The tunnel connects the western and eastern barrier roads of Addison Airport (Midway Road and Addison Road, respectively). This provides a through passage between Dallas North Tollway and Interstate 35E, reducing traffic on Belt Line Road and Trinity Mills Road.[2]
The tunnel proper is 1,600 feet (488m) long, while the entire roadway is 3,700 feet (1,128m) long.[4] Tolls are collected at a plaza on the west side of the roadway. As of June2023[update], two-axle vehicles are charged $0.74 if paying via electronic toll collection or $1.48 if paying by mail invoice; this price increases for each additional axle.[3]
History
Construction of an airport in the newly incorporated town of Addison was proposed in 1956.[5] However, the planned 4,500-foot (1,400m)long primary north-south runway would sever Keller Springs Road, a controversial proposal requiring negotiations with the Dallas County Commissioner's Court and city officials.[6] After obtaining final approval, Addison Airport had its formal groundbreaking ceremony on March 16, 1957,[7] the section of road crossing the runway was demolished, and the airport opened later that year.[8]
Until 1969, motorists could drive around the north side of the airport on Westgrove Road, which directly connected Dooley Road to Addison Road. However, the runway was then extended northwards to 7,200 feet (2,200m) total length, and Westgrove Road was realigned to curve north rather than intersecting with Dooley Road, resulting in a roughly 2-mile (3km)gap between Belt Line and Trinity Mills Road, which became the closest continuous east-west thoroughfare. Traffic on Belt Line Road later started to surpass its design capacity by 10,000 vehicles per day, and in 1984, Addison city manager Ron Whitehead began calling for the two sections of Keller Springs Road to be reconnected to relieve the traffic congestion.[9]
Original signage
In 1991, the Texas Turnpike Authority (NTTA's predecessor) conducted a preliminary study for a tunnel connecting the segments. The study proposed a 75¢ toll and predicted that such a toll would raise $4.7 million per year, and Dallas County voters approved $3 million in bonds to fund the project.[10][11] Dallas County contributed $3 million to purchase the right-of-way, but the project did not proceed further due to high cost.[12]
In 1995, the project was revisited and approved. The tunnel was budgeted at $26.8 million, and the planned toll rate was reduced to 50¢.[12][11] Tunneling work began in September 1997.[1] The tunnel was mined through the Austin Chalk underlying the airport by a roadheader, a large rock cutting machine that was nicknamed "Big Mike," at a rate of 20 feet (6m)per day.[11] The tunnel was completed and opened to the public on February 18, 1999.[2][9] Within a year, daily traffic through the tunnel exceeded 10,000 vehicles.[9]
In 2007, NTTA announced the removal of its toll booths (both manned and coin-operated) at all of its facilities by 2010 in favor of a pay-by-mail system. AATT's toll booths were removed in 2009.[13]
Bleakley, Bruce (2017). Addison Airport: Serving Business Aviation for 60 Years, 1957–2017. Dallas, Texas: Brown Books Publishing Group. ISBN978-1-61254-839-5.
Addison is an incorporated town in Dallas County, Texas, United States. Addison is situated to the immediate north of the city of Dallas, with a 2020 census population of 16,661.
State Highway 121 is a state highway angling from southwest to northeast through north central Texas. It runs from Cleburne, Texas at US 67 to SH 78 in Bonham, Texas, just north of a junction with US 82.
State Highway 360 is a 28-mile (45 km) north–south freeway in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex in the U.S. state of Texas. It runs north from an at-grade intersection with US 287 in Mansfield, near the Ellis-Johnson county line to a partial interchange with SH 121 in Grapevine, near Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The highway serves as a local north–south route running through the center of the metroplex, linking together the southern and northern suburbs to the core. Between US 287 and Camp Wisdom Road/Sublett Road, SH 360 follows a pair of frontage roads along a four-lane tollway known as the 360 Tollway, a tollway operated by the NTTA. Between Camp Wisdom Road/Sublett Road and SH 121, SH 360 follows a toll-free freeway maintained by TxDOT.
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Open road tolling (ORT), also called all-electronic tolling, cashless tolling, or free-flow tolling, is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of toll booths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The major advantage to ORT is that users are able to drive through the toll plaza at highway speeds without having to slow down to pay the toll. In some installations, ORT may also reduce congestion at the plazas by allowing more vehicles per hour/per lane.
The Dallas North Tollway is a 30.2-mile (49 km) controlled-access toll road operated by the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA), which runs from Interstate 35E near Downtown Dallas, Texas (USA), to U.S. Highway 380, in Frisco, Texas. On December 20, 2023, the NTTA announced the Tollway's next extension which runs 6 miles (9.7 km) through Prosper and Celina and ends at FM 428.
The Eastern Distributor is a 4.7-kilometre-long (2.9 mi) motorway in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Part of the M1 and the Sydney Orbital Network, the motorway links the Sydney central business district with the south-east and Sydney Airport. The Eastern Distributor separates Sydney's Eastern Suburbs from Sydney's Inner-Southern Suburbs. The centre-piece is a 1.7 km (1.1 mi) tunnel running from Woolloomooloo to Surry Hills. Built as a build-own-operate-transfer project, it is 75.1% owned by Transurban.
Interstate 635 (I-635) is a 36.999-mile-long (59.544 km) partial loop around Dallas, Texas, in the United States between I-20 in Balch Springs and State Highway 121 (SH 121) at the north entrance of the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport in Grapevine. It intersects I-35E at exits 27B and 27C but does not connect with I-35W. I-635 and a part of I-20 are collectively designated as the Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway; known locally as the LBJ Freeway, or simply LBJ. The roadway is named after Lyndon B. Johnson, the former U.S. senator from Texas and the 37th vice-president and 36th president of the U.S. Where I-635 ends at I-20, I-20 continues the LBJ Freeway designation heading west. Since the portion of I-20 between Spur 408 to I-635 retains the same names as I-635, the two highways are considered three-quarters of the beltway around Dallas. Together with Spur 408, a portion of Loop 12, and a portion of I-35E, I-635 and I-20 complete the beltway.
The Mountain Creek Lake Bridge is a bridge in Dallas County, Texas. The bridge is part of the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) system. It is tolled in both directions, and the lanes of the Mountain Creek Lake Bridge toll plaza are equipped for electronic toll collection via TollTag.
TxTag, operated by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), is one of three interoperable electronic toll collection systems in Texas. The system is also interoperable with the K-TAG system used in Kansas and the Pikepass system used in Oklahoma.
The North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) is a not-for-profit government organization that maintains and operates toll roads, bridges, and tunnels in the North Texas area. Functioning as a political subdivision of the State of Texas under Chapter 366 of the Transportation Code, the NTTA is empowered to acquire, construct, maintain, repair and operate turnpike projects; to raise capital for construction projects through the issuance of turnpike revenue bonds; and to collect tolls to operate, maintain and pay debt service on those projects.
The Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge (LLTB) is a 1.7-mile (2.7 km) tied arch bridge crossing Lewisville Lake in Denton County, Texas, USA. Operated by North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA), the four-lane toll bridge connects Swisher Road in Lake Dallas to Eldorado Parkway in Little Elm. It is one segment of the 13-mile (21 km) Lewisville Lake Corridor, which connects Interstate 35E and Dallas North Tollway.
The Chisholm Trail Parkway is a controlled-access toll road operated by the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) in Tarrant and Johnson counties connecting the central business district of the city of Fort Worth at Interstate 30 to US 67 in Cleburne.
The Trinity Parkway was a proposed six-lane toll road in Dallas, Texas (USA), to run from the State Highway 183/Interstate 35E interchange to the U.S. Highway 175/Interstate 45. The Dallas City Council voted 14-1 in 2007 to support a parkway inside the eastern levee of the Trinity River. Dallas City Council had recommended that a "context-sensitive design" be used for the parkway.
Addison Airport is a public airport in Addison, in Dallas County, Texas, United States, 9 mi north of downtown Dallas. It opened in 1954 and was purchased by the town of Addison in 1976.
Video tolling is a form of electronic toll collection that uses video or still images of a vehicle's license plate to identify a vehicle liable to pay a road toll. The system dispenses with collection of road tolls using road-side cash or payment card methods, and may be used in conjunction with "all electronic" open road tolling, to permit drivers without an RFID device to use the toll road.
Addison Transit Center is a bus-only mass transit station located along Arapaho Road in Addison, Texas. It is part of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system.
There are approximately 25 current toll roads in the state of Texas. Toll roads are more common in Texas than in many other U.S. states, since the relatively low revenues from the state's gasoline tax limits highway planners' means to fund the construction and operation of highways.
The Sam Rayburn Tollway is a controlled-access toll road operated by the North Texas Tollway Authority that runs from Grapevine to McKinney. Its frontage roads are signed State Highway 121.
Northwest Plano Park & Ride is a bus-only park and ride station in Plano, Texas. The station is located on the western side of Dallas North Tollway in Plano's Legacy Park neighborhood. The station is operated by Dallas Area Rapid Transit and is the northernmost facility in the DART system. Unlike most DART transit centers, the lot does not have an air-conditioned waiting area.
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