Rowlett residents - thoughts on George Bush expansion (Dallas, Garland: houses, neighborhoods)

[jpeagle21]

I passed through Rowlett yesterday for the first time in a good while (along Kirby street) and I couldn't help notice the George Bush expansion construction. What really caught my attention was that it looks like the highway will run right behind several neighborhoods. I'm talking like within a few feet from the back yards of houses in some pretty nice neighborhoods will be a major highway.

I guess I was just wondering if anyone on the forums lived near the area and what they thought about it.

Further expansion projections will take George Bush through Sunnyvale and Mesquite to I-20. Seeing what is happening in Rowlett, I wouldn't think the folks in Sunnyvale would let that happen without a fight.

[momof2dfw]

Then you drove behind my old house. We are still good friends w/ the neighbors and they were upset about all of the clear cutting. It was too bad they couldn't leave the trees and creek bed that was there. After it was clearcut they said there were a ton of dead rabbits laying on the ground . We all knew 190 was coming right behind there but my house was not going to be right backed up to it and we were going to build up the yard and do a ton of planting of trees to hide it. We ended up moving. None of our friends are doing the plantings or building up their yards like I would to shield it from view and muffle the noise. I don't know why????


I do know that one person in the neighborhood down the street from ours went and complained to the city about it going right behind his house. Well duh . This road has been on the books since the 1960's. The signs were put up that there was a right of way and it was going to go right thru there BEFORE any of those houses were built. Of course he didn't get his way and construction has moved along as planned.

There are going to be some really crappy changes though when it is all done. The exits from the neigbhorhoods that come out onto Kirby will be closed. There will be NO frontage road south of Miller where Kirby is now. Kirby will also not go UNDER 190. It will dead end on either side of 190. For the folks that live south of 190 off of Kirby if they need to get to Rowlett High school they will have to go down to Chaha to Rowlett Rd and then back up to Miller or Main. This is going to BITE! Right now it is pretty much a "straight shot". It won't be that way for long.

I've been watching some of the construction going on in Rowlett from Merritt and Liberty Grove and along Kirby. There is a house that was built a few years ago on the corner of Merrit and Liberty Grove. The city council tried to get then to put it in a different position on their land but they refused. Now his drive is part of the service road. It is funny to see now. It is going to be a mess when the traffic on Hwy 66 gets shutdown to 1-2 lanes in each direction. We went down I-30 the other day from Rockwall towards Dallas and the construction of the overpass over at I-30 is going up pretty fast.

I'm still trying to figure out what they are doing at the Hwy 78 & 190 interchange on the cloverleafs. ?????? They came in 2 weeks ago and put up those concrete barriers and it looks like in the middle of each putting in another road. Not at the entrances or exits as there is no room. The only one they are not messing w/ is the one going from eastbound 190 to southbound 78. No room there for much of anything to be changed. The other three??????

I'll be glad when it is all done though. I'm tired of the dirt trucks driving so fast. The GPD patrols under 78 constantly but they never seem to stop the dirt trucks that are hauling butt and speeding thru the school zones

[ChristieP]

The big problem with going through Sunnyvale is the price of the land. Even with eminent domain, TxDOT will still spend a fortune to acquire the needed land since Sunnyvale sells for over $10k an acre. Honestly, I don't see the I-30 to I-20 portion happening any time soon...

[MaryS80]

Highways when coordinated and planned correctly can be great for a city. It helps bring people in to spend their tax dollars and attracts retail. Garland failed miserably when 635 limiting exits and frontage, as a result all the shopping and dining spots landed in Mesquite.

On the sentimental side I hate to see the construction and all the land being tore up. I spent my childhood in Rowlett. I remember a place with one grocery store and just a handful of restaurants. Fields and pastures out numbered developed land. Growth is a good thing sometimes. I'd really love to see Rowlett by Robertson Park and do something with it. Dallas has let it go to hell.