire Outer Loop proj- ect is an integral regional connection, if the bond election fails and the county does not pursue the project, then the state will, Polster said. However, the county would lose control. “They’ll decide what the displace- ments are, and the public involvement will just be what is mandatory and not what the county would do, because we live here,” Polster said. The benets of recharging the aquifer and making the freeway more rural will also go away if the bond election fails, Polster said. Je Neal, a senior program manager at the North Central Texas Council of Governments, said the Outer Loop proj- ect is “absolutely critical.”

COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM