Northside freeways falling behind (Houston, Dallas: hotel, construction, live in)

[WestTx]

Good grief! Visited cowtown this past weekend and I was appauled at how some of the most congested areas of town only have four lane freeways.
I35W north of downtown is only four lanes as is Loop 820 between I35W and North Richland Hills. Took my wife and I an hour to get from the Zoo to our hotel in NRH at 3:00 on Friday. With all the suburbs in NE Tarrant county, it seems ridiculous that all the main freeways feeding those areas are only four lanes. Are there any plans to widen I35W and Loop 820?

[rcrdoeva]

it sure is ridiculous but the growth has outpaced those highways tremendously. I sure hope they can fix it soon too. i work near dfw and i live off of alliance town center.

[Synopsis]

I was listening to the radio yesterday afternoon and heard that THE MOST congested interchange in all of Texas wasn't in Houston or Dallas, but right in my back yard here in Hurst. It's the 820/183 area. And not only was it the worst, the top THREE were:

1) 820 North right near Northeast Mall
2) 183/820 going West
3) 377 and 820

What is up with that? The traffic is horrible there AT ALL TIMES. And 820 West to I35W is TWO LANES!

[John Shaft]

If you think it's bad now...just think of all the congestion when they actually do begin working on expanding the roads and have to close lanes etc.

But you were also driving at 3:00 on Friday...that's end-of-the-week rush hour.

[hypocore]

Yeah, I guess ya learned that a trip to the zoo and a hotel in NRH don't go together. If ya do something like that again....ask for backroads to take. :-)

[vteverett]

Don't get on 820 to come into town. Use 121, our kids live in NRH and never get on 820. And by the way, here is the deal with the construction. It was scheduled to start in 2005, but has gotten delayed several times because of a mixture they are doing with toll roads and free lanes; this is for Loop 820 between 35 and 183. Most of the companies bidding on the project are from Europe and one company even dropped out of the bidding because they were concerned about the guaranteed money to cover costs for the toll road phase. If I remember right this was from an article in the S.Telegram.