It is always exciting to see a new restaurant or store or hotel (soon) or housing development open in north Garland. The growth we have learned to almost take for granted is the result of many years of hard work by a long list of people, starting with setting aside the land for SH-190, the development of the Firewheel Golf Park, through to the construction of Firewheel Town Center.

The Town Center would not have been developed without the easy access provided by SH-190 from Central Expy and other points west.

While the development around the Town Center is still far from plateauing, there will be a point that it will slow because it will have reached equilibrium, where supply equals demand. At that point, demand will rise more slowly, following residential development as it continues in the area, including Wylie, Lavon, Rowlett, and even Rockwall.

However, the next big push to demand will come in about 2012 when access from the east and IH-30 become realities and more people can easily reach north Garland by way of the eastern extension of SH-190.

The easterly extension has long been planned but funds were not immediately available to start. The extension had recently been held in limbo with no precise start date known. Mike Cantrell, County Commissioner and Garland resident, recently called all the respective parties together that could make the decisions to proceed, including Mayor Ron Jones, City Manager Bill Dollar, and Garland's Transportation Managing Director Robert Wunderlich, together with representatives from the North Texas Tollway Authority, Texas Department of Transportation, and the Regional Transportation Council (on which Commissioner Cantrell and Mayor Jones both serve). The resulting plan was taken to the RTC for approval.

Here is the announcement from Local Motion, a publication of the RTC and the North Central Texas Council of Governments Transportation Dept:

RTC loans $80 million for Bush Turnpike

The Regional Transportation Council in August loaned the Texas Department of Transportation $80 million for the eastern extension of the President George Bush Turnpike [SH-190], which currently runs from State Highway 161 to SH-78 [Lavon Hwy]. The new segment will extend the toll road east to Interstate Highway 30. The money the RTC loaned TxDOT is expected to come from the allotment received from the North Texas Tollway Authority for the right to build State Highway 121 through Collin and Denton Counties. As a condition of the arrangement, NTTA will pay the region 20 percent of the proceeds from the PGBT extension. NTTA recently won the right to build the SH-121 extension after promising the region $4 billion, including $3.3 billion in upfront payments. The money will be used to help North Texas continue expanding its network of roads to meet the demands of a surging population.

 

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