The Denton City Council will decide Tuesday, Oct. 27, whether to tell Denton County and the Texas Department of Transportation which route it prefers for the western end of the Denton County Outer Loop, a proposed six-lane freeway that would run east from Interstate 35 to the Dallas North Tollway in Collin County.
City staff are recommending a resolution supporting the study's alignment B, along with a variation inside that corridor labeled B2.
Where the options run
A project map attached to the resolution splits the corridor into lettered segments. Segments A and B cover the western stretch, from I-35 east to FM 2153. On the map, segment A leaves the interstate at Rector Road, while segment B starts farther south, near Milam Road. B2 is drawn as an alternate path within the B corridor.
East of FM 2153, a shared segment C continues to Wildcat Road. From there, segments D or E would carry the freeway past Aubrey to the tollway near the Denton-Collin county line.
A staff presentation lists four build alternatives that combine those pieces: A-C-D, A-C-E, B-C-E and B-C-D. The map notes that the alignments may still change as the study goes on.
Staff's case
Farhan Butt, the city's director of transportation, gives three reasons for the recommendation in the presentation: east-west travel is limited because the area lacks continuous east-west arterial roads, Denton's population and employment are expected to more than double by 2050, and the road network needs more capacity to ease congestion.
The presentation says the North Central Texas Council of Governments, looking at projected growth, found that a six-lane east-west freeway through Denton County may be warranted.
